Simulation Analysis and Experiment of Variable-Displacement Asymmetric Axial Piston Pump

• Main Authors: Youshan Gao, Jie Cheng, Jiahai Huang, Long Quan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-03-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: variable-displacement; asymmetric axial piston pumps; angle feedback control loop; flow ripple; pressure fluctuation
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/4/328

The variable displacement pump control system has greater energy-saving advantages and application prospects than the valve control system. However, the variable displacement pump control of differential cylinder is not concurrent with the existing technologies. The asymmetric pump-controlled cylinder is, therefore, used to balance the unequal volume flow through a single rod cylinder in closed-circuit system. This is considered to be an effective method. Nevertheless, the asymmetric axial piston pump (AAPP) is a constant displacement pump. In this study, variable-displacement asymmetric axial piston pump (VAPP) is investigated according to the same principle used in investigating AAPP. This study, therefore, aims at investigating the characteristics of VAPP. The variable-displacement output of VAPP is implemented by controlling the swash plate angle with angle feedback control circuit, which is composed of a servo proportional valve and an angular displacement sensor. The angular displacement sensor is connected to the swash plate. The simulation model of VAPP, which is set up through the ITI-SimulationX simulation platform, is used to predict VAPP’s characteristics. The purpose of implementing the experiment is to verify the theoretical results. Both the simulation and the experiment results demonstrated that the swash plate angle is controlled by a variable mechanism; when the swash plate angle increases, the flow of Port B and Port T increases while the response speed of Port B and Port T also accelerates. When the swash plate angle is constant, the flow of Port B and Port T increases along with the increase of pump speed, although the pressure-response speed of Port B is faster than that of Port T. Consequently, the flow pulsation of Port B and Port T tends to decrease gradually along with the increase of pump speed. When the pressure loaded on Port B equals to that of Port T, the flow ripple cycle of Port B is longer than that of Port T, whereas the peak flow of Port B is higher than that of Port T. Since the flow ripple of Port T is bigger than that of Port B, Port T should be connected to the low pressure sides or the oil tank so that it does not affect VAPP’s performance. Further, to avoid the backflow of VAPP from Port T to Port B, Port T cannot be loaded alone, and the loading pressure of Port T also cannot exceed that of Port B.