Air Receiver Size for Compressor

Air Receivers are not even used by some on Rotary type compressors as ecommended by the manufacturer.

OTOH the Receiver may need to be oversized when a circuit uses a High Voume of air for intermittent, short, high flow situations. An oversized receiver in that case may be located close to the operation using the short high flow demand.

The size of the receiver is all to do with the demand cycle as stated by BudT and the method of control of the compressor, on/off, venting, speed etc etc.

You do not want your compressors switching on and off every few minutes. Are you sure these compressors are centrifugal, at these volumes and pressures I would expect rotary.

THe following table was taken from Kaeser/useful tools web site it gives an indication of factors to consider when sizing a receiver if you go to the site and enter the variables it will come up with something close to what you will need.

Sizing Air Receiver Please use a decimal point and not a comma to indicate the decimal place! SI - Units US - Units Calculating as a buffer Calculating according to permissible cut-in frequency Required flow rate V m³/min Required peak load flow rate V 2 m³/min Buffer time t min FAD of the largest sequenced compressor* V 1 m³/min Initial receiver pressure P I bar Cut-out pressure P max bar Final receiver pressure P F bar Cut-in pressure P min bar The additional delivery of the compressor is not considered Permissible cut-in-frequency** Z 1/h Utilization factor:*** A % V2 : V1 Receiver volume V R m³ Receiver volume V R m³ * This is usually the peak load compressor in multiple compressor installations but the calculation can also apply to base load machines. In general, the larger the air receiver, the better and smoother runs the compressor station. ** Maximum permissible cut-in-frequency per hour of the largest switching compressor. Guide figures: Compressors up to 18.5 kW Z=120, up to 75 kW Z=60, over 75 kW Z=30. *** Critical case: Compressors must switch most frequently when they are run at 50% duty cycle (utilizaton) Utilization factor A = (V 2/V1) = 0.5

Hi Grochy,

Thank you very much of your very useful info.

Regards