compressor discharge line for flooded screw compressor

[albertopro]

Good morning to everyone;
many times in the past I noted that compressor discharge piping for flooded screw compressor has a pocket (like a lira shape) between compressor and oil separator. Now I'm in a new plant and I note that there is a continously slope between compressor to oil sep.
I would like to know if you have some experience with theese layouts and if you have some comments.
Thanks to all

 

[zdas04]

I've seen the piping you describe and I've (more often) not seen it. I think it is a stylistic thing at some fabricators. Probably a pipe fitter put something like your Lira Loop on a package that (probably for other reasons) worked out especially well. That shop then made the loop part of their standard and others copied it. I can't come up with a fluid-mechanics reason for the loop, and I've operated many flooded screws without it that worked out fine.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[albertopro]

Thanks for the reply, I think that this pipe configuration is due to avoid noise problem or vibration but I'm not able to found in licterature something relatives to my idea, but maybe it was a techincal choice of someone and after that a lot of people copy and paste...but I've some dubts.

 

[gwalkerb]

My understanding is that the loop is commonly included for thermal expansion. The discharge piping from compressor to oil sep can have quite a temperature rise from ambient to operating temps, the loop keeps that expansion from putting force right on the compressor discharge flange.