Internal Cooling of the Piston Rod in Non-Lubricated Piston Compressors

Christiane Hammer
Gotthard Will
Ullrich Hesse

Abstract

In non-lubricated piston compressors the wear of the piston rod packing rings is still a problem that needs to be considered. Due to the demands of high gas pressure and leak-tight sealing the frictional heat of the rings is causing high temperatures in the area of the piston rod packing. High temperatures are – among other factors – one reason for an increase of wear and thus for a lifetime reduction of the packing. To increase this lifetime – and so to increase the time between two technical services – the idea of an internal cooling of the piston rod with a phase changing medium was created. To investigate this new cooling method for non-lubricated piston compressors a research project between the EFRC R&D Working Group (European Forum for Reciprocating Compressors) and the Technical University of Dresden was initiated. Within this project a test bench with a full scale balanced opposed process gas compressor was set up and measurements shall be taken. The measured values will be used for a validation of a thermal simulation model based on the software ANSYS. Also a model test rig is investigated which allows the investigation of temperature along a hollow piston rod in a moving system.