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Cylinder Bore Wear Damage Analysis of a

Heaving-Buoy Wave Energy Converter With
Hydraulic Power Take-Off

Conference Paper · January 2010

DOI: 10.1115/OMAE2010-20164

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 Proceedings of the ASME 2010 29th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering
CYLINDER BORE WEAR DAMAGE ANALYSIS OF A HEAVING-BUOY WAVE
ENERGY CONVERTER WITH HYDRAULIC POWER TAKE-OFF
Limin Yang
Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
limin.yang@ntnu.no
ABSTRACT
Wave energy is a non-polluting and renewable source of
energy. Among several wave energy converters (WEC), an
oscillating body with a hydraulic power take-off (PTO) is
commonly used for energy conversion. For such a hydraulic
system, the piston ring and cylinder play very important roles in
achieving desired energy converting performance and
durability. Among the failure modes of the ring-bore
components, wear is a prevailing one. Compared with the ring
wear, cylinder wear is more important to the manufacturer and
user, because cylinders are more expensive to replace than the
rings. Since the floating body is exposed to irregular incident
waves, the dynamic response of the PTO is also random. The
position of maximum accumulated wear damage along the
cylinder bore cannot be as easily determined as the engine
bores where the maximum wear occurs near the Top Dead
Centre (TDC). It is controlled by the characteristic dynamics of
the system together with the lubrication of the interface which
can be modelled by the well-known Stribeck curve.
The purpose of this paper is to establish and apply a
method for estimating the wear damage along the cylinder bore.
The dynamic response of the WEC system is based on the
nonlinear mathematical model established by Yang et al [1]. A
particular issue in this research is to calculate the dimensionless
film thickness λ (the ratio between the oil film thickness h and
the composite surface roughness σ) in the lubricated contacts
and then determine the lubrication regime according to the
Stribeck curve. Combining the wear coefficient which is related
to the lubrication regime and the contact pressure, the bore
wear damage along the cylinder wall is predicted. In this paper,
the bore wear damage is estimated on the basis of time domain
simulations. The results show that the bore wear distribution is
affected by two main factors: sea state condition and the
nonlinearity of the PTO system. The position of the bore where
the maximum accumulated wear occurs is predicted. Finally,
1 Copyright © 2010 by ASME
OMAE2010
June 6-11, 2010, Shanghai, China
OMAE2010-20164
Torgeir Moan
Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
torgeir.moan@ntnu.no
the relative contribution of wear damage from different sea
states is obtained.
INTRODUCTION
Ocean waves are a huge, largely untapped energy
resource, and the potential for extracting energy from waves is
considerable. Among several possible methods for capturing
wave energy, the use of a heaving body [1, 2, 3], moving
relative to a fixed reference, is considered in this work (see Fig.
1). Since waves impose large forces at slow speeds, hydraulic
system is suitable to absorb energy under this regime. This kind
of hydraulic system is generally known as hydraulic power
take-off and mainly includes a hydraulic cylinder, motor, gas
accumulators, electric generator etc. The hydraulic cylinder
provides the rectilinear motion of the piston and piston rod
assembly. It is obliged to have high levels of reliability and
availability, in order to meet stringent in-service, and operating
requirements. Based on the previous study [4, 5], a major factor
in causing failure for the hydraulic cylinder bore is the wear.
Cylinder repair is generally carried out when the maximum
wear of the internal surface approaches a specified limit, say
Wmax, imposed by warranty clauses. The position of the bore
where the maximum accumulated wear occurs should be
determined based on the dynamic characteristics of the wave
energy converter system and the operating conditions.
Several wear mechanisms, such as adhesion, abrasion,
corrosion, surface fatigue and impact wear, contribute to the
wear in a reciprocating hydraulic system [4, 6]. For the
hydraulic pumps used in the wave energy converter system,
Yang and Moan [7] established an abrasive wear model to
estimate the piston ring wear damage when the floating buoy
exposed to different sea states. The dynamic response of the
wave energy converter system and its effect to both the ring and
bore wear damage was investigated. The results show that the
wear damage can be reduced by using appropriate cylinder size
[8]. The present investigation is a complementary work to the
mentioned bore wear damage study.
Figure 1: Sketch of wave energy converter consisting of
a heaving sphere connected to the hydraulic power take-
off. Hydraulic circuit system includes gas accumulators,
check valves and motor. An electric generator is
connected to the hydraulic circuit system. A detailed
diagram of piston ring and cylinder bore is shown in the
top left of the figure. The bearings are used to restrict the
buoy motion. qA, qB are the flow rate into and out of the
cylinder chambers, PA, PB are the oil pressures of the
chambers, Ap is the area of the piston, and Ff is the
friction force, h0 is the time varying film thickness, tR, wR
are the thickness and width of the ring, respectively.
Generally, wear is a complex process influenced by a
large number of parameters. It appears that the modelling of
wear is very complex. For this reason, the most commonly used
model for wear on sliding contact surfaces is usually interpreted
in terms of the following equation:
V  K N s (1)
where V is the wear volume loss, N is the normal load, s is the
sliding distance and K is the wear coefficient. This is
sometimes known as either the 'Archard' or 'Rabinowicz'
relation [9, 10]. Often, adoptions of Archard's law focus on
experimental or theoretical derivations of the wear coefficient,
K, which is the most critical term in Archard's equation. For the
hydraulic equipments, the working fluids (oil or water) are also
used as lubricants. The lubrication is usually divided into three
regimes. The understanding of hydrodynamic lubrication began
with the classical experiments of Tower [11] at the end of 19th
century and the boundary lubrication is normally attributed to
Hardy and Doubleday [12] at the beginning of 20th century.
Since 1970, it has been recognized that between these two
lubrication regimes, some combined mode of action which
referred to as 'mixed lubrication' may occur [13]. The
tribological performance of two contact surfaces under different
2 Copyright © 2010 by ASME
lubrication regimes is usually described by the Stribeck curve
as shown in Fig. 2. In order to develop a wear model for the
cylinder bore, it is necessary to know the lubricant film
thickness (h) distribution in the longitudinal direction in the
bore. There are many theoretical models for considering the
piston ring and cylinder bore lubrication. A common feature for
almost all of these models is that they are based on Reynolds
equation. A series of studies by Ting and Mayer [14], Jeng [15],
Priest et al [16], Akalin and Newaz [17] Hamrock et al [18],
Nikas [19] , Salant et al [20] and others have studied this
problem for different ring-bore combinations and operation
conditions.
In the case of two rough surfaces, several authors (Bayer
[21], Hutchings [22] and Neale [23]) consider the λ value to
characterize the lubrication. This value, which is determined by
the relation of film thickness h and the composite surface
roughness of both surfaces σ, can be calculated as:
h h
  (2)
  1   22
2
where σ1 and σ2 are the root-mean-square (rms) values of the
variation of the surface height[24]. The surface roughness
should be either measured or obtained from the manufacturer.
Figure 2: Relationship of oil viscosity η, sliding velocity v
and normal load N to the coefficient of friction, oil film
thickness and wear. This curve is called Stribeck diagram
(Reproduced from Bayer [21]).
High λ values are related to fluid film lubrication, where
the solid bodies do not interact and, as mentioned by Bayer
[21], wear is small and limited by fatigue mechanisms
associated with pressure transmitted through the fluid. As the
lubricant film decreases, mixed lubrication occurs. In this
regime, contacts between the asperities are expected to occur;
then, wear takes place due to physical interaction of both solid
surfaces. When λ value is smaller than unity, oil film thickness
is very small, not fluid anymore, being then related to boundary
lubrication regime, where wear is likely to achieve high value.
So the tribological performance of cylinder bore can only be
fully understood when both lubrication and wear are considered
in combination. To take into account the effect of the surface
finish, the wear coefficient should be modified by a factor
which is a function of the dimensionless film thickness λ.
In the WEC considered in this study, the mathematical
model is based on linear hydrodynamic theory, and a hybrid
frequency-time domain model is used to study the dynamics of
the heaving-buoy exposed to an irregular incident wave. For the
power take-off system, end-stop devices are provided to protect
the hydraulic machinery when the buoy is exposed to severe
sea states. In addition, the lubricated friction force and pressure
drops of orifice flow through the valves in the hydraulic system
are also taken into account. All the forces mentioned in the
hydraulic power take-off machinery have non-linear features
(Yang et al [8]). Because of the nonlinearities of the WEC
characteristics, the dynamic responses, both the piston motion
and the pressure in the cylinder, are in principle Non-Gaussian
(Yang et al [3]). These facts make it difficult to find a linear
transfer function between the wave elevation and the cylinder
bore wear damage. In the present work, the bore wear damage
is accounted for based on the simulation results in the time
domain. The main purpose of this study is to estimate the wear
distribution along the cylinder bore and predict the position
where maximum bore wear occurs in the time-domain. Long
term bore wear damage is accounted for by the use of the wave
scatter diagram. The overall cylinder bore wear analysis is
depicted in Fig. 3.
Figure 3: Overall procedure for the cylinder bore wear
damage prediction. This procedure mainly includes two
parts: namely the dynamic model of the WEC system as
shown in Fig. 1; and the cylinder bore wear model.
3 Copyright © 2010 by ASME
DYNANIC MODEL OF WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER
A heaving-buoy wave energy converter equipped with
high-pressure hydraulic power take-off machinery is shown in
Fig.1. The oscillating motion of the floating buoy is converted
into the flow of a liquid (oil is used here) at high pressure (HP)
by use of a hydraulic pump. The single direction valves are
controlled in such a way that liquid is pumped from the
cylinder into the HP accumulator when the pressure in the
cylinder is larger than that in the HP accumulator, and is sucked
from the LP accumulator into the opposite side of the cylinder
with a positive pressure difference between them [2]. At the
other end of the hydraulic circuit, there is a hydraulic motor
which drives an electric generator. Such a wave energy
converter consists of a set of coupled equations: 1) an integral-
differential equation (with a convolution integral representing a
fluid memory effect) that accounts for the hydrodynamics of
the buoy, 2) an ordinary differential equation (ODE) that
models the time-varying pressure in the power take-off system.
This hydraulic power take-off has strong nonlinear
characteristics and the governing equations for this WEC
system have been established in the previous work [3, 8].
In the dynamic model, the incident waves are supposed to
be irregular, and each sea state is characterized by a modified
Pierson-Monskowitz (PM) spectrum [25] with its significant
height Hs and wave peak period TP. Based on the established
model, the responses of the system are obtained by solving the
coupled non-linear equations for different sea states. In this
work, the calculation has been carried out for a semi-
submerged heaving sphere with a radius of r=5 m, a mass of
m  2.7  105 kg and added mass at infinite frequency
A  1.35 105 kg, which is equal to half the mass of the sphere.
A cylinder type with an inner diameter D=0.16 m and a total
length L=5.0 m is adopted. For Hs=4.25 m, TP=9.5 s, Fig. 4
gives the time variation of the excitation force F(t) produced by
incident waves in the interval 1000 ≤ t ≤ 1200 s. The time
variations of the buoy excursion X(t), velocity X (t ) are shown
in Figs. 5a and b in the same time interval. The curves show
that the motion of the buoy mainly includes two parts: namely a
wave frequency motion with relatively large amplitudes; and
high frequency oscillations with small amplitudes. According
to previous work [8], the wave frequency motion is mainly
caused by the excitation force while the high frequency motion
is due to the compressibility of the fluid in the hydraulic
cylinder. Both the wave and high frequency motions can
contribute to the cylinder bore wear.
During the operation, the high pressures converted by the
piston motion in the two chambers are alternating. When the
piston moves upward, high pressure is generated in the upper
chamber while low pressure appears in the lower chamber. In
the case of downward motion, the high and low pressures in the
two chambers are changed reciprocally. The sealed pressure p(t)
is the larger value of the chamber pressures PA and PB (Marked
in Fig. 1). The numerical results in Figs. 5 and 6 show that the
sliding velocity and fluid pressure vary widely according to the
power transmitted. This characteristic makes it more difficult to
 6 7
x 10 x 10
2 3.5

1.5 3

Pressure in the cylinder[Pa]

1
2.5

0.5
2
F [N]

0
1.5
-0.5
1
-1

0.5
-1.5

-2 0
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
t [s] t [s]

Figure 4: Excitation force on the heaving sphere Figure 6: The variation of the sealed pressure p(t) for
produced by incident waves in a sea state with Hs=4.25 m,
the same case as specified in Fig. 5a. This
Tp=9.5 s. pressure is basically determined by the fluid pressure of
2.5 high-pressure side.
2
account for the tribologic performance of the hydraulic cylinder
1.5
than that of other machinery with cyclic sliding velocity and
1 working pressure (e.g. an internal combustion engine). The
0.5 cylinder bore wear damage can only be estimated in the time
domain on the basis of the simulation results.
X [m]

-0.5
CYLINDER BORE WEAR MODEL
-1 Consider a small slice of the cylinder bore which is slid by
-1.5
the ring with length dX between [X, X+dX], as shown in Fig. 7.
The numbers of piston ring crossing (both the positive and
-2
negative crossings) for this region dX during a time interval T is
-2.5
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
denoted as n(X). The normal force for the i'th crossing at the
t [s] position X is N(X, ti), and then the wear volume loss of this slice
a. dVi(X) for the i'th crossing can be expressed as :
Figure 5a: Time variation for the buoy excursion X(t) for a dVi ( X )  K (i ) N ( X , ti )dX (3)
buoy with r=5 m, Hs=4.25 m, Tp=9.5 s, D=0.16 m, L=5.0 m.
where K(i) is the wear coefficient of the cylinder bore for the
2.5
i'th crossing.
2

1.5

0.5
v [m/s]

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200
t [s]
b. Figure7: The sketch of the motion of piston ring along the
Figure 5b: Time variation for the buoy velocity v(t) for the cylinder bore. The original point of the coordinate is set at
the middle of the cylinder bore.
same case as specified in Fig. 5a.

4 Copyright © 2010 by ASME

 To take into account the effect of surface finish and 1 1 1  12 1  22 
lubrication, it is widely assumed that the wear coefficient with     ; where υi is the Poisson's ratio
E  2  E1 E2 
modification linearly decreases as lubrication conditions
change from boundary to hydrodynamic [26]. The categories of and Ei is the Young's modulus of the contacting body i,
lubrication regimes is related to the motion type [27]. For respectively (i=1 and 2).
sliding piston rings, we use the values of 1 and 3 of λ as the 1 1 1
R': equivalent contact radius [m], with   and Ri is
critical points to divide the regimes. The modified wear factor R R1 R2
in different lubricating conditions can be represented
the radius of contacting body i (i=1 and 2).
mathematically as:
k: the ellipticity parameter. For line contacts k=∞ and for point
1 for   1 contact k=1.
 (3   )
K ( )   for1    3 (4) Combing the film thickness loci and the composite
0 2 for   3 surface roughness, the modified wear factor K(λ) defined in Eq.
 (4) can be calculated. Assuming that the wear coefficient K is
The wear volume loss for the i'th crossing at the position time independent, Eq. (10) can be rewritten as:
can be modified as: d c ( X )  K  t R  P ( X )  n( X ) (12)
dVi ( X )  K (i ) K ( X , i ) N ( X , ti )dX (5)
where P ( X ) is defined as the average effective pressure and
We assume that there is a linear damage accumulation
rule, the total wear volume loss for a reciprocating motion can be expressed as:
n( X )
during a time interval T with n(X) crossings can now be
expressed as:  K ( X ,  ) p( X , t )
i i

n( X ) P( X )  i 1
(13)
 K (i) K ( X , i ) N ( X , t i )dX
n( X )
dV ( X )  (6)
i 1 Introducing the expected crossing rate κ(X) which is
The average wear depth dc(X) of the cylinder bore with an defined as the ratio of the crossing numbers n(X) to the
inner diameter D can be obtained: corresponding time interval T, the wear damage rate dc ( X ) for
dV ( X ) n ( X )
dc ( X )    K (i ) K ( X , i ) N ( X , ti ) /( D) (7) the cylinder bore can be expressed as:
 DdX d (X )
dc ( X )  c
i 1
 K  ( X ) P ( X )tR (14)
Assuming uniform pressure pc(t) distributed along the T
interface, the total normal load N on the contact region is: Eq. (14) provides an expression for the wear damage for
N (t )  pc (t )   DtR (8) any segment of the cylinder bore slid by the ring during the
where tR is the width of the piston. The contact pressure pc(t) on operation. The product of κ(X) and tR can be considered as an
the bore is the sealed pressure plus the ring tension. The ring equivalent sliding velocity. The modified factor K(X, λi) which
tension is usually much smaller than the sealed pressure [28]. In indicates the effects of the surface roughness and lubrication is
this study, the contact pressure pc(t) is approximately expressed considered in the terms of the average effective pressure P ( X ) .
as: The procedure for computing the cylinder bore wear is
pc (t )  p(t ) (9) then carried out as follows:
Substituting Eqs. (8) and (9) for Eq. (7) yields: 1. Obtain the cylinder chamber P-v or P-X relations for given
n( X ) operation conditions by solving the dynamic model of the
dc ( X )   K (i)K ( X ,  ) p( X , t )t
i 1
i i R (10) wave energy converter system in different sea states.
2. Based on Eq. (9), determine the contact pressure between the
The formula for film thickness described by Hamrock and ring and cylinder bore.
Dowson [29] is in the following form: 3. Calculate the ring-bore film thickness loci for the ring and
0.073
 v 
0.68
 N 
1  e 
h0 determine the lubrication regions of ring-bore contact.
 3.63  0   E   0.68 k
0.49
  2  4. Determine the expected crossing rate κ(X) on the basis of the
R  E R   ER 
simulated piston motion X for a given sea state.
(11)
5. Determine the K(X, λi) according to the film thickness loci
where:
obtained from step 3.
h0: the film thickness [m];
6. Based on the P-X relations and K(X, λi), calculate the average
v: the entraining surface velocity and equals the piston velocity
value of K(X, λi) p(X,ti) for each segment by using Eq. (13),
in this study [m/s];
then get the distributions of the average effective pressure
η0: the viscosity at atmospheric pressure of the lubricant [Pas];
α: the pressure-viscosity coefficient [m2/N]. For mineral oils, P ( X ) along the cylinder bore.
   0.6  0.965log10 0  108 [22]; 7. Combining with steps 4~6 and using Eq.(14) to obtain the
N: the contact load [N]; wear damage rate dc ( X ) along the cylinder bore for one
E': equivalent elastic modulus [Pa], sea state.

5 Copyright © 2010 by ASME

 -7
8. Repeat steps 1~7, the distribution of the wear damage rate x 10
along the cylinder bore can be got for different sea states.
9 Critical film thickness
9. Through the analysis, find the maximum wear damage along
with h0=6.5e-7
the cylinder bore. Do the safety assessment based on the 8
calculated data.
7

filmthickness [m]
CASE STUDY 6
In order to meet the requirements of this wave energy
5
converter, an un-slit piston ring which is broadly used in
Hägglunds hydraulic motor [27] is adopted here. The piston 4
ring has a symmetric outer crowning with a radius half the 3
inner cylinder bore diameter D. The piston width and thickness
shown in Fig. 1 are 3 mm. The working fluid is standard 2
mineral hydraulic oil. The oil surrounds the piston ring (i.e. the 1
ring is in a fully flooded condition). The piston ring is made of
hardened bearing steel while the cylinder bore is nodular cast -2 -1 0 1 2
iron. The mechanical properties and surface roughness are X [m]
presented in Table 1. The composite surface roughness σ is Figure 8: The film thickness distribution along the
equal to 0.65 μm. The main parameters of this ring-bore system cylinder bore for r=5 m, Hs=4.25 m, TP=9.5 s, D=0.16 m,
are shown in Table 2 [27]. Based on the simulation results of L=5.0 m. X is the coordinate of the piston ring position
this WEC system, this ring-bore combination fulfills the along the cylinder bore. The composite surface
requirements when the buoy exposed to different sea states roughness of the piston ring and cylinder bore is 0.65 μm.
(excluding extreme sea states). In addition. due to the higher The red line represents the critical value for dividing the
hardness of this hardened steel compared to the elastomer seals, boundary and mix lubrication regimes.
the wear resistance is much higher for this type of ring [10].
The film thickness h0 can be calculated for this piston ring and
cylinder bore system by using Eq. (11). Fig. 8 shows a SIMULATION RESULTS
distribution of the film thickness along the cylinder bore of a In order to get the correct statistical properties of the
sea state with Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s. The induced cylinder WEC's response, the wave spectrum was discretized with 1000
bore wear can be considered by following the procedure frequency components in the range of 0.25    2.5 rad/s (i.e.,
mentioned in the above section. longest period without repetition is 2793 s). The piston motion,
film thickness and sealed pressure can be numerically obtained
Table 1. The mechanical properties and surface by solving the established governing equations. The cylinder
roughness of the piston ring and cylinder bore. bore wear is a function of the expected crossing rate κ(X),
Modulus of Surface lubrication film thickness h and the sealed pressure p(t).
elasticity
Poisson's Hardness
roughness Usually, the distribution of expected crossing rate κ(X) of a
Ratio υ [-] H [MPa] linear response caused by a Gaussian process can be
E [GPa] σ [μm]
analytically expressed by using the Rice distribution [30]. Due
Piston
206 0.3 2110 0.39 to the nonlinearity , the actual process is non-Gaussian process
ring
[3] and the analysis can only be done in the time domain.
Cylinder
175 0.3 814 0.52 According to Eq. (14), in order to get stable values of the
bore
cylinder bore wear damage, one must check the statistical
characteristics of the motion, film thickness and the sealed
Table 2. The main ring characteristics in hydraulic motors
pressure. The statistical properties of these three vairables as
(Reproduced from Sätra [27])
obtained for a sea state with Hs=4.75 m and TP=9.5 s are shown
Parameter Unit Limit Hydraulic motor in Figs.9-14. The simulated realizations of these related
Fluid to seal Oil variables are given for the time interval between 500 s and 3000
Pressure Mpa max 42 s (i.e., a 2500-second sample is used for statistical analysis),
Constant or after excluding the transient start-up. These realizations are
Type of service
intermittent divided into 25 samples, each with duration of 100 s. It is
max 6.3 observed that a stable statistics is obtained by running at least
velocity m/s
min 0 15 samples. The fact implied that 1500 simulation seconds are
Temperature ºC max 50 needed.
The long-term analysis is based on the scatter diagram of
waves provided by Statoil ASA [31]. These data were recorded
over a period of 29 years (from 1974 to 2002) by wave buoys in

6 Copyright © 2010 by ASME

 -7
x 10
2.8
0 Each sample
2.6 Ensemble average

2.4
Mean value of motion [m]

-0.05

Std of film thickness [m]

2.2

-0.1 2

1.8

-0.15
1.6
Each sample
Ensemble average 1.4
-0.2
5 10 15 20 25
Simulation No. 0 5 10 15 20 25
Simulation No.
Figure 9: Mean value of the piston motion in each sample
and for the ensemble for a sea state of Hs=4.25 m and Figure 12: Standard deviation of the film thickness in
TP=9.5 s. ('Each sample' corresponds a duration of 100 s; each sample and for the ensemble as obtained for a sea
'Ensemble average' means the average over Sample No. state of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s.
1 up to Sample No. i). x 10
7

3
Each sample
1.3 2.9 Ensemble average
Each sample
1.2 Ensemble average 2.8

Mean pressure [Pa]

1.1 2.7
Std of motion [m]

1 2.6

0.9 2.5

0.8 2.4

0.7 2.3

0.6 2.2
0 5 10 15 20 25
Simulation No.
0.5
0 5 10 15 20 25
Simulation No. Figure 13: Mean value of the sealed pressure in each
Figure 10: Standard deviation of the piston motion in sample and for the ensemble as obtained for a sea state
each sample and for the ensemble as obtained for a sea of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s.
state of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s. x 10
6

x 10
-7 8.5
2.8 Each sample
Each sample 8 Ensemble average
2.6 Ensemble average
7.5
Mean value of film thickness [m]

2.4 7
Std of pressure [Pa]

2.2 6.5

6
2

5.5
1.8
5
1.6
4.5

1.4
4

3.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Simulation No. Simulation No.

Figure 11: Mean value of the film thickness in each Figure 14: Standard deviation of the sealed pressure in
sample and for the ensemble as obtained for a sea state each sample and for the ensemble as obtained for a sea
of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s. state of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s.

7 Copyright © 2010 by ASME


the northern part of the North Sea. A discretization of the wave
conditions by 10 Hs [m]: 0–1.0, 1.0–2.0, 2.0–2.5, 2.5–3.0, 3.0–
3.5, 3.5–4.0, 4.0–4.5, 4.5–5.0, 5.0–6.0, 6.0–7.0 and 10 TP [s]:
3–5, 5–7, 7–9, 9–10, 10–11, 11–12, 12–13, 13–15, 15–17, 17–
19 is used in this study. The midpoints values of Hs and TP are
adopted to characterize the random sea states. The occurrence
probability of each sea state is shown in Fig. 15. For each sea
state, the simulated time is equal 2000 s but the cylinder bore
wear rate is calculated on the last 1500 s. Based on the
simulated results, the cylinder bore wear rate d ( X ) can be
c
calculated by following the wear computation procedures for
different sea states. The distribution of the expected crossing
rate κ(X) and average effective pressure P ( X ) for a sea state of
time period of high frequency oscillations which can
dramatically increase the crossing rate κ(X). So waves with
small significant wave height Hs can cause much bore wear
damage. The effect of TP is also obvious. The peak value of Fig.
19 is mainly distributed below the period of 10 s. Since the
spectra of wave elevation and buoy motion possess peak values
at almost the same frequency [3], larger value of TP induces
larger motion period which can reduce the expected crossing
rate κ(X). In addition, the motion with larger period can also
reduce the time period of high frequency oscillation. Hence, the
bore wear damage decreases as the wave period increases.
Based on the analysis, the high frequency oscillations are found
to have an adverse effect to the cylinder bore. This effect
18

Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s are shown in Fig. 16. The product of 16

these two variables which can be defined as the bore wear
14
index is given in Fig.17. The maximum value of the bore wear
index is also shown in Fig.17 as a red dot. The two curves 12 15
0.0
indicate that the expected crossing rate is the dominant factor 0.015
10
for the cylinder wear damage, which means that the dynamic Tp [s] 0.03
45 5
0.0 70.09 0. 06
motion of the buoy makes an important contribution to the wear
0. 03
8 . 0
0

5
04
damage with the parameters chosen in this wave energy 3 0.01
5

0.
0. 0
0. 0

6 0. 0
6 3 5
converter system. The histogram of the positions at which the . 0
15

0 0.01
maximum wear index occurs is shown in Fig. 18. For most of 4

the sea states, the maximum cylinder bore wear occurs in the
2
interval of -0.2<X<0 m. The non-symmetry in the histogram is
mainly due to the single-rod hydraulic piston used in this 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
system. As shown in Fig. 1, the area ratio of the rod and piston Hs [m]
α is set as 0.25, which makes the mean position of the piston a
Figure 15: Contour plot of the joint probability density
little lower than the mid-point of the cylinder. In this work, we
function of Hs and TP using the 29-year data.
take the position X=-0.06 m at which the histogram has its
30
maximum value as the most severe position. The cylinder bore Effective Pressure
wear rate at this position is calculated in different sea states. CrossingRate
0.25
Long-term wear damage can be calculated by summing up
the short-term wear damage multiplied by the occurrence
Effective Pressure [MPa]

25 0.2

CrossingRate [1/s]
probability of each sea state. The relative contribution of the
wear damage from different sea states, considering the North
0.15
Sea wave conditions as obtained by use of the present time-
domain method, are plotted in Fig. 19. For the sake of
20 0.1
convenience, the total long-term wear damage is normalized to
be 1. In the figure, we can clearly identify the sea states which
0.05
contribute the most to long-term wear damage, i.e. the sea
states with Hs from 0.5 m to 3.5 m and TP from 5 s to 10 s. This
is mainly due to the dynamic characteristics of the wave energy 15 0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
X [m]
converter system. As we know, waves with a small significant
height can produce smaller excitation force. The high pressure Figure 16: The distribution of the average effective
converted by this force will have a small chance to overcome pressure P ( X ) and expected crossing rare κ(X) along the
the high pressure in the hydraulic circuit. This will enlarge the cylinder bore for a sea state of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s.

8 Copyright © 2010 by ASME

 wear index multiplied by the occurrence probability of each sea
5
Wear index state. Based on the simulation results, the wear index at this
4.5 Maximum value position for an absorber oscillates in North Sea is
4 3.7123  106 Pa/s. By taking the ring thickness tR as 3 mm, the
3.5
wear damage rate d (0.06) is 0.363 μm/year. Since the actual
c
Wear index [MPa/s]

3
wear damage is largely dependent on the wear coefficient K
2.5 which can vary enormously from very high values under
2 particularly aggressive conditions to very low values in more
1.5
benign circumstances. The full exploitation of this information
and the ability to quantitatively predict future performance or
1
life expectancy, requires an understanding of the sources and
0.5
mechanisms related to the generation of the extracted and
0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
sampled particulate debris. This estimated number should be
X [m] verified by the actual in-service components.
Figure 17: The distribution of the wear index along the
cylinder bore for a sea state of Hs=4.25 m and TP=9.5 s. 18
The red dot is the maximum value of this paramter. 0.0
0.001 01
30
16 0. 001

25
14

6
00
0.006
0.001

0.
0.006
20
Statistic Times

12 00
6 0.0
11
Tp [s]

11
0. 0. 0
0.01
1

15 6

1
01

01
0.

0.
10 0.016 0. 016
1 0.0
02 31 26 0.021 06
0. 0.0 0.0
36 0.031
10

6
. 0 0.036

0.01
0

0.026
8

1
01

01
0.026

21 0.0

0.
0.0
6
03 1 06
0. 0.03 0.0
5 6
0.01.011
6 1
0
0.001

0. 0 02
31 0.
0.036 .026 06
0 0. 0
0.01
0 6
0.011
0.001
-0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 4
1 2 3 4 5 6
X [m] Hs [m]
Figure 18: Histogram of the positions at which maximum Figure 19: Relative contribution of the bore wear damage
wear index occurs for 100 sea states. The largest value is at X=-0.06 m from different sea states considering the
shown around X=-0.06 m. Northern North Sea wave conditions.

should be avoided or reduced as small as possible, e.g. based on
suggestions given by Yang et al [8]. To sum up, the sea states
with small Hs and TP make important contribution to the
cylinder bore wear. As it is very time-consuming to compute
the long-term period wear damage in the time domain by
considering all the sea states, the information we have got in
the work could be useful for estimating the long-term wear
damage by running the time-domain simulations only for the
identified important sea states.
In this case study, if a wear coefficient of 1 1018 m2/N is
assumed for the cylinder bore, the wear rate can be predicted by
using Eq. (14). At the position X=-0.06 m, long term wear index
 (0.06) P (0.06) is calculated by summing up the short term
According to other studies as well as analysis in this work,
recommendations for cylinder bore wear reduction are made as
below:
1. Try to reduce the wear coefficient K as much as possible.
This can be achieved in the following ways: a) Keep the oil
as clean as possible; b) Select materials which are
sufficiently wear resistant; c) Use of coating to protect the
bore; d) Use the antiwear oil for the media.
2. Reduce the composite surface roughness. The modified wear
factor in Eq. (4) can be reduced if the two surfaces are much
smoother.

9 Copyright © 2010 by ASME

3. Choose an appropriate cylinder size to reduce the effect of
high frequency oscillations which have an adverse effect to
the bore wear damage.
4. Choose a ring with smaller thickness tR. As shown in Eq.
(14), larger value of tR gives more bore wear under the same
operating conditions.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This paper deals with the prediction of wear damage of
the cylinder bore of a high-pressure hydraulic machinery for an
energy conversion system exposed to random incident waves.
A cylinder bore wear model is developed by considering the
effect of sealed pressure, relative velocity, material properties,
environmental conditions and lubrication. The wearing process
of the cylinder bore is described by means of a cumulative
damage model, where the wearing process is depicted as the
accumulation of successive (randomly occurring) isolated
injuries. The cylinder bore wear distribution is calculated for
different sea states.
Based on the simulation results, the dynamic
characteristic of the wave energy converter system is found to
be a dominant factor of the bore wear. The position at which
the most severe wear occurs is predicted to be around the
middle of the cylinder for the following reasons: one is that
only a few motions can reach the end of the cylinder bore; the
other one is that most of the high frequency oscillations occur
around the midpoints of the cylinder. The relative contribution
of wear damage from different sea states considering North Sea
wave conditions, is obtained. The present results can be
subsequently used for estimating cylinder bore reliability, and
for developing a condition-based maintenance strategy for the
cylinder bore. However, comparisons with data are required for
validation of the model.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the
Research Council of Norway through the Centre for Ships and
Ocean Structures at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology in Trondheim, Norway.
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