The Discharge Flow Ripple of an Axial-Piston Swash-Plate Type Hydrostatic Pump

Noah D. Manring
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of MissouriColumbia, Columbia, MO 65211

This research examines the idealized and actual ow-ripple of an axial-piston swashplate type hydrostatic pump. For the idealized case, a perfect pump is examined in which the leakage is considered to be zero and the uid is considered to be incompressible. Based upon these assumptions, closed-form expressions which describe the characteristics of the idealized ow-ripple are derived. Both the ripple height and the pulse frequency of the ripple are described for a pump with an even and an odd number of pistons. Next, the actual ow-ripple of the pump is examined by considering the pump leakage and the uid compressibility and for computing these results a numerical program is used. For both the idealized case and the actual case a comparison is made between a nine-piston, an eight-piston, and a seven-piston pump. From the idealized analysis it is quantitatively shown that the eight-piston design is less attractive than the nine or seven-piston design; however, the analysis of the actual pump ow reveals that the qualitative difference between all three designs may not be too signicant. From a ow ripple point of view, the numerical results of this research show that a pump designed with an even number of pistons may be as feasible as one that is designed with an odd number of pistons. This is an unexpected conclusion. S0022-04340000202-1

Introduction
Background. Axial-piston swash-plate type hydrostatic pumps are used as the input power source for hydraulic circuitry. As the name suggests, these machines are comprised of a discrete number of pistons that reciprocate in a sinusoidal fashion for the purposes of displacing uid. Due to the discrete nature of the design, the ow output of an axial-piston pump is not perfectly smooth and tends to maintain some of the sinusoidal characteristics of the uid displacement elements themselves. These sinusoidal characteristics are usually referred to as the ow ripple of the pump and are often suspected for generating undesirable vibration and noise 1. Within the last thirty years, signicant research on axial-piston pumps has appeared in the literature. Most of this work has been concerned with the control of the swash-plate of variable displacement pumps and the operating efciency of the machine; however, very little of the published literature has addressed the uctuating aspects of the discharge ow. Among the published literature on the topic of ow ripple is the inuential work done by Thoma 2 in which a graphical technique for describing the idealized ow ripple of the pump is presented as a function of the number of pistons in the design. The results of this work have been used to discourage engineers from designing pumps with an even number of pistons due to the theoretically higher magnitude of the ow ripple that is shown for an even numbered piston machine. Though this work is interesting, it only concerns itself with an idealized case of ow and does not set forth the derivation of a closed form equation that would prove most useful for understanding its main conclusions. In another published document, Jun and Yi 3 have presented experimental work that has compared the ow ripple of an eight-piston design with a nine-piston design and the conclusions of their study show that a machine with an even number of pistons may be as feasible as a machine with an odd number of pistons. In the industry, where axial-piston pumps are designed, a cerContributed by the Dynamic Systems and Control Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL. Manuscript received by the Dynamic Systems and Control Division May 6, 1998. Associate Technical Editor: R. Chandran.

tain amount of confusion exists on the part of most designers regarding the tradeoffs between designing a pump with an odd number of pistons and designing a pump with an even number of pistons. In the original US patent which describes the rst axialpiston pump of its kind 4 the design is shown to have six pistons. Though it is not exactly clear when the development of a pump with an odd number of pistons began, it is certainly the case that today almost no one considers the design alternative which uses an even number of pistons. In fact, the majority of todays pumps are designed with a total of nine piston and those remaining outside of this group are predominantly designed with seven pistons. Pump Description. Figure 1 shows the general conguration of an axial-piston swash-plate type hydrostatic pump. The pump consists of several pistons within a common cylindrical block. The pistons are nested in a circular array within the block at equal intervals about the x-axis. As shown in Fig. 1, the cylinder block is held tightly against a valve plate using the force of the compressed cylinder-block spring. A thin lm of oil separates the valve plate from the cylinder block which, under normal operating conditions, forms a hydrodynamic bearing between the two parts. A ball-and-socket joint connects the base of each piston to a slipper. The slippers themselves are kept in reasonable contact with the swash plate by a retainer which is spring loaded using the cylinder block spring. A hydrostatic and hydrodynamic bearing surface separates the slippers from the swash plate. For the purposes of this research the swash-plate angle, , is considered to be xed. While the valve plate is held in a xed position, the cylinder block is driven about the x-axis at a constant angular speed, . During this motion, each piston periodically passes over the discharge and intake ports on the valve plate. Furthermore, because the slippers are held against the inclined plane of the swash plate, the pistons undergo an oscillatory displacement in and out of the cylinder block. As the pistons pass over the intake port, the piston withdraws from the cylinder block and uid is drawn into the piston bore. As the pistons pass over the discharge port, the piston advances into the cylinder block and uid is pushed out of the JUNE 2000, Vol. 122 263

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control Copyright 2000 by ASME

where n is the total number of pistons that are instantaneously positioned over the discharge port of the pump. For a pump with an even number of pistons, this integer quantity is expressed n Ne , 2 (5)

where N e is the total number of even pistons within the pump. For a pump with an odd number of pistons, this quantity is expressed n N o 1 , 2 (6)

Fig. 1 General pump conguration

piston bore. This motion repeats itself for each pump revolution and the basic task of pumping uid is then accomplished. Research Objectives. This research examines the idealized and actual ow-ripple of an axial-piston swash-plate type hydrostatic pump. For the idealized case, a perfect pump is examined in which the leakage is considered to be zero and the uid is considered to be incompressible. Based upon these assumptions, closed-form expressions which describes the characteristics of the idealized ow-ripple are derived. Both the ripple height and the pulse frequency of the ripple are described for a pump with an even and an odd number of pistons. Next, the actual ow-ripple of the pump is examined by considering the pump leakage and the uid compressibility and for computing these results a numerical program is used. For both the idealized case and the actual case a comparison is made between a nine-piston, an eight-piston, and a seven-piston pump and conclusions are drawn regarding the actual differences between the three designs.

where N o is the total number of odd pistons within the pump and the 1 indicates that the number of piston positioned over the discharge port is repeatedly uctuating and depends upon the rotational position of the pump itself. Using the integral average of Eq. 4, the nominal discharge ow of the pump may be expressed as Q NA p r tan 2

sin d

NA p r tan .

(7)

Dividing the result of Eq. 4 by the result of Eq. 7 yields a normalized discharge ow from the pump which is given by Q

sin n . N n1

(8)

Series Convergence. Since the pistons are spaced evenly in a circular array about the centerline of the pump shaft, the circular position of the n th piston may be expressed

n 1

2 n1 , N

(9)

Idealized Pump Flow

General. The idealized discharge-ow of the pump is determined by considering a pump that does not leak while displacing incompressible uid. In this case, it may be shown that the ow rate generated by a single piston is equal to the time rate-ofchange of the instantaneous volume of the piston chamber. Mathematically this is expressed dV n Q n , dt (1)

where 1 locates the position of the number 1 reference piston in the machine and N is the even or odd total number of pistons. Using Eq. 9 it may be shown that

n1

sin n sin

n n 1 csc sin 1 . (10) N N N

For a pump with an even number of pistons, Eqs. 5, 8 and 10 may be used to express the instantaneous ow rate of the pump as e Q

csc cos 1 , Ne Ne Ne

(11)

where the ow out of the piston chamber is considered to be positive. The instantaneous volume of the piston chamber is given by V n V o A p r tan cos n , (2)

for values of 1 between 0 and 2 / N e . For a pump with an odd number of pistons, Eqs. 6, 8, and 10 may be used to express the instantaneous ow rate of the pump as o Q

csc cos 1 , 2No 2No 2No

where V o is the nominal volume of a piston chamber as if the swash-plate angle, , were zero, A p is the pressurized area of a single piston, r is the piston pitch radius, and n locates the circular position of the n th piston chamber relative to the negative z-axis. Substituting Eq. 2 into Eq. 1 yields the following result for the idealized instantaneous ow that is generated by the n th piston: Q n A p r tan sin n . (3) In Eq. 3 the symbol describes the rotational speed of the pump. The total discharge ow of the pump is equal to the net ow from each piston chamber that is instantaneously positioned over the discharge port. The total discharge ow may then be expressed as Q A p r tan 264 Vol. 122, JUNE 2000

(12)

for values of 1 between 0 and / N o . The Shape of the Flow Pulse. Equations 11 and 12 describe a single pulse of the discharge ow ripple for a pump with an even or odd number of pistons respectively. This pulse is cycloidal in shape and repeats itself continuously as the pump shaft rotates. Figure 2 illustrates the shape of a single ow pulse as it shows the normalized height of varies with . In this gure, Q the ow pulse and T shows the period of the pulse width. Using the result of Eq. 11, it may be shown that the normalized height of the ow pulse for a pump with an even number of pistons, is given by e Q

n1

tan . Ne 2Ne

(13)

sin n ,

(4)

The period of the pulse width for an even numbered piston pump is Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 3 Schematic of a single piston chamber Fig. 2 Flow-pulse shape

T e

2 . Ne

(14)

Using the result of Eq. 12, it may be shown that the normalized height of the ow pulse for a pump with an odd number of pistons, is given by o Q

of the discharge ow, and is the uid density. See Fig. 3. The total discharge ow of the pump is equal to the net ow generated from each piston chamber instantaneously positioned over the discharge port. Dividing this sum total by the nominal result of Eq. 7 yields the following result for the normalized discharge ow of the pump: Q

tan . 2No 4No . No

(15)

NA p r tan

n1

sign P n P d C d A o n

2 P P d , n (18)

The period of the pulse width for an odd numbered piston pump is T o (16)

where n is given in Eqs. 5 and 6 for an even and odd number of pistons respectively. Instantaneous Pressure. The instantaneous uid pressure within the n th piston chamber is described by the standard pressure rise rate equation which is derived based upon the conservation of mass within the chamber and the denition of the uid bulk modulus. This result is given by d Pn dV n Q n Q leakn , dt Vn dt

Actual Pump Flow

General. The previous discussion of pump ow has been based upon the idealized assumptions that the pump does not leak and that the uid is incompressible. Since neither of these assumptions are actually true in practice, it is worth examining the more complicated problem in which leakage occurs and the uid compresses due to the pressure which is instantaneously applied. Figure 3 shows a schematic of the piston chamber from which the uid is being discharged. In the analysis that follows, it will be assumed that the discharge ow out of the n th piston chamber is characterized by a high Reynolds number and that the classical orice equation which is derived based upon the Bernoulli equation may be used to model the ow. This result is given by Q n sign P n P d C d A o n

(19)

2 P P d , n

where P n is the instantaneous uid pressure within the chamber, is the uid bulk modulus, Q n is the discharge ow given in Eq. 17, Q leakn is the leakage that occurs due to the clearances between the piston and bore and/or any other leak paths that may exist in the design of the piston chamber, and V n is the instantaneous volume of the chamber given in Eq. 2. If it is assumed that the leakage out of the piston chamber occurs at a low Reynolds number, then the leakage may be modeled as a laminar ow given by Q leakn KP n , (20)

(17)

where P n is the instantaneous uid pressure within the n th piston chamber, P d is the discharge pressure of the pump, C d is the discharge coefcient, A o n is the instantaneous cross-sectional area

where K is the leakage coefcient. Substituting the results of Eqs. 2, 17, and 20 into Eq. 19 yields the following result for the pressure within the n th piston chamber:

d Pn dn

sign P n P d C d A o n

2 P P d KP n A p r tan sin n n . V o A p r tan cos n

(21)

Note: in Eq. 21 it has been recognized that d n dt for a constant angular velocity, . Equation 21 must be solved numerically for the instantaneous position of the n th piston and the result of P n must be substituted into Eq. 18 to yield the instantaneous discharge ow of the pump. At this point, it may be worthwhile to observe some of the modeling inconsistencies of Eq. 21. The two primary equations that have been combined to get Eq. 21 have been Eqs. 17 and 19. As previously mentioned, Eq. 17 is based upon Bernoulli Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control

principles which assume that the uid is incompressible and that the ow is steady. On the other hand, Eq. 19 is generally derived for a fully compressible and time-varying situation. When these two equations are combined, at best it may be said that the nal result of Eq. 21 is only valid for slightly compressible ows. Furthermore, since the Bernoulli equation is steady, it would be unreasonable to expect Eq. 21 to produce results that would include the effects of water-hammer. Justication for using Eq. 21 is primarily found in the mathematical expediency it provides JUNE 2000, Vol. 122 265

Fig. 4 A numerical pressure-prole for the n th piston exhibiting essentially no overshoot or undershoot in the transition regions

Fig. 6 Idealized ow ripple

and the fact that it has been used conventionally for uid-power research in the past. No one would object if a better model were presented; however, to date, Eq. 21 is the best model that we have for the research that is typical of this paper. Figure 4 shows a typical numerical result of Eq. 21 as n goes from /2 to 5/2 one pump revolution. Note: both pressure, P n , and port area, A o n , are plotted in this gure. As shown in Fig. 4, the typical numerical solution to Eq. 21 demonstrates rather uninteresting behavior for the pressure, P n . As the piston bore passes over either the intake port or the discharge port of the valve plate, the port area, A o n , remains at a maximum constant. Within these regions, the pressure within the n th piston-bore also appears to remain fairly constant i.e., P n P t or P d . The two ports on the valve plate are bridged by transition regions where A o n goes from a maximum value to a minimum value, slowly grows within the transition slot, and then quickly returns to the original maximum value. As the n th piston-bore passes over the transition regions, the pressure changes almost linearly from one port pressure to the other. Actual measured-data has shown these same basic trends 1. Figure 5 shows another result of this study where the pressure drop between ports has been reduced. Figure 5 represents a run using one sixth of the discharge pressure of Fig. 4. From Fig. 5 it can be seen that a lower pressure drop between ports tends to create pressure spikes within the transition regions of the valve plate. This phenomenon is strictly a result of the volumetric compression and expansion within the chamber. In the rst case, the chamber volume decreases at a rate faster than the uid can squeeze out through the port. If the boundary pressure is not sufciently large compared to the starting pressure, volumetric compression of the uid will cause the pressure within the piston bore to overshoot the approaching boundary condition. In the second case, the chamber volume increases at a rate faster than the uid

can enter the piston bore. If the boundary pressure is not sufciently small compared to the starting pressure, the pressure within the piston bore will undershoot the approaching boundary pressure. In either case, the pressure relaxes itself back to the appropriate boundary condition once sufcient ow is permitted by an increase in discharge or intake area.

Results
Ideal Pump Flow. The results of Eqs. 11 and 12 are shown in Fig. 6 for a nine-piston, an eight-piston, and a sevenpiston design. Figure 7 shows an FFT of Eqs. 11 and 12 for a nine-piston, an eight-piston, and a seven-piston design. Note: the frequency shown in Fig. 7 has been normalized by the piston pass frequency of each design. The piston pass frequency is given by f N , 2 (22)

where N is the total number of pistons within the pump and is the rotational speed of the pump. Figure 8 shows the results of Eqs. 13 and 15 multiplied by 100 to yield the pulse height as a percentage of the nominal pump ow. Actual Pump Flow. Figure 9 shows the numerical results of Eq. 18 for a nine-piston, an eight-piston, and a seven-piston pump operating at an angular speed 235 rad/s, a discharge pressure P d 20 MPa, and an intake pressure P i 2 MPa. Figure 10 shows an FFT of these results with the frequency normalized by the piston pass frequency which is given in Eq. 22. Each pump with nine, eight, and seven pistons, respectively was designed to displace 250 cm3/rev and the valve-plate design was essentially the same in each case. The design parameters for each pump are given as follows:

Fig. 5 A numerical pressure-prole for the n th piston exhibiting overshoot and undershoot in the transition regions

Fig. 7 FFT result of the idealized ow ripple

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Fig. 8 Pulse height as a percentage of the nominal ow Fig. 9 Actual ow ripple

Description Piston pitch radius Piston area Nominal chamber volume Swash-plate angle

Symbol r Ap Vo

9 Pistons 5.982 7.144 17.46 0.314

8 Pistons 5.752 8.362 19.81 0.314

7 Pistons 5.501 9.987 22.85 0.314

Units cm cm2 cm3 rad

Discussion
Even Versus Odd. From the idealized results, which are shown in Fig. 8, one may generally conclude that a pump with an even number of pistons produces a signicantly larger ow ripple than a pump which is designed with an odd number of pistons. From the idealized analysis this result may physically be explained by recognizing that pumps with an even number of pistons occasionally have two pistons that are instantaneously and simultaneously located at top and bottom dead center. When the pistons are located in this position they produce no ow and only half the number of even pistons minus two are contributing to the net output ow. On the other hand, an odd numbered piston design does not exhibit such a drastic variation in ow since there are never two pistons that become simultaneously disabled at any one rotational position of the pump. To illustrate this idea, consider the eight-piston design. In the design process for this pump the engineer has counted on having an average of four pistons to generate the discharge ow. This average actually occurs once in a while; however, at certain instances in the rotational position of the pump only two pistons are actually contributing to the ow. This is an instantaneous 50 percent reduction in the ow contributing elements! Now consider the nine-piston design. In this design the designer has counted on having an average of 4.5 pistons to generate the discharge ow. It can be shown, however, that a minimum of four pistons are always contributing to the ow and occasionally there are ve pistons which contribute to the ow. At the most, for a nine-piston design, there is an instantaneous 11 percent reduction in the ow contributing elements when only four pistons are positioned over the discharge port. By examining Fig. 6, which describes the idealized ow ripple for each pump that has been considered in this study, one may readily conclude that the eight-piston pump is a less attractive design since the height of the ow ripple is higher than that of the nine- and seven-piston pump designs. On the other hand, Fig. 9 shows the actual ow ripple for each pump and from this gure the differences in the ow ripple characteristics between the even and odd numbered piston pump designs does not appear to be so great. Qualitatively speaking, the frequency of each pulse shape is the same and the amplitude of each pulse shape is similar. Though the FFT results of the actual ow analysis see Fig. 10 show Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control

stronger differences than the traces of Fig. 9, it may be possible that the qualitative differences between all three designs are not readily discernable on the test stand and for this reason Jun and Yi 3 have concluded that a pump design using an even number of pistons may be as feasible as an odd-numbered piston design from a ow ripple point of view. Compressibility Effects. While the idealized ow analysis did not consider the compressibility of the uid, the numerical investigations conducted in this research showed that considerable ow variations occur due to the instantaneous compressibility effects that are present during the piston transition as it moves from the intake port into the discharge port. The large dip in the discharge ow that is repeatedly shown in Fig. 9 for all three pump designs is a result of the backlling of each piston is it moves from the intake port into the discharge port. This backlling results from the pressure drop between the pressurized discharge port and the un-pressurized piston chamber which causes an instantaneous negative value of Eq. 17. By ignoring the leakage, and recognizing that the time-rate of change of the chamber volume is small near the pressure transition zone, Eq. 19 may be used to solve for the volumetric ow rate out of the piston in this position as

Fig. 10 FFT results of the actual ow ripple

JUNE 2000, Vol. 122 267

Q n

P V , n

(23)

where P is the pressure drop across the pump and is the angular distance over which the pressure transition occurs. The negative sign in Eq. 23 illustrates the backlling nature of this ow. From Eq. 23, one can see that the primary design change that reduces the backll phenomenon is a reduction in the chamber volume, V n . From Eq. 2 it may be shown that a reduction in this volume may primarily be accomplished by reducing the nominal volume, V o , which is usually minimized by using pistons that are either capped or lled with a light weight incompressible material. In other words, the hollow pistons shown in Fig. 1 are seldom used unless the ow performance of the machine is not a critical design factor. One should note that the results of Fig. 9 were produced for designs that utilized a capped piston. Figure 9 shows a small spike in the discharge ow that immediately follows the backlling phenomenon which is associated with the large dip. This small spike is present for all three pump designs and is a physical result of the volumetric compression of the uid as it is being pushed through the valve-plate transition slot. The spike occurs at the end of the pressure transition after the backlling of the chamber has been completed and is an indication of the pressure spike that results inside the piston chamber which is shown in Fig. 5. To reduce this effect one must design a valve plate that does not restrict the ow after the backlling has been completed and in practice this is a very difcult thing to do for a machine that must operate over a wide range of pressures, speeds, and swash-plate angles. Frequency Considerations. The idealized ow analysis predicts that the harmonic frequencies of the discharge ow ripple for a pump with an odd number of pistons are equal to even multiples of the piston pass frequency. On the other hand, the idealized ow analysis predicts that the harmonic frequencies of the discharge ow ripple for a pump with an even number of pistons are equal to even and odd multiples of the piston pass frequency. See the FFT results of Fig. 7. As opposed to these results, the actual ow analysis which considers the compressibility of the uid, shows that the harmonic frequencies of the discharge ow ripple occur at even and odd multiples of the piston pass frequency for both even and odd numbered piston designs. See the FFT results of Fig. 10. This means that the idealized ow analysis has neglected to consider the harmonic behavior of the ow pulse associated with uid compression which occurs as the pistons make a transition from the intake port to the discharge port of the pump. In summary, Fig. 10 shows that harmonic frequencies of the ow pulse occur at all multiples of the piston pass frequency for pumps that are designed with both an even and an odd number of pistons.

uid volume of the piston chamber be reduced by using either lled or capped pistons. This study has also used the actual ow analysis to show that the harmonic frequencies of the ow ripple are equal to integer multiples of the piston pass frequency for pumps that are designed with both an even and odd number of pistons. This result is shown to be in contrast to the idealized ow analysis which predicts harmonic frequencies that are restricted to even multiples of the piston pass frequency for pumps that are designed with an odd number of pistons. From a qualitative standpoint, it has also been shown that the difference in actual ow ripple characteristics between the nine, eight, and seven-piston designs are not tremendously great see Fig. 9 and for this reason it may be feasible to use an even numbered piston design from a ow ripple point of view.

Nomenclature
A o n cross-sectional ow discharge area for the n th piston chamber A p pressurized area of a single piston C d ow discharge coefcient N total number of pistons in the pump even or odd N e total number of pistons in an even numbered piston pump N o total number of pistons in an odd numbered piston pump n total number of piston located over the discharge port P d pump discharge pressure P i pump intake pressure P n pressure in the n th piston chamber Q instantaneous discharge ow of the pump Q leakn volumetric leakage from the n th piston chamber Q n volumetric ow out of the n th piston chamber nominal discharge ow of the pump Q normalized discharge ow of the pump Q absolute normalized height of the ow pulse Q r piston pitch radius T period of the ow pulse width t time V n instantaneous volume of the n th piston chamber V o nominal volume of a single piston chamber swash-plate angle uid bulk modulus K leakage coefcient uid density n circular position of the n th piston chamber angular speed of the pump

Conclusion
From the results of this research it can be concluded that there are signicant differences between the idealized analysis that has been traditionally used to predict the ow ripple of the pump and the numerical analysis which considers the compressibility of the uid. In general it is shown that the amplitude of the actual ow ripple is increased by the backlling of the pistons as they make a transition from the intake port to the discharge port. To reduce the backlling phenomenon it has been suggested that the nominal

References
1 Bolinger, J. W., 1982, Considerations for Hydrostatic System Noise Control, SAE International Off-Highway Meeting and Exposition, Milwaukee, WI. pp. 2941. 2 Thoma, J., 1964, Hydrostatic Power Transmission, Morden, Surrey, England, Trade and Technical Press. 3 Jun, Z., and Yi, W., 1985, Research for pressure and ow pulsating characteristic of swash plate axial piston pump with even pistons, ICFP Symposium, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, pp. 325327. 4 Cooper, W., and G. P. Hampton, 1893, Rotary Reciprocating Pump, US Patent No. 511,044.

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