Design principles for noise reduction in hydraulic piston pumps : simulation, optimisation and experimental verification

Abstract: Noise reduction in hydmulic systems has been an important research topic for several decades. In recent years, industry's interest in the area has grown dramatically. The reason is new national and international requirements and legislation governing working conditions. As a consequence of this, considerable reduction of noise from machinery in general has been achieved. The reduction of noise in hydraulic systems, however, has not gained from the same considerable progress, which implies that hydraulic noise has become perceptible through the surrounding machinery noise. Not only has noise reduction of hydraulic systems become increasingly important, it has also become more difficult because of the ever-increasing working pressure level, which is highly correlated to noise and vibration.Noise in hydraulic systems is created mainly by the hydrostatic pump and motor, working with large pressure differences in the suction and delivery ports. Being exclusively of displacement type, the hydrostatic machine creates substantial flow pulsations in both the discharge and suction ports. The flow pulsations give rise to system pressure pulsations, which in turn transform into vibration and audible noise. Excessive pulsating piston forces and bending moments due to the large pressure difference between the machine's discharge and suction ports also contribute to noise and vibration.To obtain satisfactory noise reduction, there is a need for effective and reliable design tools and design methods. This thesis concerns simulation, optimisation and experimental verification of axial piston pump design for noise reduction. Much of the work relates to the different origins of noise and how to formulate objective functions that simultaneously reflects different aspects of noise reduction. New and conventional design features are examined both theoretically and experimentally. One novel and promising design feature thoroughly investigated in this thesis is the so-called crossangle that aims to provide low noise in variable displacement machines. Different measurement approaches are employed for experimental verification. It is shown that conventional methods are often inadequate for measuring source flow in variable displacement units due to the complex outlet channel. A new method, referred to as the Source admittance method, is proposed.