TABLE OF CONTENTS There are a variety of air and gas compressor designs in use throughout industry. These designs vary greatly in the volume amounts of air or gas moved and the pressures attained. The largest usage of compressors is in the oil and gas production and transportation industries and in the chemical industry. Information regarding this technology will be used to develop an understanding of how compressors can be used in air and gas drilling operations.
Air or gas compressors are very similar in basic design and operation to liquid pumps. The basic difference is that compressors are movers of compressible fluids; pumps are movers of incompressible fluids (i.e., liquids).
Similar to the classification of pumps, compressors are grouped in one of two general classes: continuous flow (i.e., dynamic) and intermittent flow (i.e., positive displacement)(see Figure 5-1)[1, 2]. Intermittent flow or positive displacement compressors move the compressible fluid through the compressor in separate volume packages of compressed fluid (these volume packages are separated by moving internal structures in the machine). The most important subclass examples of positive displacement compressors are reciprocating and rotary compressors. Continuous flow or dynamic compressors utilize the kinetic energy of the continuously moving compressible fluid in combination with the internal geometry of the compressor to compress the fluid as it moves through the device. The most important subclass examples of dynamic compressors are centrifugal and axial-flow compressors.
Each of the two general classes of compressors and their subclasses have...
