Pulsation/Vibration Analysis on Piping Systems of Reciprocating Compressors/Pumps

Summary

Reciprocating compressor and pump systems often cause severe pulsation and vibration of piping systems resulting in damages of pipes, supports, foundations and instruments.
API Standard requires pulsation and vibration analysis of reciprocating compressor/pump systems to prevent the systems from such damages.
Based on highly specialized experiences and knowledge on the design and operation of a variety of reciprocating compressor/pump system, TOYO implements pulsation and vibration analysis of the system and provides the best solution for good engineering.

Features

TOYO implements pulsation analysis of piping systems with reciprocating compressors / pumps by means of complex transfer matrix method. Pulsation level of the piping system is controlled within API criteria.

Services

Design of piping systems of reciprocating compressors requires to conform to API standard requirements. Specifically API-618 requires to implement pulsation and vibration analysis at design stage so that pulsation levels of piping systems including compressor manifold arrangement are less than the allowable levels determined by API-618 criteria. For this purpose, TOYO developed pulsation analysis program ACOUVA and has been applying for more than 25 years to many API designs of reciprocating compressor systems including design of pulsation dampers or snubbers. TOYO has validated ACOUVA by a variety of comparisons with field data.
TOYO also applies ACOUVA for the pulsation analysis of high pressure pump piping systems. The fundamental equation of ACOUVA deals with incompressible fluid as well as compressible fluid. TOYO designs optimized accumulators and pulsation dampers as pulsation suppression device by considering detailed dynamic characteristics in frequency domain. TOYO implements field measurement of pulsation/vibration of existing facilities in case of severe vibration occurring. Based on quantitative evaluation of the field data, TOYO investigates root cause of pulsation/vibration and provides the best solution for countermeasures.

Experiences

TOYO has extensive experiences on pulsation/vibration analysis and design of reciprocating compressor/pump piping systems. The results of analyses have been validated on a variety of chemical, refinery, petrochemical and fertilizer plants.

Examples of Pulsation Analysis on Reciprocating Compressor

Pulsation and Vibration Trouble on Piping System of CO₂ Injection Reciprocating Compressor in Gas Field Station

Severe vibration with 700 micro-meter peak to peak vibration displacement was observed at compressor cylinder head.
Installation of orifices and modification of piping system were implemented based on the results of pulsation analyses to suppress pulsation level. These countermeasures satisfactory reduced the vibration displacement at compressor cylinder head and made it possible to operate continuously this system.
Figure-2 and Figure-3 show analysis and measurement results of pressure pulsation at drain valve. These graphs show that the analysis result is consistent with measurement result.