Influence of Piston Number on Churning Losses in Axial Piston Pumps

Raising the rotational speed of an axial piston pump is useful for improving its power density;however,the churning losses of the piston increase significantly with increasing speed,and this reduces the performance and efficiency of the axial piston pump.Currently,there has been some research on the churning losses of pistons;however,it has rarely been analyzed from the perspective of the piston number.To improve the performance and efficiency of the axial piston pump,a computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulation model of the churning loss was established,and the effect of piston number on the churning loss was studied in detail.The simulation analysis results revealed that the churning losses initially increased as the number of pistons increased;however,when the number of pistons increased from six to nine,the torque of the churning losses decreased because of the hydrodynamic shadowing effect.In addition,in the analysis of cavitation results,it was determined that the cavitation area of the axial piston pump was mainly concentrated around the piston,and the cavitation became increasingly severe as the speed increased.By comparing the simulation results with and without the cavitation model,it was observed that the cavitation phenomenon is beneficial for the reduction of churning losses.In this study,a piston churning loss test rig that can eliminate other friction losses was established to verify the accuracy of the simulation results.A comparative analysis indicated that the simulation results were consistent with the actual situation.In addition,this study also conducted a simulation study on seven and nine piston pumps with the same displacement.The simulation results revealed that churning losses of the seven pistons were generally greater than those of the nine pistons under the same displacement.In addition,regarding the same piston number and displacement,reducing the pitch circle radius of piston bores is effective in reducing the churning loss.This research analyzes the effect of piston number on the churning loss,which has certain guiding significance for the structural design and model selection of axial piston pumps.

Churning loss characteristics of a wet three-phase high-speed reluctance motor

With the increasing requirements of electro-hydrostatic actuators(EHAs)for power,volume,and pressure,there is a growing tendency in the industry to combine the motor and pump to form a so-called'motor pump'to improve the integration.In this paper,a novel structure for a wet three-phase high-speed reluctance motor pump is proposed,which can further improve integration by removing the dynamic seal on the pump shaft,thereby avoiding the problems of dynamic seal wear and oil leakage and improving heat dissipation under high-speed working conditions.However,after the motor is wetted,the churning loss caused by immersion of the rotor in the oil causes additional fluid resistance torque.Based on fundamental fluid mechanics,an analytical model of the churning torque of a wet motor was established.To verify the accuracy of the analytical model,a simulation model of churning loss was established based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD),and the churning torque and flow field state were analyzed.Finally,an experimental prototype was designed and manufactured,and a test bench for churning loss was built.The oil churning torque was measured at different speeds and temperatures.The results from the analytical,simulation,and experimental models agreed well.The experimental results validated the analytical model and CFD simulation.This research provides a practical method for calculating the churning loss and serves as guidance for future optimization of churning loss reduction.

Development of an analytical model to estimate the churning losses in high-speed axial piston pumps

The axial piston pumps in aerospace applications are often characterized by high-speed rotation to achieve great power density. However, their internal rotating parts are fully immersed in the casing oil during operation, leading to considerable churning losses (more than 10% of total power losses) at high rotational speeds. The churning losses deserve much attention at the design stage of high-speed axial piston pumps, but accurate analytical models are not available to estimate the drag torque associated with the churning losses. In this paper, we derive the analytical expressions of the drag torque acting on the key rotating parts immersed in oil, including the cylinder block and the multiple pistons in a circular array. The calculated drag torque agrees well with the experimental data over a wide range of rotational speeds from 1500 to 12000 r/min. The presented analytical model provides practical guidelines for reducing the churning losses in high-speed axial piston pumps or motors.

Influence of vibration on the lubrication effect of a splash-lubricated gearbox

In this study,we investigate the effect of rail vibrations on the lubrication and efficiency of a splash-lubricated gearbox;specifically,the gearbox of a rail-transit vehicle.A high-fidelity 3D numerical model of the gearbox in a moving reference system is described,as well as computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulations of the gearbox with different vibration directions.The effects of rotational speed,oil-immersion depth,and different oil-injection volume rates on lubrication and efficiency are discussed.We propose a method of evaluating the internal lubrication condition of a splash-lubricated gearbox and quantitatively compare the effects of different operating parameters on lubrication and efficiency.Finally,our experiment to verify the feasibility of the simulation method is described.The results show that with vibration,the churning loss and oil supply for the bearings are significantly higher than those under static conditions.In addition,among different vibrational directions,lateral vibration has the greatest influence on the lubrication condition and efficiency of the gearbox.For the studied railway-vehicle gearbox,the best lubrication condition is achieved at a rotational speed of 1600 r/min and an oil-immersion depth of two times the tooth height(2.Oh).Rotational speed is the operating parameter that has the most significant effect on the lubrication and efficiencyofthegearbox.

Investigations on lubrication characteristics of high-speed electric multiple unit gearbox by oil volume adjusting device

In this paper,a numerical simulation model of the flow field in a gearbox with an oil volume adjusting device is established for the first time to study its influence on the lubrication characteristics of a high-speed electric multiple unit(EMU)gearbox.The moving particle semi-implicit(MPS)method is used to numerically simulate the internal flow field of the gearbox of the high-speed EMU under working conditions.The effects of the velocity of the high-speed EMU,the immersion depth,and the oil sump temperature on the power loss of the gears and the lubricant quantity of each bearing are studied and provide an effective tool for the quantitative evaluation of the lubrication characteristics of the gearbox.The lubrication characteristics of the gearbox under different working conditions are studied when the oil volume adjusting device is closed and opened.The results show that the oil volume adjusting device mainly changes the amount of lubricant stirred by the output gear by changing the flow rate of lubricant from the cavity pinion(Cavity P)to the cavity gear(Cavity G),and thus affects the power loss of gears and the lubricant quantity of each bearing.