SwRI: History of Compressor System and Pump System Analyses: engineering design solutions to compressor, pump problems

During and immediately following World War II, the oil refining, petrochemical, and natural gas transportation industries in the United States grew extensively. This expansion led to the installation of numerous gas processing plants and, in particular, gas transmission compression facilities and pipelines. Machinery and piping for these facilities were sometimes hastily designed and installed. Because this equipment consisted primarily of reciprocating compressors and pumps, severe vibration problems often occurred. These vibration problems and the resulting potential piping failures presented grave safety concerns because of the flammable fluids flowing through the pipelines under high pressure.

Vibration problems increasingly became safety and economic issues, so 15 companies of the Southern Gas Association joined together in 1952 to form the Pipeline and Compressor Research Council (PCRC), known today as the Gas Machinery Research Council (GMRC). This group of engineering firms, machinery manufacturers, and operating companies required a program that would enable the industry to design, install, and operate compression and pumping equipment safely and effectively.

The PCRC subsequently commissioned SwRI to develop a tool that could evaluate these compression systems at the design stage so that corrective measures could be developed prior to installation and operation. The first analysis was performed in November 1954 for a gas transmission station in Refugio, Texas. Since then, more than 10,000 analyses have been performed for compressor stations, gas processing plants, refineries, and petrochemical complexes throughout the world. Although originally seen as a design tool to optimize new installations, this capability is also used to evaluate existing systems to develop corrective measures or to analyze new operating conditions.

For more information about compressor system and pump system analyses capabilities at SwRI or how you can contract with SwRI, please contact Buddy Broerman at ebroerman@swri.org or (210) 522-2555. We can offer you the best approach for solving your compressor system or pump system analysis problem.