What causes the high secondary discharge pressure in a piston compressor?
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Dear sea friends, our piston compressors are of the three-stage, four-row type. In the past couple of days, the exhaust pressure on the second stage has been high. Based on past experience, we checked the inlet and exhaust valves on the third stage and found them to be in good condition. After replacing the valves with new ones, the exhaust pressure on the second stage remained high, and this issue occurred in both machines. Experts, please help analyze this. Thank you!
Check if there are any changes in the cooling temperatures at various levels
The outlet cooler has low efficiency, resulting in reduced cooling performance. There are faults with the third-stage valves, piston rings, and support rings. If the compressor has been running for a long time, it may be necessary to clean the third-stage pipelines, as blockages could be causing excessive resistance. Changes in pressure are often accompanied by changes in temperature; providing more information will help facilitate accurate diagnosis and analysis
Suggestion: Check the tertiary intake temperature to see if there have been any changes (increases) in the past； Check the heat exchange efficiency of the cooler; ① Check whether there is any blockage in the tube side ； ②The heat transfer efficiency in the shell side decreases. Is the temperature of the circulating water too low? Recently, with alternating hot and cold conditions, it is easy for the cooling efficiency of the cooler to decline.
It is also possible to check whether there is any air leakage in the second-stage exhaust valves. If the values for the second stage are high in both units, it is possible that other stages also show corresponding increases; this might be due to an increase in the compressor’s air volume
Thank you all for your responses; I plan to investigate according to everyone’s suggestions
It’s likely that there’s a problem with the inter-stage cooler, causing the temperature of the inlet air at the second stage to be too high