Experimental Vibration Analysis, Modal FEA, and CFD Simulation of an Ingersoll Rand R110i Screw Compressor: Effects of Optimized Material Selection on Vibration Reduction and Operational Efficiency

Oil-injected screw compressors are widely used in industrial compressed-air systems, where vibration affects bearing life, sealing integrity, energy use, and maintenance cost. This paper examines an Ingersoll Rand R110i screw compressor by combining five months of field vibration measurement, modal finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, material screening, passive support assessment, and a MATLAB-based vibration monitoring interface. Field data were collected at the compressor drive end, compressor non-drive end, motor drive end, and motor non-drive end using an SKF Microlog Analyser. The compliant locations remained within the applicable ISO 2372/2373 Group 3 reference limit, while the motor non-drive end exceeded the tolerance because of installation-related looseness. Fifteen material-component combinations were then compared for the rotors, casing, bearings, gears, and dampers. The final model used Ti-6Al-4V rotors, ASTM A48 Class 35 cast-iron casing, silicon-nitride ceramic bearings, AISI 8620 case-hardened steel gears, and viscoelastic polyurethane dampers. Assembly-level FEA gave a maximum resultant velocity of 1.240 × 10⁻⁵ in/s (3.1496 × 10⁻⁴ mm/s) under the stated modal boundary conditions. CFD plots showed the expected pressure-rise pattern and streamline continuity from suction to discharge under the model assumptions. DUViMOS correctly classified simulated Normal, Warning, and Shutdown states. The results indicate that compressor vibration control should be treated as an integrated problem involving material behaviour, mounting integrity, pressure-rise pattern, flow-path continuity, and threshold-based monitoring.