New Design Concepts for the Tribological Contact of Cylinder Block and Valve Plate

Author(s):  
Stefan Geffroy ◽  
Stephan Wegner ◽  
Stefan Gels ◽  
Hubertus Murrenhoff ◽  
Katharina Schmitz

Abstract Axial piston machines are the most widely used type of hydraulic displacement machines and are characterized by their high reliability and efficiency. However, in order to ensure the high efficiency, the tribological contacts have to be precisely optimized. One of the three essential contacts in axial piston machines is the contact of valve plate and cylinder block, which is the subject of this paper. In a previous research project, a simulation model was built up specifically for the tribological contact of valve plate and cylinder block. A test rig was developed and installed for the validation of the simulation results. Both, the experimental and the simulation results show that the cylinder block tilts to the high-pressure side. It holds this preferred position nearly constantly for the different load situations over one revolution with four or five pistons pressurized with high pressure at the same time. The tilting increases the danger of solid body contact in the area of minimum gap height. In addition, it leads to temperature hot spots. Both effects necessitate the use of coatings as alternatives to the commonly used leaded alloys. This paper presents new design concepts for the optimization of the tribological contact of valve plate and cylinder block. Additional pressure pockets in the valve plate’s high-pressure kidney generate a torque and thus reduce the tilt angle of the cylinder block. By implementing additional pressure pockets at the cylinder block an imbalance results, which prevents a constant preferred position. Both concepts have the aim to reduce the heat concentration and improving the overall behavior of the tribological contact. The development and comparison of these concepts are based on a numerical analysis.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Geffroy ◽  
◽  
Niklas Bauer ◽  
Tobias Mielke ◽  
Stephan Wegner ◽  
...  

AIP Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 115221
Author(s):  
Jihai Jiang ◽  
Boran Du ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Geqiang Li

Author(s):  
Rene Chacon ◽  
Monika Ivantysynova

This paper explains how a combination of advanced multidomain numerical models can be employed to design an axial piston machine of swash plate type within a virtual prototyping environment. Examples for the design and optimization of the cylinder block/valve plate interface are presented.


Author(s):  
Stephan Wegner ◽  
Stefan Gels ◽  
Dal Sik Jang ◽  
Hubertus Murrenhoff

The greatest share of hydromechanic and volumetric losses in axial piston machines are produced within the tribological interfaces piston / cylinder, cylinder block / valve plate and slipper / swash plate. Hydrostatic and hydrodynamic effects are used to minimise the sum of solid friction, viscous friction and throttle losses. Other tribological interfaces have minor influence on efficiency losses in most operating points in machines of this type. This paper focuses on experimental investigations with the objective to acquire further knowledge on the cylinder block / valve plate contact. The investigations are part of a project funded by the German Research Foundation in which experimental and simulative investigations are combined to identify the effects influencing this tribological interface. The experiments focus on the multi-directional movement of the cylinder block and the friction torque within the contact. Therefore a test rig was built, capable of measuring the cylinder block movement in all degrees of freedom and the friction torque between both parts. A sensor system is built around a standard rotary group of an axial piston pump with a spherical cylinder block / valve plate contact. The pump functionality is maintained and measurements under standard operating conditions up to 30 MPa are possible. Procedures of the design process and descriptions of the measuring system are presented, followed by results of the cylinder block movement measurement, comparing the behavior under different pressure levels and speeds.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiahai Huang ◽  
Zhenhua Dou ◽  
Zhenglei Wang ◽  
Long Quan ◽  
Linkai Niu

AbstractThe tribological properties of cylinder block/valve plate is an important consideration in the design of axial piston pump. The effect of materials and heat treatment on friction and wear properties has been studied in depth. Engineering experiences show that the speed and load also affect the tribological properties, but these have not been systematically analyzed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the tribological properties of the commonly used materials (CuPb15Sn5 and 38CrMoAl/42CrMo) for cylinder block/valve plate with different heat treatment and contact pressure at different speed. During the test, tribometer is used to simulate the contact pattern between the valve plate/cylinder block in axial piston pump, the friction coefficient, wear rate and surface topography are analyzed to evaluate the tribological properties of different types of friction samples at different speed. Results indicate that: (1) contact surface of the samples at 1800 r/min is more prone to adhesive wear than those at 500 r/min; (2) in the terms of wear resistance, quench-tempered and nitrided 38CrMoAl (38CrMoAl QTN for short) is better than quench-tempered and nitrided 42CrMo, although they are all commonly used materials in the axial piston pump; (3) 2.5 MPa is the critical contact pressure of the interface between valve plate made of 38CrMoAl QTN and cylinder block made of CuPb15Sn5 on the tribometer, which implies the pressure bearing area at the bottom of the cylinder block should be carefully designed; (4) the valve plate/cylinder block made of 38CrMoAl QTN/CuPb15Sn5 exhibits good tribological properties in a real axial piston pump. This research is useful for the failure analysis and structural optimization design of the valve plates/cylinder block.


Author(s):  
David Richardson ◽  
Farshid Sadeghi ◽  
Richard G Rateick ◽  
Scott Rowan

The objectives of this study were to experimentally measure motion of a floating valve plate and analytically investigate the effects of floating valve plate surface modifications on the lubricant film thickness and temperature distribution. In order to achieve the experimental objectives, a previously developed axial piston pump test rig was instrumented with proximity probes to measure the motion of the valve plate. To achieve the objectives of the analytical investigation, the thermal Reynolds equation augmented with the Jakobsson-Floberg-Olsson (JFO) boundary condition and the energy equation were simultaneously solved to determine the pressure, cavitation regions, and temperature of the lubricant at the valve plate/cylinder block interface. The lubricating pressures were then coupled with the equations of motion of the floating valve plate to develop a dynamic lubrication model. The stiffness and damping coefficients of the floating valve plate system used in the dynamic lubrication model were determined using a parametric study. The elastic deformation of the valve plate was also considered using the influence matrix approach. The experimental and analytical motions of the valve plate were then corroborated and found to be in good agreement. Four- and eight-pocket designs were then added as surface modifications to the floating valve plate in the dynamic lubrication model. The addition of surface modifications on the valve plate resulted in increased minimum film thicknesses and lowered lubricant temperatures at the same operating conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhao ◽  
Weiwei Guo ◽  
Long Quan

Abstract The spherical valve plate/cylinder block pair has the advantages of strong overturning resistance and large bearing area. However, the configurations of the unloading and pre-boosting triangular grooves on the spherical valve plate are different from those in the planar valve plate, resulting in special cavitation phenomenon on the spherical port plate pair. In order to study cavitation characteristics of spherical port plate pair, a dynamic CFD model of the piston pump including turbulence model, cavitation model and fluid compressibility is established. A detailed UDF compilation scheme is provided for modelling of the micron-sized spherical oil film mesh, which makes up for the lack of research on the meshing of the spherical oil film. In this paper, using CFD simulation tools, from the perspectives of pressure field, velocity field and gas volume fraction change, a detailed analysis of the transient evolution of the submerged cavitation jet in a axial piston pump with spherical valve plate is carried out. The study indicates the movement direction of the cavitation cloud cluster through the cloud image and the velocity vector direction of the observation point. The sharp decrease of velocity and gas volume fraction indicates the collapse phenomenon of bubbles on the part wall surface. These discoveries verify the special erosion effect in case of the spherical valve plate/cylinder block pair. The submerged cavitation jet generated by the unloading triangular grooves distributed on the spherical valve plate not only cause denudation of the inner wall surface of the valve plate, but also cause strong impact and denudation on the lower surface of the cylinder body. Finally, the direction of the unloading triangular groove was modified to extend the distance between it and the wall surface which can effectively alleviate the erosion effect.


2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 1137-1144
Author(s):  
Zhanling Ji

Purpose High pressure and high speed of the axial piston pump can improve its power density, but they also deteriorate the thermal-fluid-structure coupling effect of the friction pairs. This paper aims to reveal the coupling mechanism of the pump, for example, valve plate pair, by carrying out research on multi-physics field coupling. Design/methodology/approach Considering the influences of temperature on material properties and thermal fluid on structure, the thermal-fluid elastic mechanics model is established. A complete set of fast and effective thermal-fluid-structure coupling method is presented, by which the numerical analysis is conducted for the valve plate pair. Findings According to calculations, it is revealed that the temperature and pressure evolution laws of oil film with time, the pressure distribution law of the fluid, stress and displacement distribution laws of the solid in the valve plate pair. In addition, the forming history of the wedge-shaped oil film and mating clearance change law with rotational speed and outlet pressure in the valve plate pair are presented. Originality/value For an axial piston pump operating under high speed, high pressure and wide temperature range, the multi-physics field coupling analysis is an indispensable means and method. This paper provides theoretical evidence for the development of the pump and lays a solid foundation for the research of the same kind of problem.


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