Active surge control of centrifugal compressors using drive torque

A novel aproach to active surge control is presented. A centrifugal compressor driven by an electrical motor is studied, and the drive itself is used for surge control, thus elliminating the need for additional actuators. It is shown that by using the rotational speed of the motor as control, previous unstable operating points to the left of the surge line can be made globally exponentially stable. It is also shown that using the torque of the drive as control ensures exponential convergence. The proposed method is simulated on a compressor model using an approximation of a real compression system.