Sizing Compressed Air Accumulator 4

[Tigerdawg]

We wish to supply a compressed air accumulator to ensure that we have sufficient volume of air during times of peak usage without oversizing the compressor for this peak. How would I size this tank?

 

[zdas04]

TigerDawg,
The three things that determine how often your compressor starts are: (1) air usage; (2) accumulator pressure above minimum-acceptable pressure; and (3) accumulator volume.

The place to start is with a good estimate of usage (both peak and average). When you know (in SCF) the expected demand (plus a safety factor), then you can look at your compressor choices to determine an effective pressure to challenge the equipment without overloading it - a good rule of thumb is that the compressor should run less than 1/2 of the workday (i.e., if it is in an 8-hour/day application, it should supply a full day's air in 4 hours, don't make the mistake of multiplying the capacity times 24 hours in a single-shift application or you will always be out of air or your accumulator will have to be huge).

Finally size your accumulator to store peak demand for some multiple of the expected peak duration.


David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

 

[quark]

The below link gives the best approach for sizing an air receiver with a worked out example.

http://www.pyebarker.com/TechTips/techtip3.htm

My suggestion would be to place a secondary receiver near the equipment which consumes more compressed air.

If you do a search with the key word "Air Receiver", you will find quite a good number of hits with great logic (particularly the one by TD2K)

Regards,


Eng-Tips.com : Solving your problems before you get them.