Experimental investigation into the effect of oil injection on the performance of a variable speed twin-screw compressor

In this paper, the effect of oil injection flow rate on the performance of a variable speed twin-screw compressor was investigated experimentally. Comprehensive experiments were conducted at different compressor rotational speeds and oil injection flow rates. As the rotational speed increased from 1000 to 3000 rpm, the compressor volumetric and adiabatic efficiencies increased while the specific power consumption decreased. However, the oil injection flow rate showed different influences on the compressor performance. As the oil injection flow rate increased from 27 to 50 L/min, the adiabatic and volumetric efficiencies increased while the compressor discharge temperature and specific power decreased. Further increases in the oil injection flow rate had little effect on compressor performance at flow rates above 50 L/min. The analysis indicated that the oil injection flow rate was limited by the discharge temperature at low compressor rotational speeds and was a trade-off among two efficiencies and specific power consumption at high rotational speeds.