Control Of Reciprocating Compressor In A Cooling System Using PLC

07/16/2010 00:00:00

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A Refrigeration system consists of several main components, such as compressor, evaporator and condenser. To obtain the desired temperature, those components must be regulated. This paper deals with the control of the compressor. The objective of the compressor control is to obtain optimal operating points at different setting of cold room temperature. When the temperature set point has not been reached, the capacity of compressor must be increased by activating more pistons, or vice versa. To implement the control system, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is used. The PLC is programmed with control algorithm in order to achieve satisfactory temperature control. From the testing result, error percentage at temperature testing is 1.6 %, and error percentage at pressure testing is 0.652 %.

Keywords: reciprocating compressor, refrigerant system, PLC