Effect of the Suction Air Temperature on the Performance of a Positive Displacement Air Compressor

Pneumatic systems are widely applied in various industry because it have a many advantage(low cost, high safety, etc.). Air compressors supply the working fluid to the pneumatic systems and consume a lot of electrical energy at the manufacturing site. The one of the suggested idea is to reduce the energy consumption by reducing the suction temperature of the air compressor and increasing the discharge flow rate. In this paper, the discharge flow rate and air power of the positive displacement type air compressor is simulated by changing the temperature of suction air and the relationship between the suction air temperature and the performance variation of the air compressor is analyzed. As a result, we know that as the suction temperature of air is lowered, the discharge mass flow-rate is increased, but the specific enthalpy is reduced rather than increased, which means that the power of the discharged air is not greatly increased even if lower the suction air temperature.