Stress Research And Application Of Large Scale Disk Pistons In Reciprocating Compressors

Recently, the development of reciprocating compressors tends to large-scale. The size of the first stage disk pistons increases continuously. The first stage pistons of some large-scale reciprocating compressors have ruptured frequently since it worked. These have serious influence to normal production and economic performance of compressors operation enterprise.The stresses on the large-scale disk piston of reciprocating compressors are analyzed in this paper. Firstly, motion rules of the crank-connecting rod mechanism and force analysis of the piston are analyzed. Then, using Visual Basic as development platform, the application software on synthesis force calculation in the compressor is developed. Dangerous operation condition of the piston is conformed. The piston is analyzed by means of ANSYS, which is a large scale finite element analysis software. The results show that the stress of the piston at the position of rupture is high. Based on the analysis, the structure improvement methods are presented and a new piston with openings is designed. The internal pressure of the new piston is calculated, and the size of the openings is conformed. Lastly, the new piston is analyzed with ANSYS. The results show that the highest stress descends by a bigger margin and the stresses distribute properly.The new pistons are used in series of large scale compressors retrofit. It proves that the new pistons have higher reliability. These works of this paper can guide the design of reciprocating compressor disk pistons and provide reference value to research other piston types.