A novel virtual prototyping algorithm has been developed to design one of the most critical lubricating interfaces in axial piston machines of the swash plate type—the piston–cylinder interface—for operation with water as the working fluid. Due to its low viscosity, the use of water as a lubricant can cause solid friction and wear in these machines at challenging operating conditions. The prototyping algorithm compensates for this by tailoring the shape of the bore surface that guides the motion of each piston in this type of positive displacement machine to conform with the piston surface, taking into account both the piston’s tilt and its deformation. Shaping these surfaces in this manner can render the interface more conducive to generating hydrodynamic pressure buildup that raises its load-carrying capacity. The present work first outlines the structure of the proposed algorithm, then presents a case study in which it is employed to design a bore surface shape for use with two prototypes, one virtual and one physical—both modified versions of a 444 cc commercial axial piston pump. Experimental testing of the physical prototype shows it to achieve a significantly higher maximum total efficiency than the stock unit.
Water as a working fluid in hydraulic systems: the benefits of this particular hydraulic fluid are both numerous and consequential, but its implementation remains nontrivial for certain key applications. One of these key applications is the axial piston machine of swashplate type, which counts among its selling points efficiency, the possibility of variable displacement, and the ability to function in high-pressure systems [1]. Water as a working fluid tends to mar that last point with its extremely low viscosity — and the high leakages and low load support that stand as effects of that fluid property in the context of tribological interfaces. However, water’s environmentally friendly, fire resistant nature is coupled with a high thermal conductivity and high heat capacity favorable for keeping hydraulic systems cool, as well as a high bulk modulus that cuts slack in the exact execution of machine motions [2]. That makes it worth implementing in hydraulic systems, even in the face of the aforementioned troubles. This paper investigates the effects of a surface shape that can be applied to the cylinder bores of axial piston machines with the goal of improving load support while keeping down leakage in the critical piston cylinder tribological interface of axial piston machines operating at high pressures with water as their hydraulic fluid.
Water’s low viscosity renders it a poor lubricant, but its green footprint, non-toxicity, inflammability, and low cost make it a desirable hydraulic fluid. Axial piston machines running on water are commercially available, but, especially the larger units, do not operate in the high-pressure regime ( ≥300 bar). The present work investigates micro surface shaping as a design solution for the critical piston–cylinder interfaces of these units, which are particularly hard-struck by the low viscosity of water in that the pistons are subject to a heavy side load, and these interfaces cannot be hydrostatically balanced. Through virtual prototyping, the effect of two surface shapes at a high-pressure operating condition is studied for the case of a 75 cc commercial unit: first, the concave bore profile, which gives the bore surfaces through which the pistons travel the lengthwise cross-section of a circular arc, and second, the barrel piston profile, which bestows this cross-section on the piston running surface instead. The design studies conducted show that, on account of the manner in which the pistons of these machines deform over the high-pressure stroke, the concave bore profile is most able to improve overall load support when its apex is in the middle of the guide length, or shifted toward the displacement chamber. Furthermore, the concave bore profile outperforms the barrel piston profile, largely because when the piston’s axial movement takes its apex into the displacement chamber, this surface shape is no longer able to enhance the piston-bore surface conformity at the end of the interface bordering the displacement chamber that is conducive to hydrodynamic pressure buildup in that region.
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