A high-speed valve for surge control in a centrifugal compression system

This paper deals with the critical problem of actuator limitations for the successful implementation of active surge control. We specify the capacity, bandwidth and allowable time delay for a control valve that can be used to actively suppress surge in a specific full-scale centrifugal compression system. The actuator requirements are obtained from closed-loop simulations with a nonlinear simulation model of the compressor test rig. In order to meet the requirements, a new high-speed valve actuator had to be developed. We present the resulting actuator design and provide test results to illustrate that the control valve meets our design specifications.