Noise generated by fluid power applications can be treated using bladder-style suppressors, and an optimal operating condition for these devices is sought in this thesis. Bladder-style suppressors employ a compliant nitrogen-charged bladder to create an impedance change within the system, reflecting the noise back to the source and preventing it from propagating downstream. The noise in a hydraulic system is created by a pump, the flow source in a hydraulic system, and can be separated into three categories: fluid-borne noise, structure-borne noise and airborne noise. Fluid-borne noise places addition stress on sealing surfaces, potentially causing leaks. Airborne noise can be uncomfortable, even hazardous depending on the level. Bladder-style suppressors primarily treat fluid-borne noise; however, it is seen in the literature that fluid-borne noise is the cause of structure-borne and airborne noise. This thesis presents an optimization method for finding the optimal charge pressure for implementation with a given system operating over a broad range of system pressures. The optimization weights suppressor performance by the spectral content of the fluid-borne noise as well as the duty cycle of the system. A single charge pressure works well over a small range of system pressures, though many fluid power applications operate over a larger range of system pressure than the usable range of a suppressor. For systems operating over an extremely broad pressure range, two suppressors charged to different pressures are used to treat the noise in the entire system pressure range. To determine suppressor performance experimental measurements were performed, and models developed, of the transmission loss of this type of device. A multi-microphone method using transfer function relationships between six sensors determines the transmission loss of the suppressor under test. An equivalent fluid model modeling the wave behavior both upstream and downstream, as well as within the suppressor, was created to predict suppressor transmission loss. Optimal configurations are found for a set of system pressures, charge pressures and duty cycles. Analysis of the results shows the time weighting has a more significant impact on the optimum charge pressure than the frequency weighting, as shown by duty cycles considered in this thesis. In addition, all charge pressures selected as optimal for either single suppressor optimizations or double suppressor optimizations, exhibit the highest transmission loss for a single system pressure in the pressure duty cycle for a simulated machine.

Möjligheter att reducera vikten på en hydraulmotor, som tillverkas på Parker Hannifin AB i Trollhättan, har studerats. Målet med arbetet var att ge förslag på hur motorn kan göras lättare för att nå det framtida målet att erbjuda kunder en lättviktsmotor (LWM) lämpad som fläktmotor. För att identifiera komponenterna och deras vikter vägdes alla delar var för sig. Värdena visade att trumhus, lagerhus, axel och lagerpaket stod för ca 75 % av motorns totala vikt. Arbetet koncentrerades därför på att reducera vikten på dessa delar. Flera koncept togs fram med lägre vikt och bibehållen prestanda. Vissa delar kontrollerades mot hållfasthet med handberäkningar och FEM-analyser. Enligt beräkningarna finns möjlighet att reducera vikten med 45 %. Om hydraulmotorn konstrueras enligt koncepten, bör det framtida målet kunna nås, till-verkning av en lättviktsmotor som är betydligt lättare än dagens hydraulmotor. / The weight reducing possibilities for a hydraulic motor, produced by Parker Hannifin AB in Trollhättan, have been investigated. The goal was to provide suggestions for weight optimization to offer customers a light weight motor (LWM) that is well suited as a fan motor. The mass of each part was determined and their functions were identified. The result showed that the housings, shaft and bearings represented 75% of the motor’s total mass. The work was thus concentrated to these parts. Multiple suggestions were generated where weight and performance were taken into consideration. Some parts were analyzed with the aid of FEA-software and hand calculations. The result indicates that a weight reduction of 45% is possible. If the hydraulic motor is redesigned according to the concepts, the goal of a light weight motor can be achieved.

Improved efficiency, better controllability and low noise are the most demanding features form a displacement machine now-a-days. Most of the conventional displacement machines are basically a reciprocating pumping element controlled by valve plates or with the help of check valve [1]. This kind of hydraulic machines loose efficiency dramatically at partial displacement because all of the pistons remain at high pressure at the cycle time and due to pressure inside the piston leakage and shear losses increases. One approach to improve the efficiency of the displacement machine can be controlling each hydraulic piston by using programmable faster valves called digital valve. As the total displacement will be controlled digitally, the total system is called Digital Displacement Technology. In digital displacement machine it is possible to disconnect some of the pistons from the load and the piston will connect only with the low pressure side, minimizing losses due to leakage and shear. As the valve will control directly with digital controller it will eliminate the necessity of servo-hydraulic control required by conventional systems. Digital valves can open fully and close again with the input signal within one revaluation of the shaft, so it gives better control to the pumping element results reduction in hysteresis and increase the linearity of the pumping element. In Digital Displacement machines by controlling the valves pistons are connected with the machine when pressure is equal, but in the traditional machines piston connection was pre-determined with the shaft angle. By doing the piston control efficiency of the machine will improve and the sound generates for the decompression flow will be reduced [17]. Also energy storage and recovery can be possible by using accumulator.

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Following an introduction, the author describes Texas A&M University and its utilities system. After that, the author presents how to construct simulation models for chilled water and heating hot water distribution systems. The simulation model was used in a $2.3 million Ross Street chilled water pipe replacement project at Texas A&M University. A second project conducted at the University of Texas at San Antonio was used as an example to demonstrate how to identify and design an optimal distribution system by using a simulation model. The author found that the minor losses of these closed loop thermal distribution systems are significantly higher than potable water distribution systems. In the second part of the report, the author presents the latest development of software called the Plant Optimization Program, which can simulate cogeneration plant operation, estimate its operation cost and provide optimized operation suggestions. The author also developed detailed simulation models for a gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator and identified significant potential savings. Finally, the author also used a steam turbine as an example to present a multi-regression method on constructing simulation models by using basic statistics and optimization algorithms. This report presents a survey of the author??s working experience at the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL) at Texas A&M University during the period of January 2002 through March 2004. The purpose of the above work was to allow the author to become familiar with the practice of engineering. The result is that the author knows how to complete a project from start to finish and understands how both technical and nontechnical aspects of a project need to be considered in order to ensure a quality deliverable and bring a project to successful completion. This report concludes that the objectives of the internship were successfully accomplished and that the requirements for the degree of Degree of Engineering have been satisfied.

Fluid power technology has been widely used in industrial practice; however, its energy efficiency became a big concern in the recent years. Much progress has been made to improve fluid power energy efficiency from many aspects. Among these approaches, using a valve-less system to replace a traditional valve-controlled system showed eminent energy reduction. This thesis studies the valve-less solution-pump displacement controlled actuators- from the view of controls background. Singular perturbations have been applied to the fluid power to account for fluid stiffness; and a novel hydraulic circuit for single rod cylinder has been presented to increase the hydraulic circuit stabilities. Recursive Least Squares has been applied to account for measurement noise thus the parameters have fast convergence rate, square root algorithm has further applied to increase the controller's numerical stability and efficiency. It was showed that this technique is consistent with other techniques to increase controller's robustness. The developed algorithm is further extended to a hybrid adaptive control scheme to achieve desired trajectory tracking for general cases. A hardware test-bed using the invented hydraulic circuit was built up. The experimental results are presents and validated the proposed algorithms and the circuit itself. The end goal of this project is to develop control algorithms and hydraulic circuit suitable for industrial practice.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to design a motion simulator for a rallycross racing environment. The focus on the design is how to mechanically create the G-forces and to model them. After that is done the visually seen motion has to be electronically implemented into the motion simulator, creating as realistic as possible an experience for the driver. A program called Aprot is written in National Instruments Labview to handle the communication between the software simulator and hardware signals. Alot of focus is paid on how to represent the much larger G-forces that are experienced on a real track in the limited capacity that a motion simulator allows. For this purpose several formulas are proposed, all of which have their benefits. The simulation environment used is Racer, a well documented racing simulation that is still in development by the creator Ruud van Gaal. Aprot continuously reads specific data from a file in Racer and uses the formulas to form them into reference values for mechanics. Aprot also has a PID-controller, so that the piston positioning can be optimized.</p><p>The original plan of this master thesis was to use Aprot on a full-scale pneumatic or hydraulic prototype. However, due to time and money constraints, this was not done, leaving this work as a theoretical base on which to build upon.</p>

The phenomenon of plume persistence was observed for five federal Superfund sites by analysis of historical groundwater-withdrawal and contaminant-concentration data collected from long-term pump-and-treat operations. The potential factors contributing to plume persistence are generally recognized to include incomplete isolation of the source zone, permeability heterogeneity, well-field hydraulics, and non-ideal (rate-limited, nonlinear) desorption. However, the significance of each factor, especially the site-specific contribution is undetermined, which is very important for site development and management. One objective of this study is to quantify the impacts of different factors on mass-removal efficiency. Three-dimensional (3D) numerical models were used to simulate the impact of different well-field configurations on pump-and-treat mass removal. The relationship between reduction in contaminant mass discharge (CMDR) and mass removal (MR) was used as the metric to examine remediation efficiency. Results indicate that (1) even with effort to control the source, residual impact of source can still be a factor causing plume persistence, (2) the well-field configuration has a measurable impact on mass-removal efficiency, which can be muted by the influence of permeability heterogeneity, (3) in terms of permeability heterogeneity, both variance and correlation scale influence the overall mass-removal behavior, (4) the CMDR-MR relationship can be used to quantify the impacts of different factors on mass-removal efficiency at the plume scale. It has been recognized that the use of pump and treat for groundwater remediation will require many decades to attain site closure at most complex sites. Thus, monitored natural attenuation (MNA) and enhanced attenuation (EA) have been widely accepted as alternatives because of their lower cost and sustainable management for large, complex plumes. However, the planning and evaluation of MNA/EA applications require greater levels of characterization data than typically collected. Advanced, innovative methods are required to characterize specific attenuation processes and associated rates to evaluate the feasibility of MNA/EA. Contaminant elution and tracer (CET) tests have been proposed as one such advanced method. Another objective of this study is to investigate the use of modified well-field configurations to enhance the performance of CET tests to collect critical site-specific data that can be used to better delineate attenuation processes and quantify the associated rate coefficients. Three-dimensional numerical models were used to simulate the CET test with specific well-field configurations under different conditions. The results show that the CET test with a nested (two-couplet) well-field configuration can be used to characterize transport and attenuation processes by eliminating the impact of the surrounding plume. The results also show that applying select analytical mass-removal functions can be an efficient method for parameter estimation, as it does not require the use of mathematical transport modeling and does not require the attendant input data that are costly and time-consuming to obtain.

The purpose of this thesis is to design a motion simulator for a rallycross racing environment. The focus on the design is how to mechanically create the G-forces and to model them. After that is done the visually seen motion has to be electronically implemented into the motion simulator, creating as realistic as possible an experience for the driver. A program called Aprot is written in National Instruments Labview to handle the communication between the software simulator and hardware signals. Alot of focus is paid on how to represent the much larger G-forces that are experienced on a real track in the limited capacity that a motion simulator allows. For this purpose several formulas are proposed, all of which have their benefits. The simulation environment used is Racer, a well documented racing simulation that is still in development by the creator Ruud van Gaal. Aprot continuously reads specific data from a file in Racer and uses the formulas to form them into reference values for mechanics. Aprot also has a PID-controller, so that the piston positioning can be optimized. The original plan of this master thesis was to use Aprot on a full-scale pneumatic or hydraulic prototype. However, due to time and money constraints, this was not done, leaving this work as a theoretical base on which to build upon.

Denna rapport sammanställer vattenhydraulikens möjligheter samt fördelar och nackdelar vid konvertering av befintliga hydraulsystem, eller nya anpassade system inom vattenkraften. Dessutom ska en jämförelse mellan miljöpåverkan av olja jämfört med vatten som behandlats för att passa i olika hydraulsystem redovisas. En stor fråga är om vattenhydrauliken har samma hållbarhet som oljehydrauliken och ifall man får accelererad nötning ifall man konverterar ett befintligt system från oljehydraulik till vattenhydraulik. Vattenhydraulik i vattenkraft används redan till luckservon. För ledkransservo ställs högre krav på driftsäkerhet men vatten bör kunna användas där med. Pitchkontroll för kaplannav är under utveckling, det som saknas just nu är sviveln som sitter längst upp på turbinaxeln. Om man ska konvertera ett nav behöver man också byta ventilerna som sitter i navet för att få tillförlitlighet. För att kunna konvertera ett oljehydrauliksystem till vattenhydraulik behöver man byta vissa komponenter: ventiler, filter och pumpar då dessa behöver vara anpassade för att kunna få en anständig livslängd. Livslängden är garanterad till 8000-10000h för ett nyinstallerat vattenhydrauliksystem, detta är med avseende på pumpen som normalt sett är den detalj med kortast livslängd i systemet. Jämfört med oljehydraulik så är detta i stort sett samma livslängd, vilket har varit målet för leverantören Danfoss utveckling av vattenhydraulik. Ett vattenhydrauliksystem med rent vatten som hydraulmedium påverkar miljön minimalt om ett läckage sker, ett system med monopropylenglykol i vattnet ger väldigt liten påverkan då detta oftast är nedbrutet efter 24h i naturen enligt Dowcal som producerar glykolen. Monopropylenglykol är dessutom giftfri samt har inga påvisade fall av allergi, vilket gör arbetsmiljön och hanteringskostnader betydligt lägre än för hydraulolja. Olja behöver förhöjd temperatur i jord för en acceptabel nedbrytning, och även då tar det förhållandevis lång tid. Livslängden på glidbussningar förekommande i Älvkarleby luckcylindrar har utretts genom en laboration där friktion och nötning studerats med hydraulolja respektive monopropylenglykol med vatten (50/50). Kontakten var glidande rulle mot plan. Dessa tester visar att nötningen är desamma för kompositmaterial mot kromat stål, som testats i de båda medierna. Friktionsvärdet var lägre när man hade monopropylenglykol med vatten som smörjmedel. I fallet med brons mot kromat stål var resultatet detsamma, monopropylenglykol med vatten gav lägre friktionsvärde och återigen gavs samma slitage vid jämförelse av provbitarna som gått i hydraulolja respektive monopropylenglykol med vatten. Slutsatsen är att vattenhydraulik är ett bra alternativ till oljehydraulik, men ingående kunskap om hydraulikens systemkomponenter vid vätskekonvertering är nödvändig. Till exempel om materialen i systemet lämpar sig för konvertering eller behöver bytas ut. / This report puts together the possibilities of water hydraulics. It also compare pros and cons of new adapted systems or when converting existing oil hydraulic systems to water hydraulics. A small comparison of environmental effects from oil and water treated for use in hydraulic systems will be made. A large question concerning water hydraulics is if it has the same durability as oil hydraulics. Another is if you get accelerated wear when you convert an oil hydraulic system to water hydraulics. For hydropower, Water hydraulics is already used for sluice gates. For the operating ring you need very high reliability but water hydraulics should be suiting for this application as well. Pitchcontrol for kaplanrunners is under development, at the moment the swivel on top of the turbineshaft is missing. If you want to convert a kaplanrunner you will also need to change the valves in the hub to get a good reliability. To be able to convert an oil hydraulic system you need to change some components: valves, filters and pumps, these needs to be adapted for water to have a reasonable lifetime. The lifetime is guaranteed to be 8000-10000h for a recently installed water hydraulics system. This is regarding to the pump, which is the part of both water- and oil- hydraulics with the shortest lifetime. If you compare water- with oil- hydraulics they have about the same lifetime. That has always been the goal for the supplier Danfoss development of water hydraulics. A water hydraulic system with pure tap water as pressure media will not affect the environment at all. Systems with monopropylen glycol and water as media will have only a small environmental influence. Monopropylen glycol that has leaked out will be broken down in 24h if it is taken care of in a cleaning plant. In the nature it will take slightly longer according to dowcal who produces the glycol. Monopropylen glycol has no cases of allergy reported, which makes the working environment and handling better than for hydraulic oil. Oil needs elevated temperature and the presence of earth to be able to break down, and still it takes considerable time. The lifetime on sliding bushings existing in the hydraulic cylinders for Älvkarleby hydropowerstation sluice gates have been investigated by laboratory work. Friction and wear was compared with hydraulic oil or monopropylen glycol with water (50/50). The contact was a sliding wheel against a sheet. These tests shows that the wear is equal if you test a composite against chromed steel, with the two different hydraulic medias. The friction was however lower when you tested it with monopropylen glycol and water as lubricant. In the case bronze against steel the results were the same. Monopropylen glycol with water gave lower friction, though the wear was equal between the two medias. The conclusion is that water hydraulics is a good alternative to oil hydraulics, thorough knowledge of the hydraulic components is necessary though. For instance if the materials in the system is suitable for use in water hydraulics, or needs to be changed.