In some industrial fields, such as aerospace, electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHAs) are increasingly used to replace conventional standard hydraulic actuators due to their better energy performance. Moreover, implementing different type or technology of actuators in redundant actuation systems working on the same moving part introduced some new challenges. This paper presents a force-tracking controller for an asymmetric electro-hydrostatic actuator that is submitted to an external motion generated by an external source. In this case, the rod displacement is considered as an external disturbance for the hydraulic cylinder, but it is assumed that this disturbance can be easily measured using sensors. The theoretical motivation of this work is discussed along and a variable gain state feedback control based on Linear Parameter Varying control (LPV) theory is proposed to achieve stability, disturbance rejection and tracking performance. The Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMI) framework is used to determine a control law including an augmented state feedback with an integral action that reduces trajectory-tracking errors. Simulation results of the control law are finally given to verify the global performance of this control design.

In the paper a new position signal filtering method with position prediction is presented along with test results using a simulation tool. The complete active heave compensation system performance with input signal filtering is also shown. The control system uses an input acceleration signal taken from the motion reference unit, which usually contains noise that is not acceptable for the position controller. Currently, a Kalman filter is used which is okay to use for certain conditions. The filter works similarly to how it is used for autonomous applications where two input positions are necessary, one from position sensors and another one taken from the model. The challenge is that there is no physical wave model available for the Kalman filter used for offshore position control and the waves are not predictable. It was found that a Kalman filter with a special signal prediction instead of the model input can be used. This position prediction helps to avoid system delays and the potential of missing the signal for a short period of the time.

Hydraulic devices play an essential role in mechanical engineering due to their high-power density, good controllability, flexible application and high robustness, which expose innovative methods of energy transmission. However, in applications where there is an increased risk of fire or explosion, the commonly used combustible mineral oils represent an unacceptable safety hazard. In such cases, fireresistant, water-based hydraulic fluids are in demand. A special feature of these liquids is their high cavitation tendency and the associated strong erosion wear. The aim of this research is to predict the cavitation behaviour of HFC and the subsequent erosion phenomena using numerical methods and to validate the results with experiments. Additionally, experimental results for HFC were compared with HLP. The findings help to implement further developments to decrease the erosive effect of cavitation in high-pressure differences in hydraulic components. For this purpose, flow geometries of typical hydraulic components, e.g. valve and pump, are used for experimental and numerical investigation. The large-eddy simulation (LES) turbulent modelling is used with Zwart-Gerber cavitation model. The cavitation aggressiveness is quantified by cavitation erosion indices according to Nohmi.

Hydraulic development engineers and tribology specialist still exert substantial effort, time and resources into finding a hydraulic fluid that would be near an ideal fluid. In addition to its basic physicochemical properties, it must meet a number of other requirements related to its practical use within hydraulic system and the materials used therein. Ionic Liquids, as novel lubricants, offer the solution in this regard. The paper gives an overview of the basic properties of selected and tested Ionic Liquids suitable for use as hydraulic fluids. The practically obtained data refer to the basic physico-chemical properties of Ionic Liquids and properties important for practical use within hydraulic system, e.g. compatibility with materials. The results are given in a comparison with common mineral oil based hydraulic oil.

Well working hydraulic systems need clean hydraulic oil. Therefore, the system must ensure the separation of molecular, gaseous, liquid and solid contaminations. The key element of the separation of contaminants is the hydraulic reservoir. Solid particles are a major source of maintenance costs and machine downtime. Thus, an Euler-Euler-Lagrange multiphase CFD model to predict the transport of solid particles in hydraulic reservoirs was developed. The CFD model identifies and predicts the particle accumulation areas and is used to train port-to-port transfer functions, which can be used in system models to simulate the long-term contamination levels of hydraulic systems. The experimental detection of dynamic particle contamination levels and particle accumulation areas validate and confirm the CFD and the system model. Both models in combination allow for parameter and design studies to improve the fluid management of hydraulic reservoirs.

The displacement of the variable displacement pumps can be adjusted by changing the swivel angle of the swash plate. In fact, the swivel angle oscillates because of the oscillating torque on the swash plate, which caused by the pressure fluctuation of the piston chamber. The swivel angle is most often considered as a constant value in previous studies. However, the oscillation of the swash plate leads to an additional movement of the piston, which has an impact on the pressure fluctuation and the flow ripple. In this study, an improved model of a self-supplied variable displacement pump is established. The swash plate oscillation under different operating conditions is presented. In order to investigate the effect of the swash plate oscillation on the pressure ripple, a comparison between the case of the fixed swash plate and the oscillated swash plate is conducted. Results show the pressure ripple with an oscillated swash plate shows a smaller pressure ripple. It also shows that the nine pistons and the control mechanism both affect the pressure ripple and flow fluctuation.

Axial piston pumps are universal displacement machines that are used in a vast variety of applications. Their high pressure resistance and ease of operation make them very popular, especially in mobile applications. Some applications require more robust pumps with an extended lifetime, particularly those that operate in remote environments such as marine type or mining operations. Especially new applications like displacement control have high demands on pumps such as through shaft operation (many pumps on one shaft), high dynamics and multi-quadrant operation. These demands create challenges in terms of lifetime expectancy and robustness for pump manufacturers and machine OEMs. Currently most axial piston pumps go through a run-in process. During this process the softer bronze parts shave off and change their shape according to the necessary one for the pumps’ proper operation. This process is highly dependent on the design of the parts and their manufacturing tolerances. In this paper the run-in process of the slippers of an axial piston pump was investigated by means of measurements of the gap height and wear profile as well as simulation. The measurements show a clear change of profile and gap heights for the first 120 h of the pumps operation. After that the gaps stabilize. The numerical simulations made with the program Caspar FSTI were coupled with contact wear models to output wear profiles. Different models will be introduced and compared with measurements. Both the amount of material removed and the performance of the pump before and after run-in will be discussed.

The temperature distribution of the lubricating interfaces is an important aspect of the functioning of positive displacement machines. It can determine the efficiency and the life time of the unit. In particular, it directly affects the fluid properties and the thermal induced deformations of the solid bodies. A simulation tool capable of predicting the fluid temperature in such gaps thus becomes very useful in the design process of these machines. The temperature distribution in a film comprises of many physical phenomena including convection and conduction along and across the film. Past numerical approaches solved this multi-directional conduction-convection problem using a threedimensional(3D) grid, making the tool computationally expensive and unsuitable for fast simulations. This paper proposes a hybrid fluid temperature solver, based on, a low computational cost twodimensional(2D) grid, to reduce the simulation time with reasonable accuracy. The piston/cylinder interface of an axial piston machine is selected as reference case to demonstrate the proposed approach. The hybrid approach was found to speedup the simulation times by 36%.

In the present paper the preliminary results of the potentialities that surface texturing has in improving the coupling of lubricated surfaces in relative motion is presented. This kind surface engineering requires careful design of the geometry to obtain relevant improvements; therefore, it is useful to study in detail the behavior of the fluid confined between the coupled surfaces by means of CFD analysis. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of dimples created on one of the two coupled surfaces and to observe the variation of tribological properties as their principal design parameters vary, such as dimple shape, size and spatial distribution. Furthermore, simulations have been carried out with different sliding velocities and fluid temperatures to analyze the effects that these variables have on the tribological performance of the textured surface. The simulations also consider the presence of cavitation and the influence of this phenomenon on the overall behavior of the textured surface is evaluated.

The piston/cylinder pair is the key lubricating interface of axial piston pumps. It suffers from excessive wear due to the huge lateral force, especially under high output pressure. In order to achieve predictive maintenance, it is significant to detect the performance degradation of the piston/cylinder pair. In this paper, a method to predict the wear of the piston/cylinder pair is proposed. The wear regions and corresponding wear depths under different conditions are investigated. The distributive characteristic parameters of the oil film are obtained, which can reflect the load-bearing and lubrication conditions at each region of the friction pair. Based on the oil film characteristic parameters, the most suitable wear model is chosen to calculate the wear depth, and then the entire wear profile of the piston/cylinder pair is obtained. The experimental investigation is carried out, and the results show that the accuracy of the wear regions and corresponding wear depth prediction is high. This method can be used to pump healthy management and choose the suitable working conditions of the axial piston pump.