Original Article

Proc IMechE Part I:

J Systems and Control Engineering
2014, Vol. 228(4) 221–232
Design and experimental study of oil- Ó IMechE 2013
Reprints and permissions:
based pressure-compensated sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0959651813514219

underwater hydraulic system pii.sagepub.com

Feng Wang1,2 and Ying Chen1

Abstract
An oil-based pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic system is designed and tested in this article. The underwater
hydraulic system is equipped with a pressure compensator so that the tank pressure is always balanced with the ambient
pressure. The system pressure is thus built on the ambient pressure. In this way, the underwater hydraulic system can
work at any water depth. The steady-state characteristics of a spring-loaded pressure compensator are studied. The
pressure compensator, underwater hydraulic power unit and the underwater valve control unit are designed and built.
The whole underwater hydraulic system is tested in a high-pressure water simulator with lighting and video system in it.
Results show that the underwater hydraulic cylinder can be driven properly under high water pressure, which demon-
strates the effectiveness of the pressure compensation in the underwater hydraulic system.

Keywords
Underwater hydraulic system, pressure compensator, water pressure, spring loaded, rolling diaphragm

Date received: 10 January 2013; accepted: 29 October 2013

Introduction
Ocean exploration has become more desirable for
human beings as there are numerous mineral and
energy resources in the ocean. Modern underwater
technologies provide powerful tools for ocean explora-
tion.1 Large amount of underwater equipments are
developed to meet the rapidly increasing demands of
ocean investigation and exploitation.2 Drive technolo-
gies are of great importance in these underwater equip-
ments as they are exposed to the environment with
high ambient pressure and strong current.3–8 Among
all these drive technologies, fluid power drive shows
great advantages in the underwater application. High
power density makes hydraulic systems more compact
and light, providing particular benefits as the weight
and size of the equipments are crucial in the water.9
Large weight and size not only limit the mobility of
underwater vehicles such as remotely operated vehicles
(ROVs), but also increase the launch and retraction dif-
ficulty. Moreover, it can greatly simplify the drive sys-
tems in those equipments with multiple actuators such
as underwater trenchers and cable plows, since a single
hydraulic power unit can power multiple actuators
at the same time. Other advantages such as high force
or torque, quick and smooth response, continuous
variable ratio, wide speed range and easy overload pro-
tection further broaden their applications in the under-
water equipments.10,11
Based on different working mediums, underwater
hydraulic systems are classified into two types: oil
based and water based.12 In a water-based underwater
hydraulic system, the working medium is water or sea-
water. In such a system, the pump intakes water from
ambient directly and the return water is discharged to
ambient. There is no tank in the system.13–15 As the
pump inlet is open to ambient directly, the ‘‘tank’’ pres-
sure is automatically balanced with the ambient pres-
sure. Therefore, the system can work at any water
depth.
There are some advantages of using water as
medium in the underwater hydraulic system, such as
1
State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
2
Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Corresponding author:
Feng Wang, Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Email: wang2148@umn.edu, dieter@zju.edu.cn
222 Proc IMechE Part I: J Systems and Control Engineering 228(4)

simple system structure and low-power losses due to simple theoretical study on the compensator parameter
low water viscosity.16 However, the low viscosity limits design and give a practical engineering reference to the
the maximum component pressure due to large leak- design of a pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic
age.17 The low viscosity also brings challenges to com- system.
ponent design. To reduce leakage, the gap clearance
among the moving parts needs to be reduced.18–20
However, small gap clearance changes lubrication con- Pressure compensator
ditions among the moving parts, causing serious wear Compensator type
problems.21–23 In the case of seawater, the component
design is more challenging since seawater corrosion to The schematic diaphragm of a pressure-compensated
material is a big issue.24,25 Moreover, the water to the underwater hydraulic system is shown in Figure 1.
pump inlet needs to be filtered. The biological contami- There are two types of pressure compensators in an
nation should be considered in the long term since the underwater hydraulic system: static and dynamic pres-
microorganisms may deposit on the pump inlet filter sure compensators. A static compensator is to compen-
and block it.26 These technical issues such as large leak- sate the pressure of chamber with fixed oil volume such
age, poor lubrication, wash out due to high fluid velo- as the closed container for control valves. A dynamic
city and biological contamination need to be properly compensator is to compensate the pressure of chamber
addressed.27,28 with variable oil volume such as the closed tank where
The oil-based underwater hydraulic system uses the hydraulic power unit is immersed.
mineral oil as the working medium. As the system A static pressure compensator is used to balance the
works in the water, it needs to be designed as a closed inner and outer pressures of closed containers such as
system. Depending on different working principles, control valve container. To function properly in the
there are two types: self-powered and pressure- water, the control valves are set inside in a closed con-
compensated underwater hydraulic systems. The self- tainer filled with oil. With a static compensator, the
powered underwater hydraulic system does not require
electric power supply and the hydraulic power is gener-
ated from the water pressure directly. There is an elas-
tic container and an empty pressure container in the
system. The elastic container is filled with oil and is
pressurized by the water pressure. The hydraulic power
is generated under the differential pressure between the
pressurized oil and the empty pressure container.
Hydraulic actuators can be directly driven under this
differential pressure.29 However, due to the size limita-
tion of the elastic and pressure containers, the system
operation time is limited. Therefore, the system is more
suitable for those equipments with few operations in
the absence of electric power supply.
The other type is the pressure-compensated under-
water hydraulic system, which is similar to conventional
hydraulic systems except that the system is equipped
with a pressure compensator. With a pressure compen-
sator, the tank pressure is balanced with the ambient
pressure all the time. The system pressure is then built
on the baseline pressure—water pressure. In this way,
the system can work at any water depth. There are
some advantages of using pressure compensator in the
underwater hydraulic systems. Commercially avail-
able hydraulic components can be directly used in the
system, and there is no need of designing water
hydraulic components, eliminating the technology
risk of developing new components. Furthermore,
most off-the-shelf drive and control technologies and
energy saving strategies in conventional hydraulic sys-
tems can be used in the underwater hydraulic systems Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a pressure-compensated
directly. underwater hydraulic system.
1: suction filter; 2: pump; 3: relief valve; 4: check valve; 5: directional
The contribution of this article is to provide a sys- control valve; 6: underwater hydraulic cylinder; 7: flow control valve; 8:
tematic approach to the design of an oil-based pressure- return filter; 9: closed tank; 10: dynamic pressure compensator; 11:
compensated underwater hydraulic system, conduct a closed valve container; 12: static pressure compensator.
Wang and Chen
Figure 2. A spring-loaded pressure compensator with rolling
diaphragm.
closed container is pressure-balanced, eliminating the
use of large and bulky pressure container.
A dynamic pressure compensator is used to balance
the tank pressure with the ambient pressure. In the
underwater hydraulic system, the hydraulic cylinder is
exposed to water directly. To overcome the water pres-
sure force on the rod, the system pressure needs to be
compensated. With a dynamic compensator, the tank
pressure is balanced with the ambient pressure and the
system pressure is built on the baseline pressure—water
pressure. The absolute system pressure in the under-
water hydraulic system is the sum of water pressure
and pump differential pressure.
Due to different functions, the requirements for sta-
tic and dynamic pressure compensators are not the
same. The dynamic compensator requires a quick
response to oil volume change in the tank while the static
compensator does not have such a requirement. The
dynamic compensator has all functions of a static com-
pensator. The dynamic compensator is filled with the
same oil as the underwater hydraulic system while the sta-
tic compensator can be filled with other types of fluids
such as transformer oil. This is also the reason why the
two compensators are set separately in the system.
Compensator structure
Despite of different structures, one common feature of
pressure compensators is that they all have elastic ele-
ments. A spring-loaded pressure compensator with roll-
ing diaphragm is shown in Figure 2. It consists of
piston, rolling diaphragm, spring and indicator. The
rolling diaphragm divides the compensator into two
chambers. The oil chamber is connected to closed tank
while the water chamber is exposed to water.
In the pressure compensator, the rolling diaphragm
not only serves as the sealing element, but also as the
pressure-sensing element. The rolling diaphragm is
installed on the piston through its top surface so it can
move along with the piston. As the piston moves, the
223
rolling diaphragm rolls instead of sliding on the wall,
resulting in very low friction. The gap between the pis-
ton and the wall provides enough rolling space. As the
rolling diaphragm is made of rubber, the sealing
between two chambers can be easily achieved. To pre-
vent water intrusion, a spring is set in the water cham-
ber so that the tank pressure is slightly higher than the
ambient pressure.
Most commercially available pressure compensators
nowadays use rolling diaphragms as the elastic ele-
ments. There are some exclusive advantages of using
rolling diaphragm in a pressure compensator. First, it
has a long stroke. It can move toward both directions
from its neutral plane, and the stroke in each direction
is 70% of its height, which means it allows for larger
volume change than other types of compensators.
Second, the constant and low deformation resistance
and friction allow for quick response to oil volume
change. Other advantages such as reliable sealing, no
need for lubrication, automatic self-centering and low
sensitivity to surface roughness make it suitable for the
pressure compensator.
Compensator volume
As discussed previously, the static compensator is used
to compensate the pressure of chamber with fixed oil
volume, such as a control valve container. The dynamic
compensator is used to compensate the pressure of
chamber with variable oil volume, such as a closed
tank. To compensate the pressure of chamber with
fixed or variable oil volume, the compensator needs to
provide the oil volume change quickly. In a static com-
pensator for a control valve container, the oil volume
change is due to the oil compressibility. In a dynamic
compensator for a closed tank, the oil volume change
is due to the actuation of single-rod cylinders and the
oil compressibility.
The continuous flow equation of a closed oil cham-
ber is
Vc dp
Q = Qin  Qout = ð1Þ
Eh dt
where Qin , Qout and Q are the input, output and net
flow rate to the chamber, respectively; Vc is the cham-
ber volume; Eh is the bulk modulus of the oil and p is
the chamber oil pressure.
Equation (1) shows how the chamber oil pressure
changes with the net flow rate to the chamber. The net
flow rate to the chamber is expressed as
dV
Q= ð2Þ
dt
where V is the oil volume in the chamber.
Substituting equation (2) into equation (1)
dV Vc dp
= ð3Þ
dt Eh dt
224 Proc IMechE Part I: J Systems and Control Engineering 228(4)

The differential form of equation (3) is

Vc
DV = Dp ð4Þ
Eh

where DV is the volume of oil flows into the chamber

and Dp is the chamber pressure change.
Equation (4) shows the oil volume change due to the
chamber pressure change. For a static pressure com-
pensator, the oil volume that the compensator needs to
provide, Vs , is

Vs = DV ð5Þ

In equation (4), Dp is the chamber pressure change

when the compensator is taken from atmosphere to
water, which is the water pressure. The oil volume
change can be determined once the system working
depth and the chamber volume are known.
Assuming a control valve container has a chamber
volume of 3 L, the system works at the water depth of
Figure 3. Mathematical model of a spring-loaded pressure
6000 m (water pressure of 600 bar), and the oil bulk
compensator with rolling diaphragm.
modulus is 11,000 bar; the oil volume change due to oil
compressibility is 164 mL. If there are some bubbles in
the oil, the oil bulk modulus is lower, resulting in a
larger oil volume change. The calculated oil volume
change can be used to determine the size of the static Steady-state characteristics
compensator. The mathematical model of a spring-loaded pressure
The dynamic compensator needs to provide the oil compensator with rolling diaphragm is shown in
volume change caused by the actuation of single-rod Figure 3. As discussed previously, the deformation
cylinders and the oil compressibility. In a pressure- resistance of the rolling diaphragm is low and can be
compensated underwater hydraulic system, the pump ignored compared to the spring force. The steady-
intakes oil from the tank and the discharged oil from state equation of the piston assembly is
valves and actuators flows back to the tank. Due to dif-
ferent action areas of single-rod cylinder, the input and pc Ae + mc g  pa Ae  ks ðx0 + xc Þ = 0 ð7Þ
output flows of the tank are not equal. The dynamic
compensator needs to accommodate this oil volume where pc is the steady-state compensator pressure,
change; otherwise, the tank pressure cannot be Ae = p((Dp + Dc )=4)2 is the effective action area of the
balanced with the water pressure. piston assembly, Dp is the piston diameter, Dc is the
The oil volume that a dynamic pressure compensator cylinder diameter, mc is the total mass of the piston
needs to provide, Vd , is assembly, pa is the ambient pressure, ks is the spring
stiffness, x0 is the spring precompression when the pis-
X
n ton is at the neutral plane and xc is the piston displace-
Vd = DV + DAi Li ð6Þ ment from the neutral plane.
i=1 The effective action area of the piston assembly is
determined by the piston diameter, cylinder diameter
where n is the numbers of cylinders, DAi is the differen-
and the gap clearance. The effective action area calcula-
tial piston area of cylinder i and Li is the piston stroke
tion follows the design formulas from the rolling dia-
of cylinder i.
phragm manufacturers.
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi The effective piston diameter,
Since the tank oil volume may increase or decrease
De = 4Ae =p, is then calculated from this effective
due to the actuation of single-rod cylinder and is hard
action area.
to predict, it is reasonable to set the initial piston posi-
The differential pressure between the steady-state
tion at the neutral plane of the rolling diaphragm so
compensator pressure and the ambient pressure, Dpc , is
that the dynamic compensator can have the same com-
pensation volume on both sides. The maximum tank ks ðx0 + xc Þ  mc g
oil volume change occurs at the time when all of the Dpc = pc  pa = ð8Þ
Ae
pistons extend or retract together. In the dynamic com-
pensator design, it is suggested to assume the worst sys- The differential pressure shown in equation (8) is the
tem situation so that the compensator design can be relative compensator pressure to the ambient pressure.
applicable for all operation conditions. In the compensator design, the piston is designed to be
Wang and Chen 225

4 Equation (8) shows that the compensator pressure is

x 10
proportional to the spring stiffness and the piston dis-
Compensator pressure (pa)

12 ks=1917 N/m placement, while inversely proportional to the effective

ks=2876 N/m
10 action area of the piston assembly. The compensator
8 pressure changes with the piston movement. The piston
movement is limited by the stroke of the rolling
6
diaphragm
4
 h s  xc  h s ð9Þ
2

0 where hs is the stroke of the rolling diaphragm in each

-0.12 -0.08 -0.04 0 0.04 0.08 0.12
Piston displacement (m)
direction.
The maximum and minimum compensator pres-
Figure 4. Compensator pressure changes with piston sures, Dpcmax and Dpcmin , are obtained at the extreme
movement at different spring stiffness (De = 118 mm, mc = 4.3 piston positions
kg and x0 = 0.36 m).
ks ðx0 + hs Þ  mc g
Dpcmax = ð10Þ
Ae
4
x 10 ks ðx0  hs Þ  mc g
16 Dpcmin = ð11Þ
Compensator pressure (pa)

De=118 mm
Ae
De=88 mm
12 Some underwater equipment manufacturers, such
as Schilling Robotics, Sub-Atlantic, Perry Slingsby
8 Systems and Soil Machine Dynamics, have their com-
pensators operating pressure ranging from 0.21 to 0.69
4
bar above ambient pressure. For the system working at
the water depth of 3000 m, a pressure sensor with 300
bar range is required to measure the absolute compen-
0
-0.12 -0.08 -0.04 0 0.04 0.08 0.12 sator and tank pressure. However, it is difficult to mea-
Piston displacement (m) sure the low relative compensator pressure with such a
large range pressure sensor. To measure this low rela-
Figure 5. Compensator pressure changes with piston tive compensator pressure accurately, it is recom-
movement at different effective action areas (mc = 4.3 kg, ks =
mended that the system works in a low ambient
1917 N/m and x0 = 0.36 m).
pressure, for instance, in the air. In this way, a pressure
sensor with small range of several bars and normal res-
olution is adequate to sense this low relative compensa-
4
x 10 tor pressure.
12
Compensator pressure (pa)

x0=0.36 m
As shown in equation (8), the compensator pressure
10 x0=0.48 m changes with the piston movement. Sensitivity studies
8
are conducted to show how the compensator pressure
changes with the piston movement under different com-
6 pensator parameters. These parameters are spring stiff-
4 ness, effective piston area and spring precompression.
The compensator pressure changes with the piston
2
movement at different spring stiffness, effective piston
0 areas and spring precompressions are shown in Figures
-0.12 -0.08 -0.04 0 0.04 0.08 0.12
Piston displacement (m) 4–6, respectively. It is shown that the compensator pres-
sure increases with the piston displacement at different
Figure 6. Compensator pressure changes with piston parameters. However, the slope of the curve changes
movement at different spring precompressions (De = 118 mm, with different parameters. A large curve slope indicates
mc = 4.3 kg and ks = 1917 N/m). that the compensator pressure is more sensitive to the
piston movement. Results show that the compensator
pressure is less sensitive to the piston movement with
as light as possible so that the force due to piston mass smaller spring stiffness and larger effective piston area.
is ignorable compared to the spring force. Therefore, In the compensator design, it is expected that the com-
the compensator pressure is always higher than the pensator pressure change due to the piston movement is
ambient pressure. This positive relative pressure to the as small as possible, which requires a smaller spring
ambient pressure makes the leakage always be from stiffness and a larger effective piston area.
inside to outside, avoiding the water intrusion to the In a pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic
hydraulic system effectively. system, the tank oil volume changes due to the
226
Figure 7. Schematic diagram of a pressure-compensated
underwater hydraulic power unit.
1: submersible motor; 2: pump; 3: suction filter; 4: high-pressure filter; 5:
relief valve; 6: system pressure sensor; 7: check valve; 8: closed tank; 9
dynamic pressure compensator; 10. piston position sensor; 11. tank
pressure sensor; 12: return port quick connector; 13. charge port quick
connector.
actuation of single-rod cylinders. To compensate the
tank pressure, the dynamic compensator needs to pro-
vide the oil volume change in the tank timely. If the
actuation of single-rod cylinder is fast and the compen-
sator cannot provide the tank oil volume change
quickly, the tank pressure may change considerably.
This requires a comprehensive analysis on the dynamic
characteristics of the pressure compensator, and more
details can be found in the literature.30
Pressure-compensated underwater
hydraulic system
Underwater hydraulic power unit
In the underwater hydraulic system, as shown in
Figure 1, the hydraulic power unit, consisting of pump,
Figure 8. Prototype of a pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic power unit (UHPU).
Proc IMechE Part I: J Systems and Control Engineering 228(4)
valves and filter, is set inside a closed tank. The tank
pressure is compensated by a dynamic compensator.
The compensator can be connected to the tank through
pipeline or hose. However, the fluid inertia and resis-
tance in the pipeline may prevent the compensator hav-
ing a fast response to quick tank oil volume change,
which may change the tank pressure considerably. This
not only influences the system control performance due
to sudden tank pressure change, but also reduces sys-
tem reliability as high tank pressure may break the roll-
ing diaphragm. Therefore, it is highly recommended to
have the dynamic compensator directly integrated into
the closed tank.
The schematic diagram of a pressure-compensated
underwater hydraulic power unit (UHPU) is shown in
Figure 7. Except for the submersible electric motor, the
pump, valves and sensors are submerged in the closed
tank, as shown in the dashed box. The dynamic com-
pensator is integrated within the tank. Two pressure
sensors are set to measure the system pressure and the
tank pressure. A position sensor is set in the tank to
measure the compensator volume.
As the compensator needs to be charged before
use, a hydraulic quick connector is set at the charge
port. The charge pressure is measured by the tank
pressure sensor. There is another hydraulic quick con-
nector set at the system return port for easy connec-
tion since there is charge pressure in the tank. The
submersible electric motor is also a pressure-
compensated design, with oil filled inside and a mem-
brane set in the motor. It is essentially a static pres-
sure compensator using a membrane as the elastic
element. With a submersible electric connector on the
motor case, the electric motor is powered through a
cable. A prototype of the pressure-compensated
UHPU is built and shown in Figure 8.
Wang and Chen
Figure 9. Hydraulic schematic representation of a six-function underwater hydraulic valve pack.
1: directional control valve; 2: hydraulic lock; 3: pressure relief valve; 4: flow control valve; 5: solenoid on–off valve; 6: high-pressure filter; 7. check
valve.
Underwater hydraulic valve pack
The hydraulic schematic representation of a six-
function underwater hydraulic valve pack is shown in
Figure 9. It is a general modular-function valve pack,
which provides control of six hydraulic solenoid valves.
All six functions incorporate metering valves for adjust-
ing flow through the A and B control ports and pilot-
operated check (lock) valves to prevent actuators from
moving when the hydraulic pressures are removed. In
each function, pressure relief valves are set to protect
the control ports from over-pressurization. A high-
pressure filter is set at the inlet of the valve pack to pre-
vent contamination. A solenoid on–off valve is set in
the common rail to enable or disable the whole valve
pack. The actuator speeds can be adjusted through
metering valves in the return line.
In a pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic
system, the system pressure is built upon the water pres-
sure. The absolute system pressure is sum of the water
pressure and the pump pressure, which is usually higher
than the rated pressure of conventional valves. To use
conventional valves in the underwater hydraulic sys-
tem, the valve ambient pressure needs to be balanced
with the water pressure. A static pressure compensator
is required to achieve this. The control valves are set in
a closed oil chamber, and the chamber oil pressure is
compensated by the compensator. The chamber oil vol-
ume does not change and the static compensator only
needs to provide the oil volume change due to the oil
compressibility.
A six-function underwater hydraulic valve pack is
built and shown in Figure 10. The underwater hydrau-
lic valve pack is similar to conventional valve pack
227
except that it has a cover on the valve manifold. The
control valves are set in the closed oil chamber between
the valve manifold and the cover. Since the chamber oil
pressure is compensated by the compensator, the cover
does not need to be pressure resistant, eliminating the
use of bulky pressure container. As the valve manifold
and the cover are exposed to water or seawater, the
material for the valve manifold and the cover needs to
be corrosion resistant. A typical material for the under-
water valve pack and the cover is aluminum, which
makes the whole valve pack much lighter. This is
advantageous for the underwater equipments.
Underwater hydraulic actuator
With proper anticorrosion material or surface treat-
ment, conventional hydraulic actuators can be used in
the underwater hydraulic system. A typical anticorro-
sion material in the underwater applications, stainless
steel, can be used to make a piston rod in a hydraulic
cylinder or a rotating shaft in a hydraulic motor. As
for the shell of the cylinder or the hydraulic motor, a
surface anticorrosion treatment is recommended such
as metal spraying.
As discussed previously, the underwater hydraulic
system with a dynamic compensator can work at any
water depth since the tank pressure is balanced with
the water pressure all the time. The pressures in the sys-
tem are thus built from the baseline pressure—water
pressure. For the single-rod hydraulic cylinder shown
in Figure 1, both the left and right chamber pressures
of the piston are increased due to the increased tank
pressure. A ‘‘redundant’’ hydraulic force due to the
228
Figure 10. Six-function underwater hydraulic valve pack.
increased piston chamber pressures and the asymmetric
piston action areas is generated. This ‘‘redundant’’
hydraulic force is balanced with the water pressure
force acting on the piston. Therefore, the piston
dynamics are not influenced by the tank pressure com-
pensation. This can be best explained by the following
equation
½(p1 + p0 )A1  (p2 + p0 )A2   p0 (A1  A2 ) = p1 A1  p2 A2
ð12Þ
where p1 and p2 are the left and right chamber pres-
sures of the piston when the cylinder works on the
ground; p0 is the water pressure; p1 + p0 and p2 + p0
are the left and right chamber pressures of the piston
when the cylinder works in the water, respectively, and
A1 and A2 are the left and right action areas of the pis-
ton, respectively.
In equation (12), the items in the bracket are the
hydraulic force acting on the piston, and the last item
on the left is the water pressure force on the piston. As
for the underwater hydraulic motor, both the inlet and
outlet pressures of the motor are increased due to the
increased tank pressure. Since the motor shaft torque is
proportional to the differential pressure between the
inlet and outlet pressures, the shaft torque is the same
as that on the ground. With the pressure compensation,
the parameter design of underwater hydraulic actuators
is the same as the conventional hydraulic actuators.
Most off-the-shelf drive and control technologies and
energy saving strategies in conventional hydraulic sys-
tems can be applied to underwater hydraulic systems
directly.
Experimental study
Test setup
A prototype of pressure-compensated underwater
hydraulic system is built and tested in the laboratory.
To simulate high-pressure water environment, the
whole system is tested in a high-pressure underwater
Proc IMechE Part I: J Systems and Control Engineering 228(4)
simulator, which is a high-pressure container with inner
diameter of 0.7 m and depth of 1.5 m. It can endure the
water pressure up to 600 bar, which is the water pres-
sure at the depth of 6000 m. Although the water has a
high bulk modulus, it is still compressible. High water
pressure is achieved by pressurizing the water chamber
in the simulator with a high-pressure water pump. The
pump only needs to provide the water volume change
due to compressibility of the water. Due to large water
volume in the simulator, it takes about 1 h for the
water pump to pressurize the water to 600 bar.
The underwater hydraulic system under test consists
of an UHPU, a six-function underwater hydraulic valve
pack and a single-rod cylinder. A dynamic pressure
compensator is integrated into the tank of the hydraulic
power unit. The underwater valve pack is compensated
by a static pressure compensator. To observe the actua-
tion of the cylinder under the high water pressure, an
underwater video system including a light and a camera
is set in the simulator. The underwater light and camera
can work at the water depth up to 6000 m. The submer-
sible electric motor is powered by an electric power sup-
ply outside the simulator. All the sensor power supplies,
sensor signals and control signals are routed through an
underwater router. The data acquisition (DAQ) system,
video server and the control system are set outside the
simulator. The test schematic representation of the
pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic system is
shown in Figure 11. Main parameters of the underwater
hydraulic system are shown in Table 1. The test setup
of the pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic sys-
tem is shown in Figure 12.
Test results
Before the pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic
system is tested in the high water pressure, two check
procedures are made: on-ground check and underwater
check (without high water pressure). On-ground check
is conducted before the system is put into the under-
water simulator, which includes powering the electric
Wang and Chen 229

Figure 11. Test schematic representation of the pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic system.
DAQ: data acquisition.

Figure 12. Test setup of the pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic system.

motor, underwater light and camera and the data check that the static compensator has enough compen-
acquisition system, actuating the hydraulic cylinder sation volume and the piston in the dynamic compen-
and monitoring signals from sensors. It is important to sator is at the right position. Since the tank oil volume
230 Proc IMechE Part I: J Systems and Control Engineering 228(4)

Table 1. Main parameters of the pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic system.

Name Parameter Value Unit

Submersible motor (pressure compensated) Rated power 1.5 kW

Rated speed 1460 r/min
Phase number 3 –
Frequency 50 Hz
Underwater hydraulic power unit (with dynamic Pump displacement (gear type) 6.0 cc/rev
pressure compensator) Maximum tank volume 3.6 L
Pressure sensor range 700 bar
Position sensor range (cable extension type) 500 mm
Dynamic/static pressure compensator (spring Effective diameter of rolling diaphragm 118 mm
loaded with rolling diaphragm) Spring stiffness 1.917 N/mm
Spring precompression force 690 N
Total mass of piston assembly 4.3 kg
Stroke of rolling diaphragm 6120 mm
Underwater valve pack (rate control, manifold Number of functions 6 –
material: aluminum) Rated pressure 207 bar
Flow capacity in each function 11 L/min
Filtration 10 mm

may increase or decrease due to the actuation of single-
rod cylinder and is hard to predict, it is reasonable to
set the initial piston position at the neutral plane of the
rolling diaphragm. The piston position can be read by
the compensator indicator or piston position sensor.
Check to make sure that there is no observable oil on
the component surface since the oil may diffuse in the
water and influence the visualization. It is also impor-
tant to check the underwater light and camera are set
at the right orientation to give a clear video output.
The system is put into the underwater simulator after
the on-ground check is done. Before pressurizing the
water in the simulator, it is necessary to have an under-
water check. The underwater check follows the similar
procedures as the on-ground check. There are two pur-
poses to have this check: first is to check whether the
electric and electronic systems work well in the water
environment since there are many underwater electrical
connections among different subsystems. Second is to
check whether the video output from underwater cam-
era is clear since the illumination condition and visual
angle in the water are different from those on the
ground. If any problems are found during this stage,
the system needs to be taken out from the simulator
and the above two checks should be repeated. After the
two checks are done without any issues, it is ready to
pressurize the water in the simulator. For safety rea-
sons, it is important to check the system status regularly
during the pressurization process.
The actuations of the single-rod cylinder under the
water pressure of 100, 200 and 300 bar (corresponding
to the water depth of 1000, 2000 and 3000 m) have been
recorded through the underwater video system. To
show how the cylinder is actuated under the high water
pressure, the video snapshots of the cylinder actuation
under the water pressure of 300 bar are shown in Figure
13. The video snapshots are shown in terms of frame
instead of second to give a clear view. The first six frames
(frames 1–6) show the extension of the piston rod and
the last six frames (frames 7–12) show the retraction of
the piston rod. Based on the time information in each
frame, it is shown that the piston extension is faster than
the piston retraction, which is the same situation as that
when the system works on the ground. The asymmetric
actuation is due to the characteristics of the meter-out
hydraulic circuit and the different piston areas in each
direction. The actuation of the underwater hydraulic
cylinder under the high water pressure demonstrated the
effectiveness of the pressure compensation in the under-
water hydraulic system.
Conclusion
An oil-based pressure-compensated underwater hydrau-
lic system is studied in this article. With a pressure com-
pensator integrated into the tank, the tank pressure is
always balanced with the water pressure. The system
pressure is then built from the baseline pressure—water
pressure. In this way, the system can work at any water
depth. In a pressure-compensated underwater hydraulic
system, the tank oil volume changes due to the actuation
of asymmetric actuators such as single-rod cylinders. To
balance the tank pressure with the water pressure, the
pressure compensator needs to provide the oil volume
change caused by the actuation of single-rod cylinders
and also the oil compressibility.
A spring-loaded pressure compensator with rolling
diaphragm is studied. In this compensator, the rolling
diaphragm not only serves as the sealing element, but
also as the pressure sensing element. A spring is set in
the compensator to make the compensator pressure be
slightly higher than water pressure, preventing the
water intrusion to hydraulic system in the case of leak-
age. The steady-state characteristics of the pressure
compensator are studied. The compensator pressure
changes with the piston movement. Sensitivity studies
show that the compensator pressure is less sensitive to
the piston movement with smaller spring stiffness and
Wang and Chen
Figure 13. Video snapshots of the hydraulic cylinder actuation under the water pressure of 300 bar.
larger effective piston area. In the compensator design,
it is expected that the compensator pressure change due
to the piston movement is as small as possible, which
requires a smaller spring stiffness and a larger effective
piston area.
A prototype of pressure-compensated underwater
hydraulic system is built and tested in the laboratory.
To simulate high-pressure water environment, the
underwater hydraulic system is tested in a high-pressure
underwater simulator up to 600 bar with the inner dia-
meter of 0.7 m and the depth of 1.5 m. An underwater
video system including a light and a camera is set in the
simulator to observe the actuation of the hydraulic
cylinder under the high water pressure. The actuations
of the single-rod cylinder under the water pressure of
100, 200 and 300 bar (corresponding to the water depth
of 1000, 2000 and 3000 m) have been recorded through
the underwater video system, and the video snapshots
under the water pressure of 300 bar are shown. The
actuation of the underwater hydraulic cylinder under
the high water pressure demonstrated the effectiveness
of the pressure compensation in the underwater hydrau-
lic system. With the pressure compensation, commer-
cially available hydraulic components can be directly
used in the underwater hydraulic system, and most off-
the-shelf drive and control technologies and energy sav-
ing strategies in conventional hydraulic systems can be
applied to the underwater hydraulic systems directly.
Acknowledgements
The research was conducted in the State Key
Laboratory of Fluid Power Transmission and Control,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
231
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding
This study was supported by the National High-tech
R&D Program of China (863 Program) under grant
2008AA092301.
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