Analysis of Requirements for Valve Accuracy and Repeatability in High Efficiency Digital Displacement Motors

Author(s):  
Sondre Nordås ◽  
Morten K. Ebbesen ◽  
Torben O. Andersen

Traditional variable displacement piston machines achieve high efficiency when operating at high displacements, but struggle with poor efficiency at low displacements. The pistons are connected to high pressure and low pressure in conjunction with the output shaft position and the displacement is changed by changing the piston stroke, resulting in almost constant friction, leakage, and compressibility losses independent of displacement. In digital displacement machines, the rotary valve is replaced by two fast switching on/off valves connected to every cylinder. By controlling the fast switching on/off valves, the cylinders can be controlled individually and friction, leakage and compressibility losses can be minimized resulting in high efficiency even at low displacements. Previous studies have shown that high efficiency digital displacement machines require fast switching valves with high flow capacity and optimal valve timing strategy. When the digital displacement motor is to start, stop or be controlled at low speeds, the on/off valves must be able to open against high pressure difference. When opening the valves actively, the valve timing has to be conducted properly to minimize valve throttling losses and flow and pressure peaks. First, this paper shortly describes a previously developed method to estimate valve characteristics like transition time and flow capacity for a digital displacement machine. Then the paper presents a novel method of describing the required valve accuracy and repeatability to keep the valve throttling losses low and machine efficiency high.

Author(s):  
Daniel B. Roemer ◽  
Per Johansen ◽  
Henrik C. Pedersen ◽  
Torben O. Andersen

Digital Displacement (DD) fluid power machines utilizes electronically controlled seat valves connected to pressure chambers to obtain variable displacement with high operational efficiency and high bandwidth. To achieve high efficiency, fast valve switching is essential and all aspects related to the dynamic behaviour of the seat valves must be considered to optimize the machine efficiency. A significant effect influencing the valves switching performance is the presence of oil stiction when separating the contact surfaces in valve opening movement. This oil stiction force is limited by cavitation for low pressure levels, e.g. valves connected to the low pressure manifold, however for valves operated at higher pressure levels, the oil stiction force is dominating when the separating surfaces are close to contact. This paper presents an analytic solution to the oil stiction force for annular seat valves suitable for DD applications based on the Reynolds equation and considers contact surface curvature and attack angle. A dynamic cavitation zone is included in the stiction model, and cavitation is found to be present even for seat valves surrounded by high pressure levels.


Author(s):  
Alissa Montzka ◽  
Nathan Epstein ◽  
Michael Rannow ◽  
Thomas R. Chase ◽  
Perry Y. Li

Abstract This work describes an efficient means to adjust the power level of an axial piston hydraulic pump/motor. Conventionally, the displacement of a piston pump is varied by changing the stroke length of each piston. Since the losses do not decrease proportionally to the displacement, the efficiency is low at low displacements. Here, with partial-stroke piston pressurization (PSPP), displacement is varied by changing the portion of the piston stroke over which the piston is subjected to high pressure. Since leakage and friction losses drop as the displacement is decreased, higher efficiency is achieved at low displacements with PSPP. While other systems have implemented PSPP with electric or cam-actuated valves, the pump described in this paper is unique in implementing PSPP by way of a simple, robust hydro-mechanical valve system. Experimental testing of a prototype PSPP pump/motor shows that the full load efficiency is maintained even at low displacements.


Author(s):  
Hao Tian ◽  
James D. Van de Ven

The timing of the valves of a hydraulic motor plays an important role in determining the throttling energy. To reduce this dominating energy loss, the timing of the valves must allow the fluid in the chamber to be precompressed and decompressed such that there is minimal pressure differential across the transitioning valve. The optimal valve timing to achieve precompression and decompression is a function of the motor displacement, angular velocity, pressure, and air content of the fluid, thus to achieve high efficiency at all conditions, active valve timing is required. The valves in most hydraulic motor architectures are mechanically timed to the piston displacement, rendering it impossible to change the valve timing as a function of operating conditions. This paper presents one novel valve architecture that allows for such processes: a rotary valve that is controlled independently of the piston displacement, enabling active timing control. To validate the concept and test the motor valve at fixed timing and fixed displacement conditions, a prototype valve was installed on a single cylinder 3.5 cc/rev slider-crank piston motor. The nominal timing of the valve was optimized for operation for a pressure of 7 MPa, 2% entrained air by volume, and an angular velocity between 10 and 30 Hz. A model, including the pressure dynamics, leakage, compressibility, check valve dynamics, and geometry dependent parameters is developed, simulated, and compared to the experiment. The experimental system includes instrumentation for measuring the inlet and outlet flow rates, piston position, and pressure in the inlet, outlet, and cylinder. A comparison between the model and experimental data shows good agreement and demonstrate the large impact of valve timing on efficiency.


Author(s):  
Riley C. Abel ◽  
Jon Luecke ◽  
Matthew A. Ratcliff ◽  
Bradley T. Zigler

Abstract Cetane number is one of the most important fuel performance metrics for mixing controlled compression-ignition “diesel” engines, quantifying a fuel’s propensity for autoignition when injected into end-of-compression-type temperature and pressure conditions. The historical default and referee method on a Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine configured with indirect fuel injection and variable compression ratio is cetane number (CN) rating. A subject fuel is evaluated against primary reference fuel blends, with heptamethylnonane defining a low-reactivity endpoint of CN = 15 and hexadecane defining a high-reactivity endpoint of CN = 100. While the CN scale covers the range from zero (0) to 100, typical testing is in the range of 30 to 65 CN. Alternatively, several constant-volume combustion chamber (CVCC)-based cetane rating devices have been developed to rate fuels with an equivalent derived cetane number (DCN) or indicated cetane number (ICN). These devices measure ignition delay for fuel injected into a fixed volume of high-temperature and high-pressure air to simulate end-of-compression-type conditions. In this study, a range of novel fuel compounds are evaluated across three CVCC methods: the Ignition Quality Tester (IQT), Fuel Ignition Tester (FIT), and Advanced Fuel Ignition Delay Analyzer (AFIDA). Resulting DCNs and ICNs are compared for fuels within the normal diesel fuel range of reactivity, as well as very high (∼100) and very low DCNs/ICNs (∼5). Distinct differences between results from various devices are discussed. This is important to consider because some new, high-efficiency advanced compression-ignition (CI) engine combustion strategies operate with more kinetically controlled distributed combustion as opposed to mixing controlled diffusion flames. These advanced combustion strategies may benefit from new fuel chemistries, but current rating methods of CN, DCN, and ICN may not fully describe their performance. In addition, recent evidence suggests ignition delay in modern on-road diesel engines with high-pressure common rail fuel injection systems may no longer directly correlate to traditional CN fuel ratings. Simulated end-of-compression conditions are compared for CN, DCN, and ICN and discussed in the context of modern diesel engines to provide additional insight. Results highlight the potential need for revised and/or multiple fuel test conditions to measure fuel performance for advanced CI strategies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 628-629 ◽  
pp. 167-172
Author(s):  
L.Y. Xu ◽  
Zhi Li Zhou ◽  
M.Z. Zhang ◽  
Y. Niu

In this paper, to improve the transmission ratio discontinuity problem during the gear shift process in the multi-gear fixed step ratio transmission of the tractors, a hydro-mechanical continuously variable transmission (HMCVT) for tractors is developed, which is composed of a single planetary gear differential train, a hydraulic transmission system consisted of the variable displacement pump (PV) and the fixed displacement motor (MF) and a multi-gear fixed step ratio transmission. Its stepless-speed-regulating characteristic, smooth range shifting condition and transmission efficiency are analyzed. The analytical results show that the tractors assembled with HMCVT can gain wide speed range and high transmission efficiency. There are eight high efficiency pure mechanical gears in the whole speed range, which is benefit to improve power and economic capabilities of vehicles.


2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (17) ◽  
pp. 172008 ◽  
Author(s):  
O V Braginsky ◽  
A S Kovalev ◽  
D V Lopaev ◽  
O V Proshina ◽  
T V Rakhimova ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Andy Schroder ◽  
Mark G. Turner ◽  
Rory A. Roberts

Two combined cycle engine cascade concepts are presented in this paper. The first uses a traditional open loop gas turbine engine (Brayton cycle) with a combustor as the topping cycle and a series of supercritical carbon dioxide (S–CO2) engines as intermediate cycles and a bottoming cycle. A global optimization of the engine design parameters was conducted to maximize the combined efficiency of all of the engines. A combined cycle efficiency of 65.0% is predicted. The second combined cycle configuration utilizes a fuel cell inside of the topping cycle in addition to a combustor. The fuel cell utilizes methane fuel. The waste heat from the fuel cell is used to heat the high pressure air. A combustor is also used to burn the excess fuel not usable by the fuel cell. After being heated, the high pressure, high temperature air expands through a turbine to atmospheric pressure. The low pressure, intermediate temperature exhaust air is then used to power a cascade of supercritical carbon dioxide engines. A combined efficiency of 73.1% using the fuel lower heating value is predicted with this combined fuel cell and heat engine device. Details of thermodynamics as well as the (S–CO2) engines are given.


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