Noise Reduction in Axial Piston Pumps PDF

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Design Principles for Noise Reduction in

Hydraulic Piston Pumps
Simulation, Optimisation and Experimental Verification
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Linkping Studies in Science and Technology.

Dissertations No. 965
Design Principles for Noise Reduction in

Hydraulic Piston Pumps
Simulation, Optimisation and Experimental Verification
Andreas Johansson
Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Linkpings universitet
SE581 83 Linkping, Sweden
Linkping 2005
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c 2005 by Andreas Johansson) illustrates

The picture on the front cover (
how the cross-angle has been implemented on an existing swash-plate. The
cross-angle is one of the applications studied in this thesis.
ISBN 91-85457-15-9
ISSN 0345-7524
c 2005 by Andreas Johansson
Copyright
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Linkping University
SE-581 83 Linkping, Sweden
Printed in Sweden by Linkpings Tryckeri AB 2005.921.
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To my parents
Annika & Jan
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Abstract
Noise reduction in hydraulic systems has been an important research topic
for several decades. In recent years, industrys interest in the area has grown
dramatically. The reason is new national and international requirements and
legislation governing working conditions. As a consequence of this, considerable reduction of noise from machinery in general has been achieved. The
reduction of noise in hydraulic systems, however, has not gained from the same
considerable progress, which implies that hydraulic noise has become perceptible through the surrounding machinery noise. Not only has noise reduction
of hydraulic systems become increasingly important, it has also become more
dicult because of the ever-increasing working pressure level, which is highly
correlated to noise and vibration.
Noise in hydraulic systems is created mainly by the hydrostatic pump and
motor, working with large pressure dierences in the discharge and suction
ports. Being exclusively of displacement type, the hydrostatic machine creates
substantial ow pulsations in both the discharge and suction ports. The ow
pulsations give rise to system pressure pulsations, which in turn transform into
vibration and audible noise. Excessive pulsating piston forces and bending
moments due to the large pressure dierence between the machines discharge
and suction ports also contribute to noise and vibration.
To obtain satisfactory noise reduction, there is a need for eective and reliable
design tools and design methods. This thesis concerns simulation, optimisation
and experimental verication of axial piston pump design for noise reduction.
Much of the work relates to the dierent origins of noise and how to formulate objective functions that simultaneously reects dierent aspects of noise
reduction. New and conventional design features are examined both theoretically and experimentally. One novel and promising design feature thoroughly
investigated in this thesis is the so-called cross-angle that aims to provide low
noise in variable displacement machines. Dierent measurement approaches are
employed for experimental verication. It is shown that conventional methods
are often inadequate for measuring source ow in variable displacement units
due to the complex outlet channel. A new method, referred to as the Source
admittance method, is proposed.
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Acknowledgements
There are several people who, in one way or another, have been involved
in the completion of this thesis. First of all, I would like to address my gratitude
to all members of the Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems for
making the every-day work enjoyable and inspiring. Special thanks go to my
supervisor Professor Jan-Ove Palmberg, Head of the Division, for his support
and encouragement and to my second supervisor Dr Johan lvander, who has
been a goading sparring-partner over the years. Besides supervising and acting
as co-authors in several papers, they have helped me advance as a researcher.
A special thank you also goes to Professor Karl-Erik Rydberg, who always has
time for questions.
Some people know all the things that are good to know. Anders Zachrisson
(a division member) is such a person and I owe him lots of thanks for all his help
on numerous questions. My gratitude also goes to Bruce Larkin and Jimmy
Johansson (Parker Hannin) and to Tosse, Mankan, Ulf Bengtsson and Sren
Ho (technical sta at Linkping University) for invaluable help during the
experimental parts of this work.
Furthermore, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my other coauthors: Lawrence D. Blackman (Abex NWL, Parker Hannin, United States),
Marcus Rsth (a division member), Ronnie Werndin (Parker Hannin) and Dr
Peter Achten (Innas BV, Holland). Professor Lars-Erik Andersson (Institution
of Mathematics, Linkpings University) has contributed to the mathematical
description of the varying source impedance, described in section 8.8.
This project has been nanced by ProViking and Parker Hannin. A special
thanks to Ingvar Hydrn and Lars Skrlund (Parker Hannin, Sweden) for
supporting my work.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, my mother Annika and my
father Jan, my two brothers David and Johan, and my girlfriend Cajsa. Thank
you for being there! You guys rule!
Linkping, September, 2005
Andreas Johansson
ix
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Appended papers
T
he following six appended papers will be referred to by their Roman

numerals. Papers [IV] are reprinted with permission, and have been corrected
for printing errors, obscurities and inconsistencies. The layout of text and
gures has also been changed.
In papers [IIV], the rst author is also the main author, supervised by
the co-authors. In paper [I] the two rst-mentioned authors are both equally
involved, supervised by the co-authors.
[I] Johansson A., Werndin R., Palmberg J.-O. and Achten P. A.
J., Dynamic analysis of shuttle technique performance - applied on
hydraulic transformer, in Proc. of the 3rd International Fluid Power
Conference (IFK3) (Ed. Frdervereinigung Fluidtechnik e. V., Achen),
Vol 2, pp.249-261, Aachen, Germany, March 2002.
[II]
Johansson A. and Palmberg J.-O., The importance of suction port

timing in axial piston pumps, in Proc. of Scandinavian International
Conference on Fluid Power, (SICFP05) (Ed. Palmberg, J.-O.), June
2005.
[III]
Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O., Optimal design

of the cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable displacement machines, in Proc. of Bath Workshop on Power Transmission and Motion
Control (PTMC 2002) (Eds. Burrows, C R and Edge, K A), pp. 319-333,
University of Bath, Bath, UK, September 2002. (Best paper award).
[IV]
Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O.1 , Inuence from

the cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments in variable hydraulic piston pumps, LiTH-IKP-R-1391 , Linkping University, Sweden, 2003.
[V]
Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O., Experimental

verication of cross-angle for noise reduction in hydraulic piston pumps.
Submitted for publication 2005.
1 Paper paper is based upon: Johansson, A., Andersson, J. and Palmberg, J.-O., Eects
of cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments in axial piston pumps, in The 7th
International Symposium on Fluid Control, Measurement and visualization (FLUCOME03),
Sorrento, Italy, 2001
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Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps
The following publications, are not appended in this thesis, but constitute an
important part of the background:
[VI] Werndin, R., Johansson, A. and Palmberg J.-O., A general model
of a multi-displacement machine - using TLM, in Proc. of The Seventh
Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, (SICFP01),
(Eds. J.-O. Palmberg), Vol.2, pp. 115-130, Linkping, Sweden, June
2001.
[VII]
Johansson A. and Palmberg J.-O., Quieter Hydraulic Systems Design Considerations, in Proc. of The 5th JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power (Ed. S. Yokota), vol 3, pp. 799-804. Nara, Japan,
November 2002.
[VIII]
Johansson A. and Palmberg J.-O., Design aspects for noise reduction in uid power systems, in Proc. of The 10th International Congress
on Sound and Vibrations (ICSV10), Stockholm, Sweden, July 2003.
[IX] Johansson A., Palmberg J.-O. and Rydberg K.-E., Cross-angle a design feature for reducing noise and vibrations in hydrostatic piston
pumps, in Proc. of The 5th International Conference on Fluid Power
Transmissions and Control (ICFP2001) (Eds. L. Yongxiang, C. Ying
and X. Li), pp. 6268, Beijing World Publishing Corporation, Hangzhou,
China, 2001.
[X] Johansson A.Noise reduction of hydraulic systems - design considerations and methods, Licentiate thesis no. 953, Linkping University,
Sweden, May 2002.
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Contents
1 Introduction
11
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Aims
17
3 Noise generation and reduction

19
3.1 Human hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Noise generation in hydraulic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 Excitation energies in hydraulic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Resonance responces in hydraulic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4.1 Hydraulic resonance responce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.4.2 Mechanical resonance responce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 Noise emission from hydraulic systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4 Noise origins in axial piston pumps
31
4.1 The pump simulation model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.1 Fourier series expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2 Flow pulsations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2.1 Kinematic ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.2 Compressible ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2.3 Total ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.3 Pump internal forces and moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.4 Air-release and cavitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5 Pump design for noise reduction
55
5.1 Pre-compression and decompression angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.2 Pressure relief groove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.3 Pre-compression lter volume, PCFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.4 Cross-angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.5 Other design features for varying operational conditions . . . . . . . . . 62
5.6 Suction port timing for reduction of air-release and cavitation . . . 64
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6 Simulation-based optimisation
67
6.1 The single-objective optimisation problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2 The multi-objective optimisation problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.3 Formulation of optimisation problem for noise reduction in hydraulic pumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.3.1 Minimisation of cylinder pressure rate for overall pump
noise reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7 Sensitivity of the optimal design
77
7.1 Sensitivity to variations in operational conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
7.2 Sensitivity considerations in objective function formulation . . . . . . 84
8 Measurement of fluid-borne noise
8.1 Source characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.2 Measurement at anechoic condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.3 High impedance pipe test method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4 Methods that separate the source characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.1 How to derive the correct Fourier series coecient from
an FFT spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.2 The hydraulic trombone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.3 The secondary source method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.4 Two pressures - two systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.5 The two-microphone method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.4.6 The three-microphone method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.5 Source models for more complex outlet channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.6 The source admittance method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.7 Simplifying the source impedance by plugging the regulator
channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.8 Time-variant source impedance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
87
88
90
92
93
93
94
95
96
96
98
101
103
108
108
9 Cross-angle design
9.1 Geometrical description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2 Eects from using the cross-angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.3 Optimal design of the cross-angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4 Evaluation of the optimal cross-angle design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4.1 Cross-angle inuence on ow ripples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4.2 Cross-angle inuence on cylinder pressure rate and measured noise emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.4.3 Cross-angle design compared with PCFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
121
122
123
124
124
125
10 Discussion and conclusions
133
11 Outlook
139
12 Review of papers
141
127
129
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References
A Source flow measurements
145
157
Appended papers
I
Dynamic analysis of shuttle technique performance - applied on hydraulic transformer

165
II
The importance of suction port timing in axial piston pumps
III
Optimal design of the cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable

displacement machines
201
IV
Inuence from the cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments

in variable hydraulic piston pumps
221
Experimental verication of cross-angle for noise reduction in hydraulic piston pumps

239
183
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Nomenclature
A
A
A
Ap
Ap
As
B
B
Bp
Bs
C
Cp
Cs
D
Dp
Dp
E
F
Fp
Fp,n
Fp,tot
Fp,tot,n
H
H
H0
H0
J0
J2
L
Lp
LpA
Parameter
Objective function weight
Four pole element
Four pole element
Piston area
Function
Parameter
Four pole element
Four pole element
Function
Four pole element
Four pole element
Function
Four pole element
Four pole element
Pump displacement
Modulus of elasiticity
Fourier transformed signal
Piston force
Normalised piston force
Resulting piston force
Normalised resulting piston force
Function
Fourier transform of H
Function
Fourier transform of H0
Bessel function of order 0
Bessel function of order 2
Pipe length
Sound level
A-weighted sound level
[m3 /s]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[m2 ]
[m5 /N]
[m3 /s]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /N]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[m5 /N]
[-]
[-]
[m3 /rev]
[Pa]
[N]
[-]
[N]
[-]
[m10 /N2 s2 ]
[m10 /N2 ]
[-]
[s2 ]
[-]
[-]
[m]
[dB]
[dBA]
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Mx
Mx,n
My
My,n
Mz
Mz,n
N
P
Pj
Ps
P1
Q
Qj
Qk
Qs
Qs0
Qs1
Q1
Rb
Rv
S
Sm,n
T
Tp
Va
Vs
Vpcf v
X1
X2
Zc
Zj
Zs
Zs
Zs0
Zs1
ZT
a
a
a
b
b
c
c
dpcf v
Bending moment around x-axis

Normalised bending moment around x-axis
Bending moment around y-axis
Normalised bending moment around y-axis
Driving shaft torque
Normalised driving shaft torque
Viscous friction factor
Pressure, frequency domain
Pressure at point j
Pressure where source ow is created
Pressure at pump ange
Flow, frequency domain
Flow at point j
Kinematic ow
Source ow
Source ow at valve plate
Source ow at pump ange
Flow at pump ange
Cylinder barrel radius
Linearised restriction coecient
Function
Operator matrix elements
Wave propagation time
Period time
Auxiliary volume
Volume behind pump discharge channel
Size of PCFV
Transfer function
Transfer function, equal to Zs1
Characteristic pipe impedance
Point impedance at point j
Source impedance
Function
Source impedance at valve plate
Source impedance at pump ange
Termination impedance
Speed of sound
Fourier series coecient
Vector
Fourier series coecient
Vector
Fourier series coecients of kl
Vector
Diameter of connection channel to PCFV
[Nm]
[-]
[Nm]
[-]
[Nm]
[-]
[-]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m]
[Ns/m5 ]
[m5 /N]
[m5 /Ns]
[s]
[s]
[m3 ]
[m3 ]
[m3 ]
[-]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[N/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[Ns/m5 ]
[m/s]
[m]
[m]
[m5 /Ns]
[m]
[m]
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Nomenclature
f
f
ftot
f
g
g
h
h
h1
h1
h2
h2
h11
h12
h21
h22
i
i
j
k
kc
kl
kl
k0
lpcf v
m
n
n
p
pa
pc
pd
p0
p1
q
qa
qd
qi
qk
qp
qs
q1
Function
Objective function
Aggregated objective function
Objective function value in optimum
Optimisation constraint
Function
Pipe wall thickness
Heaviside function
Function
Fourier transform of h1
Function
Fourier transform of h2
Admittance matrix element
Imaginary unit
Integer number
Integer number
Integer number
Linearised ow-pressure coecient
Laminar restriction coecient
Fourier transform of kl
Auxiliary variable (=kl (t) )
Length of connection channel to PCFV
Integer number
Integer number
Rotational speed
Pressure, time domain
Pressure in auxiliary volume
Cylinder pressure
Discharge pressure
Reference pressure
Pressure at pump ange
Flow, time domain
Flow into auxiliary volume
Discharge ow
Suction (tank, inlet) ow
Kinematic ow
Theoretical pump ow (=p Dp np )
Source ow
Flow at pump ange
[m]
[-]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /N]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /N]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[-]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /N]
[m5 /Ns]
[m]
[-]
[-]
[s1 ]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
[m3 /s]
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r
r
s
s
t
x
x
x
x
y
y
y
yn
y1
z
qk
p
e
f
oil
a
b
0
10
Pipe inner radius

Frequency
Laplace operator, s = i
Frequency
Time
Auxiliary variable (=p1 )
Design variables
Fourier transform of auxiliary variable x
Normalised centre of action
Auxiliary variable (=qs q1 )
Operational conditions
Fourier transform of auxiliary variable y
Normalised centre of action
Function
Number of pistons
Kinematic ow peak-to-peak
Stationary pressure drop
Real number
Green function
Displacement (swash plate) angle
Auxiliary variable (=V1 /e )
Eective displacement angle
Auxiliary variable (=e /Va )
Eective bulk modulus
Eective uid bulk modulus
Fluid bulk modulus
Diracs function
Kinematic non-uniformity
Fraction of displacement
Auxiliary variable (=)
Cross-angle
Average value of kl
Dead-centre angle
Polytropic exponent
Kinematic viscosity
Frequency
Filter breaking frequency
Filter breaking frequency
Fundamental frequency
Fluid density
Frequency
Time
[m]
[rad/s]
[s1 ]
[rad/s]
[s]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[-]
[m3 /s]
[m3 ]
[-]
[m8 /Ns]
[-]
[m3 /s]
[Pa]
[-]
[ ]
[m5 /N]
[ ]
[N/m5 ]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[Pa]
[-]
[-]
[s1 ]
[ ]
[m5 /Ns]
[ ]
[-]
[m2 /s]
[rad/s]
[rad/s]
[rad/s]
[rad/s]
[kg/m3 ]
[rad/s]
[s]
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1
Introduction
1.1
Background
Hydraulics is a transmission domain, transferring mechanical input power
to mechanical output power. It is employed in various mobile applications,

such as construction equipment, mining equipment, forest industry, aerospace,
automotive vehicles etc. but also in a great number of industrial applications.
Hydraulic drives provide several advantages compared with mechanical drives.
The mechanical connection between driving and consuming units is avoided,
which clearly simplies the design of many applications, for instance where
the driving and the consuming units are not in-line or when they are located
remotely from each other. Also, a rotational driving source can be used for
linear actuation without cranckshaft solutions. Another advantage is that continuous transmission ratio can be obtained, which is dicult to achieve with
mechanical gear boxes.
However, hydraulics also suers from several drawbacks such as noise and
vibrations, low eciency, leakage and controllability problems. These problems are in many cases not related to the technology as such, but rather a
consequence of improper system design. There are uid power system designs
with high eciency, without leakage, with excellent controllability, and with
low noise. Unfortunately, there are also many examples of the opposite. One
of the major advantages of uid power systems is the high power density. However, high power density implies high system pressure, which in turn implies
increased risk of noise, vibration, and leakage. The inuence of the pressure
level on eciency and controllability is less clear.
This thesis focuses on noise reduction in hydraulic systems, which has been
an important eld of study for several decades. Due to stricter national and
international legislation and requirements governing working conditions and
low noise emissions in urban areas, the importance of noise reduction is more
important today than ever before. For the European market, the European
11
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Council has published several documents legislating the noise level of machinery
in general. In the noise directive [1], the importance of protecting workers from
risk to their hearing, health and safety is claried. It is, however, not only
workers who are aected by noise. In 1993, the EU Commission established
that 80 million EU citizens were negatively inuenced by noise in urban areas,
see [2]. An EU directive from 2000 [3] is expected to have a large impact on
among other things the noise produced by outdoor equipment, thus protecting
not only workers but society in general from noise emissions. The web page [2]
presents a list of what manufacturers need to know and do to conform to the
legislation, and also what the consequences are if it is not adhered to. Often,
each country also has its own regulations regarding acceptable noise levels,
see for instance [4] for what applies in Sweden. Noise is normally aicted
with vibration which may also be injurious. In the vibration directive [5], the
importance of protecting the health and safety of workers by reducing vibration
levels is legislated. This directive will considerably inuence the hydraulic
industry in general.
The requirements concerning noise reduction have contributed to a considerable reduction in the noise level of machinery in general; a combustion engine
of today produces only a fraction of the noise produced 20 years ago. Noise reduction in hydraulic systems, however, has not gained from the same advances.
As a consequence, the hydraulic system represents the bottleneck regarding
noise emission in many applications of today, or in other words, the hydraulic
system is visible through the general machinery noise. This is not due to lack
of expertise or research eorts in the area, but rather a fact illustrating the
complexity of the task. This can be illustrated by some examples. Firstly,
as already mentioned, the high power density is the main reason for the high
noise level in hydraulic systems and components. Compared, for instance, with
combusion engines, hydraulic units are at least 10 times more power compact
both regarding to building volume and mass. Consequently, combustion engines have much more building material, which is known to increase structural
stiness and mechanical damping, and hence reduce noise emissions. Secondly,
the number of hydraulic system designs is immense. By only modifying, for
instance, the length of a hose in a particular system, essentially dierent noise
characteristics may be obtained. Therefore, more or less all hydraulic components are developed with very limited consideration to the system in which
these components are to be used. In turn, this implies that the system designers have a very challenging task of nding, from a large number of suppliers,
the most appropriate combination of components that together result in a low
overall noise level. This problem is not even remotely as important when designing a combustion engine; one specic engine will be used exclusively in
conjunction with one specic silencer, one gear-box, one frame structure etc.
Therefore, all these individual components can be developed in close collaboration to obtain a silent system. Thirdly, since the silencer eectively reduces the
noise propagating in the exhaust port, combustion engine designers more or
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Introduction
less only have to treat the pulsating forces resulting in vibrations. In hydraulic
systems however, both pressure ripples (in both the discharge and the suction
line) and force pulsations must be considered. Fourthly, hydraulic systems are
exposed to large variations in operational conditions, which further aggravates
the system design. Combustion engines are also exposed to varying operational
conditions, but not to the same extent. There are, for instance very few variable
displacement combustion engines. Also, the termination impedance of the exhaust pipe, for instance, is inherently constant. Fifthly, hydraulics suer from
a phenomenon called cavitation, which may occur if the static pressure drops
below atmospheric pressure level, see section 4.4. Cavitation is not an issue in
combustion engines, implying that hydraulic systems cannot be improved to
the same extent since cavitation is always a highly important design constraint
to consider.
Work on noise reduction in hydraulic systems dates back to the early 70s.
Helgestads PhD thesis from 1967 [6] was one of the rst scientic works on
noise emission from hydraulic pumps. More early contributions by Helgestad
et. al. can be found in [7, 8]. In 1976, a major four-year project on reducing
hydraulic system noise was carried out in the United Kingdom. The results
from this project, which formed a genuine foundation for modern research in
the area, was presented at Seminar on Quieter Oil Hydraulics [9, 10]. The
University of Bath participated in this project and has since been one of the
pioneer universities in the eld. A comprehensive summary of the work in the
area of noise reduction in hydraulic systems over the last three decades can be
found in [11].
Much of the early works on reduction of hydraulic noise concern the pump
generated ow ripples and how these interact with the external system to create pressure ripples, see for instance [1217]. Studies on vibrational patterns
of pump housings [7, 18] and on the transformation from system pressure ripples to vibrations in pipes and hoses and thus noise emissions, were also initialised [19]. In order to verify the theories outlined, the need for reliable
methods of measuring the pump generated uid-borne noise was raised. The
high-frequency nature of the quantities to measure calls for measurement equipment with very high dynamic response and extreme care in signal conditioning.
Among the commonly accepted early measurement techniques the High impedance test method [13, 20], the Anechoic termination method [21, 22] and the
Hydraulic trombone method [21, 23, 24] should be mentioned. In the early 90s,
the more rened Secondary source method [2527] and the Two-microphone
method [22, 28] were developed, which are today the two predominant methods for measuring pump source ow and source impedance. More on dierent
measurement methods can be found in chapter 8.
Research on noise reduction in hydraulic systems was divided early on into
dierent branches, accounting for dierent aspects of noise reduction. These
are mainly:
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valve plate design for reduction of pump ow ripples and internal forces
pump housing design for reduction of vibrations and direct noise emission
system design for reduction of pressure ripples, involving for instance
pulsation dampers
system design for reduction of vibrations
measurement technique for experimental verication
and this division still holds. Considerable research has been carried out both by
a large number of universities around the world and by the hydraulics industry,
and today, each branch is well explored. Very little research, however, focuses
on noise reduction in a global perspective, i.e. simultaneously considering all
dierent aspects of noise reduction. Plausible reasons for this are that each
branch is very complex and that the dierent branches are often tightly connected and conspire to the overall noise level. Therefore, the research is often
very limited to specic components, applications or phenomena.
This thesis illustrates how modelling and simulation, optimisation, and experimental verication can be used systematically for reducing noise and vibrations in hydraulic pumps. The design theory outlined can, however, be
expanded to cover complete systems.
1.2
Limitations
This thesis focuses on the design of hydrostatic pumps concerning reduction

of pump generated excitation energy, i.e. ow ripples, cylinder pressurisation
and depressurisation, internal piston forces and moments etc. The couplings
between the pump excitation energy and system resonances, i.e. system pressure ripples and vibrations, are however not considered. Thus, the discussion in
chapter 3 about noise reduction in complete hydraulic systems from a general
point of view is only to be seen as an extensive introduction to the eld.
Furthermore, this thesis treats mainly the dynamic behaviour of axial piston
pumps, and particularly the in-line pump. The theories outlined are also valid
for other pump concepts, i.e. vane pumps, gear pumps etc., and are also
analogous for motors and hydraulic transformers.
This thesis concerns pump design for reduction of noise and vibrations only.
Other important design characteristics such as eciency, fatigue life etc. are
not treated.
1.3
Contributions
One of the contributions from this thesis concerns simulation-based optimisation in the design process of hydrostatic piston units in order to minimise
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Introduction
noise. Much attention is given to the design of the objective function, i.e.
how to formulate desired and undesired characteristics mathematically. Since
noise is generated from several dierent mechanisms, it is important to reect
them all in the optimisation. How this can be done is illustrated by employing
multi-objective optimisation. For visualising trade-o relationships between
competitive objectives, the concept of Pareto optimality is used.
When an optimal solution is found, it is very important to investigate how
this design performs when exposed to disturbances, i.e. the sensitivity of the
optimum. A graphical representation technique for visualising sensitivity to
varying operational conditions is presented. This compact sensitivity representation is very informative for both pump and system designers.
A design feature that has been studied in detail in this work is the crossangle, that aims to reduce the sensitivity to variations in displacement angle.
Correctly designed, the cross-angle can give optimal pre-compression and decompression throughout the whole range of displacement angles. Simulationbased optimisation, is employed for designing a cross-angle and a matching
valve plate. Experimental studies verify not only the predicted improvements
obtained from using the cross-angle but also the applicability of simulationbased optimisation.
The adequacy of existing methods for measuring source ow and source impedance, especially for variable axial piston pumps, is debatable. Existing
methods require a model of the source impedance to determine the source ow.
If the pump outlet channels are complex, which is often the case, especially for
variable units, the modelling of source impedance is very dicult. Hence, the
uncertainty of the determined source ow is high. A new method, referred to
as the Source admittance method, that requires no source impedance model to
obtain the source ow, is proposed. Problems and possibilities with the method
are discussed.
Another contribution in the eld of uid-borne noise measurements relates
to time-variant source impedances. In all pumps, the outlet channel is not
absolutely constant as the cylinder barrel rotates. For most pumps, this variation is negligible and the source impedance can be treated as a time-invariant
quantity for which existing measurement methods are applicable. When the
outlet channel varies greatly, which may for instance occur when a large precompression lter volume is used, the source impedance becomes time-variant.
For such outlet channels, the source impedance cannot be represented by a
transfer function, and therefore existing measurement methods are insucient.
The inuence of time-variant source impedances is illustrated mathematically
with an example.
This thesis deals with methods for simulation, optimisation and experimental verication of hydrostatic piston pump designs, with the objective of minimising pump generated excitation energy and hence noise. The thesis may,
however, also be relevant for researchers and designers treating similar problems in other domains, such as waterworks systems, fuel systems etc. Much
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of the theory outlined may also be of interest to designers of, for instance,
ventilation systems and exhaust systems, even though these domains consider
gaseous uids.
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2
Aims
The principal aim of this thesis is to reduce noise in hydraulic systems. To
reach this aim, simulation and optimisation are the tools employed. The most
critical issue in optimisation is to translate desired and undesired characteristics
into engineering quantities, i.e. to formulate the goal of the optimisation mathematically. Therefore, another important aim of the thesis is to identify the
dierent noise generating mechanisms in hydraulic circuits, and to formulate
objective functions that in fact reect noise.
Simulation and optimisation will not only help the engineer develop better products; also development time and cost can be cut back. However, the
practical use of simulation models and optimisation results is low until that
predicted behaviour is experimentally veried. Therefore, this thesis also aims
to verify the computational design tools employed experimentally, which serves
two purposes. Firstly, the accuracy of the simulation models used can be veried. Secondly, the performance of predicted optimal solutions can be evaluated
experimentally, which will reveal how well the objective function employed correlates to noise emission in a real application.
In a broader perspective, this thesis also aims to elevate the design process
to a higher level of abstraction, where function is more important than detailed design. The designer thereby becomes more concerned with the design
of objective functions resulting in satisfactory functions/products rather than
with detailed design parameters. It is, after all, function that is important, not
design.
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3
Noise generation
and reduction
3.1
Human hearing
Sound is the perception of air pressure uctuations generated by vibrating
surfaces and structures. When they reach the ear, the pressure uctuations
give rise to ear drum vibrations, which via the ear bones (mainly the stirrup)
are amplied to the liquid lled coclea, see gure 3.1. The inside walls of
the cochlea are covered with millions of hair cells. The cross-sectional area of
Ear bones
Cochlea
Ear drum
Figure 3.1 Illustration of the inner ear.
the cochlea varies as a function of depth. This implies that at each depth of
the cochlea, standing waves with one specic resonance frequency arise. The
stimulated hair cells send signals to the brain, which interprets all frequency
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components as sound. Thus the ear, practically speaking, hears the spectrum
of the sound.
An important aspect of sound perception is that constant hearing level
does not coincide with constant measured sound level for dierent frequencies,
see [29]. The perception of sound is thus frequency dependent. The curves
along which the sound level is perceived as constant for all frequencies are
called isophone curves, see gure 3.2. Dierent acoustic weighting lters are
commonly used for compensating for this frequency dependent perception of
the human ear. Typical standard weighting lters are the A, B and C weights,
used for compensation of measured sound where the average sound level at
1000 Hz is 40 dB, 70 dB and 90 dB respectively. Comparable quantities for
rating sound levels as well as sound qualities from dierent sound sources are
thereby obtained.
Sound pressure level [dB]
140
120
120 phone
100
100 phone
80
80 phone
60
60 phone
40
40 phone
20 phone
20
Hearing
threshold curve
16
31.5
63
125
250
500
1000
2000
4000
8000 16000
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 3.2 Along the isophone curves, the sound level is perceived as constant.
Another important property of hearing interpretation is the ability to mask

sound [29] behind sound emitted from other sources. The perceived sound
levels from two identical sound sources may thus dier if they are masked by
dierent background sounds. Sound is best masked behind background sound
in the same frequency regions, see gure 3.3.
It is also possible to cancel out sound with so-called negative sound, which is
the inverted sound from the original sound source. The negative sound is emitted by an additional sound source and at specic locations total cancellation
can be achieved.
By understanding how sound is interpreted by the brain, it becomes obvious
that it is not only important to reduce the actual sound level, but also to compose the sound spectrum so that the perceived sound becomes less disturbing.
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Noise generation and reduction
Lp [dB]
100
Sound level
80
Hearing treshold level

with background noise
Background noise
60
40
20
0
Hearing treshold
level without
background noise
10
100
1000
Frequency [Hz]
10000
Figure 3.3 Sound masking. Without background sound, the hearing threshold
value is described by the dashed line. With background sound the ability to
hear the original sound source is aected (solid line). Background sound at one
specic frequency also inuences the perception of sound at other frequencies.
The gure is adapted from [29].
3.2
Noise generation in hydraulic systems
In Principia (1686), Isaac Newton (1642-1727) outlined a platform for modern

research on sound emission and propagation. The theory was further investigated by Euler, dAlembert and Lagrange, who formulated the mathematical
and physical foundation for modern research on sound propagation.
Sound is generated in three steps: Excitation energy - Resonance response Sound emission, see gure 3.4. Excitation energy is illustrated by a hammer,
that introduces disturbances to the plate. As a consequence, the plate starts to
vibrate, i.e. a resonance response is obtained. As the nal step, the vibrations
of the plate introduce sound pressure uctuations in the surrounding air, which
are interpreted as sound by the human ear.
Minimisation of emitted sound is obtained as the three steps are treated in
this precise order. Firstly, the excitation energy is to be minimised. Secondly,
the resonance response, either mechanical or hydraulic, should be designed so
that the interaction with the excitation energy is minimised. In the third and
nal step, the sound emission is prevented from reaching the ear by employing
insulation and screening. If sound reduction is carried out in a dierent order,
sound level minimisation cannot be guaranteed.
A common way of characterising noise generation in hydraulic systems is
by studying in which medium it appears [11]. Hence, noise can be separated
into uid-borne, structure-borne and air-borne noise. The uid-borne noise
considers the dynamics of the uid, i.e. ow and pressure ripples, whereas
the structure-borne noise considers the dynamics of the mechanical circuit,
i.e. structural vibrations. System pressure ripples transform into mechanical
vibrations, which means that the structure-borne noise is created from uid-
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borne noise. But structure-borne noise also arises from oscillating forces and
moments. The structure-borne noise in turn introduces sound pressure uctuations in the surrounding air, which are hence referred to as the air-borne
noise.
Another way of treating noise generation in hydraulic systems is by studying each individual step of noise generation, i.e. excitation energy, resonance
response and sound emission, as is done in the following sections.
Excitation
Resonance
responce
Emitted
noise
Figure 3.4 Sound is generated in three steps. The hammer introduces excitation
energy to the plate. The plate responds to the excitation energy and starts to
vibrate which is the resonance responce of the plate. In the nal step, the
vibrations of the plate give rise to air pressure uctuations, i.e. noise emission.
3.3
Excitation energies in hydraulic systems
There exist two main types of excitation energies in hydraulic systems. One
of them is the hydraulic excitations, i.e. the ow ripples generated mainly by
the hydrostatic pump and motor but also to some extent by sudden valve and
load transients. Often, only discharge ow ripples are considered but also the
ow ripples into the suction port may signicantly contribute to noise [30]. The
other type of excitation energy is the mechanical type, i.e. forces and moments.
The pumps and motors are major sources of mechanical excitation energy as
well, but load transients, for instance, also contribute.
This thesis essentially treats the reduction of excitation energy in hydraulic
systems, i.e. ow ripples, internal forces and bending moments. These are
treated in depth in chapters 4 and 5 and are therefore not considered further
here.
3.4
Resonance responces in hydraulic systems
According to the discussion in the previous section, there also exist two main
types of resonance responces in hydraulic systems. The hydraulic resonance
responce describes how introduced ow disturbances transform into pressure
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ripples which are often considered to be the main origin of noise in hydraulic
circuits. Analogously, there also exists a mechanical resonance responce which
describes how the introduced forces and moments transform into vibrations of
the mechanical structure.
The circuits ability to respond to excitation energy is dened by quantities
such as geometry, mass distributions, stiness, damping etc. Consequently,
the resonance responces and hence the noise and vibration levels can be substantially modied both regarding amplitude and frequency content by design
changes in the external system.
3.4.1
Hydraulic resonance responce
One way to modify the hydraulic resonance responce is to tune existing circuit
dimensions such as pipe lengths and diameters, volumes and orices etc. Correctly designed, the resonance responce is minimised for the frequency regions
coinciding with those of the excitation energy. Normally, however, it is only
possible to tune the circuit for attenuation at specic frequency regions. To
obtain a more eective and broad band attenuation, special external pulsation
dampers can be implemented in the circuit. There exist several dierent types
of pulsation dampers which can be divided into passive, semi-active and active
kinds, based upon how they interact with the pressure ripples. The passive
dampers modify the stationary hydraulic resonance responce but are unable to
actively compensate for the system pressure ripples. The active dampers on the
other hand detect and actively compensate for the pressure ripples that appear.
The semi-active dampers are tunable passive, i.e. adaptive elements. Hence,
they do not actively compensate for the pressure ripples but can be tuned to
modify the stationary resonance responce for good attenuation performance
when the excitation frequency varies.
Passive pulsation dampers
Among the passive pulsation dampers, dierent types, with dierent attenuation properties, can be identied, see [31]. Accumulator dampers are mainly
designed for storing energy but can also to some extent absorb pressure ripples.
Traditional accumulators have a short connection pipe between the accumulator and the circuit onto which it is mounted. The inertia of the uid in
this pipe limits the attenuation performance of traditional accumulators to the
low-frequency regions. However, other types of accumulator principles exist,
especially developed for attenuation of high-frequency pressure ripples. Among
these, the pulse-tone accumulator and the in-line accumulator should be mentioned, see for instance [32]. Of the two, the in-line accumulator oers more
eective attenuation over a broader freqency band. The drawback with these
concepts is that they are rather expensive.
Two other passive damper devices, closely related to each other, are the
T-pipe and the Helmholz dampers, both referred to as side branch dampers,
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see gure 3.5. The side branches use the principle of hydraulic mass spring
systems, with well-dened resonance frequencies. The advantage of the side
branches is that they fairly easily can be tuned for very eective attenuation
at certain frequency regions. They are, however, quite narrow band which
limits their practical use in modern systems that operate with widely varying
pump speeds. Attempts have been carried out to develop side branches with
broad band attenuation. One example is the multi-volume resonator presented
in [33]. The principle is based upon several side branches, serially mounted into
one, thus giving rise to multiple mass-spring systems with dierent oscillating
frequencies. The main problem with the multi-volume resonator concept is the
complex tuning process required for proper performance [32].
3.5(a)
3.5(b)
Figure 3.5 Illustration of T-pipe (a) and Helmholz damper (b), both refered to
as side branch dampers.
Among the dierent passive pulsation dampers, the expansion chamber attenuator, see gure 3.6, seems to be the most favourable [34], enabling eective
and broad band attenuation at a reasonable price. In multi-volume expansion
chamber attenuators, the attenuation frequency range has a lower frequency
limit, due to the mass-spring resonances obtained in the pipes between the
chambers. These, however, normally give better attenuation at higher frequencies. The expansion chamber principle is very similar to the in-line accumulator.
Thanks to the gas bladder, however, the in-line accumulator design becomes
much more compact.
3.6(a)
3.6(b)
Figure 3.6 Illustration of expansion chamber attenuators, which provide an

eective and broad band attenuation. The attenuation at higher frequencies becomes even better when multi-volume expansion chamber attenuators are used,
gure (b).
For the damper concepts where the uid is forced through the damper, i.e.
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the pulse tone accumulator, the in-line accumulator and the expansion chamber
attenuator, the downstream attenuation, i.e. after the damper, is normally very
good. It is, however, important that these dampers are mounted as close to
the pump as possible and that the diameter of the connecting hose between
the pump and the damper is as large as possible to reduce severe upstream
pressure ripples, i.e. between the pump and the damper, see [35]. Another
important drawback is that pressure losses, and thus power losses, occur when
the uid is forced through these dampers. For normal accumulators and side
branches, such pressure losses do not occur.
The most serious disadvantage with pulsation dampers described above is
their bulkiness and weight. However, several dierent compact and low-weight
pulsation dampers exist. In the automotive industry, special resonator hoses,
including tubular insert anti-resonance elements and damping volumes, have
existed for a long time, see for instance [36, 37]. Another compact damping
principle, referred to as the solid body compensator [32], is based upon mechanical mass-spring resonance systems that absorb system pressure ripples. As for
the hydraulic side branches, the attenuation performance of solid body compensators is limited to frequencies close to the mechanical resonance frequency
and the device is therefore quite narrow band. Several serially mounted solid
body compensators, however, enables a larger frequency region to be covered.
With a so called Quincke tube, [38], the ow is separated into two parallel hoses
of dierent lengths. The pressure ripples in the two hoses are thereby phase
shifted relative to each other. As they merge again, they cancel each other
out to some extent. According to [39], the Quincke tube attenuation might
be eective but is dicult to tune and the practical applicability is therefore
debatable.
Semi-active pulsationdampers
Little work has been reported in the area of semi-active pulsation dampers.
In [40], the authors present a theoretical study of solid body compensators
with tunable resonance frequencies and how these can be adapted to varying
excitation frequencies. The same authors are in [41] concerned with a mechanical design of such a damper and both theoretical and experimental results are
published. The concept was patented in 2001 [42].
A drawback with the semi-active dampers compared with the passive kinds,
is that on-line control is normally required. They therefore become more complicated to design and more expensive.
Active pulsation dampers
Due to the high-frequency nature of the pressure ripples in hydraulic circuits,
it is dicult to nd actuating principles capable of actively compensating for
system pressure ripples. Besides the high dynamics, the actuators must often
also be capable of withstanding very large stationary forces obtained by the
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stationary system pressure. One type of actuator that fulls these requirements
is based upon piezo-electric and magnetostrictive materials, see for instance
[43].
Piezo-electric materials are made up of dipole crystals, aligned in parallel
with each other. Strong anisotropic properties are thereby obtained. Many
natural materials are composed of dipole crystals and could thus be processed to
obtain piezo properties to some extent. However, certain poly-crystalline ferroelectric ceramic materials exist, such as BaTiO3 and Lead Zirconate Titanate
(Piezo), that possess very high piezo-electric properties. A piezo actuator is
made up of several piezo crystal layers, each with a thickness of 20-100 m.
This is called a piezo stack. Due to the strong anisotropic properties of the
material, mechanical deection is obtained as the magnetic dipole crystal is
exposed to a voltage, and vice versa. Longer stacks enable longer deections.
In [44], the authors are concerned with active attenuation of system pressure
ripples using piezo-actuated hydraulic control valves. Positive pressure peaks
are bled o via a shunt valve, implying a small volumetric loss as a tradeo. The damping properties of this device are however not ideal, since only the
positive pressure peaks are bled o whereas the negative pressure peaks remain
unaected.
By using the piezo-electric actuator as a stroking piston, uid can both be
added and subtracted, which enables more eective pressure ripple cancellation.
An important property of the piezo actuator is that its volume remains constant
when exposed to voltage; extension in one direction implies a contraction in
the orthogonal direction. Consequently, to obtain a volumetric change with a
piezo actuator, special designs of the actuator device must be considered. One
example of an active pulsation damper capable of adding as well as subtracting
high dynamic ow is illustrated in gure 3.7, see [45, 46]. It is important that
the leakage between the pipe and the actuator compartment is small. If not, the
actuator stroking ow will leak back into the compartments and the net ow
will be negligible. By designing the actuator caps using a material that is not
piezo-electric, these are not deected when the stack is exposed to a voltage and
hence the leakage gap can be controlled. Two other active pulsation damping
devices are shown in [47].
If the active pulsation damper adds the inverse of the system ow ripples, a
complete cancellation is obtained. There are two ways to determine the stroke
for the damping actuator. One is to measure the actual ow ripples at the
actuator location on-line and let the actuator produce the inverse of this ow,
in an open loop control approach. On-line measurement of ow ripples can be
indirectly obtained from pressure measurements of the propagating pressure
wave at dierent locations along a rigid pipe, as is done in [48]. In that study
however, a hydraulic servo actuator is employed as the active pulsation damper.
Therefore, the attenuation performance is limited mainly to frequencies below
250 Hz. The technique is complex but gives very satisfactory results. The
other way is to measure the pressure at the location for the pulsation damper
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Actuator
compartments
Piezo
actuators
Leakage gaps
Pipe
Actuator
caps
Figure 3.7 Piezo actuator extension in one direction implies contraction in the
orthogonal direction. Therefore, special designs, like the one illustrated here,
must be considered. Since the end caps are made from a material that is not
piezo-electric, the leakage into the actuator chamber is controlled and a positive
actuator net ow is obtained.
and feed that information to a controller that actuates the damping actuator
for compensation, i.e. in a closed loop control approach. It is rather dicult
to use traditional PID control for this purpose. Due to the excessive phase
lag obtained at such high frequencies, a considerable gain is required which
violates the stability margins. Since the pressure ripples are very repeatable
with a certain period, a more appropriate control synthesis called the repetitive
controller [49, 50] can be employed. The repetitive controller uses the fact that
the pressure ripples at the present time are almost identical to the pressure
ripples that appeared one period earlier. With special design, the controller is
able to actuate the pulsation device before the pulse has appeared which means
that apparent positive phase lag is introduced. Thereby, apparent non-causal
properties are obtained, which can be shown by a quasi-stationary analysis.
The ow generated by the piezo actuator damping device is suciently large
for cancelling out pressure ripples in most hydraulic systems. However, since
the displacement of reasonably sized piezo stacks is limited, the high ow rate
can only be created for a short time, i.e. the volumetric stroke of the device
is low. Consequently, the device can be expected to operate satisfactorily in
systems where the volumetric content of each ow pulse is small, i.e. small
pumps possibly operating at high speeds, for instance automotive and aerospace
applications.
3.4.2
Mechanical resonance responce
In the external piping structure, the system pressure ripples transform into
vibrations [51]. Flexible hoses have lower stiness than rigid pipes, which
reduces the propagation of vibrations. Hoses can also to some extent reduce
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propagation of pressure ripples and the transformation from pressure ripples

into vibrations. Therefore, hoses are often used to connect the pump to the
external circuit. In [52], the authors are concerned with a mathematical model
for the coupling between pressure uctuations and hose vibrations in order to
investigate the isolation achieved by tting a hose between the pump and the
external system. It is shown for instance that pressure ripples give rise to axial,
lateral and torsonal vibrations in the hose, but also that the opposite holds. The
theoretical models presented agree very well with experiments carried out. The
theory from [52] is then used in [53] to investigate which of the various vibration
transmitting mechanisms, including pressure ripples and longitudinal, lateral
and torsional vibrations, that best transmits from one hose end to the other.
The study reveals that the pressure ripples are by far the largest contributor
to transmitting vibrations to the other side of the hose.
It is important not only to prevent noise from the pump propagating to the
external system, but also to ensure that the design of the external mechanical
circuit minimises the interaction with the noise that after all does propagate
into the circuit. Much of the work published in this area originates from the
University of Bath. In [54], the authors are concerned with the location of a
pressure pulsation damper that minimises the vibrations of external circuits.
They show that the specic location that minimises vibrations most likely does
not coincide with the location that would minimise uid-borne noise. Another
observation from that work is that a badly located silencer may cause higher
vibrations than when not using any silencer at all. The methodology outlined
in [54] is also applicable for optimal location for other types of components
such as valves [55], lters etc. It is also important that the piping structure
is clamped at the correct locations to minimise the transformation from uid
pressure ripples into structural vibrations [5658].
The mechanical and the hydraulic resonance responce are inherently coupled
to each other due to the geometry of the external system. Therefore, system
modications for reducing the hydraulic resonance responce may inuence the
mechanical resonance responce in the opposite direction and vice versa.
The vibrations appearing in the pump housing as a consequence of the pump
internal piston forces and bending moments are also to be considered a mechanical resonance responce. An early investigation of modelling of the mechanical
structure of the pump housing and how well the mechanical resonance responce
of the housing can be predicted by modal analysis is carried out in [18]. The
work comprises two models of signicantly dierent levels of complexity. The
rst model is based upon a rened nite element approach whereas the second
model is much simpler and can, according to the author, be used in conjunction
with a pocket calculator. A number of experiences are gained from this work.
Above 1000 Hz, the ttings between components and bolt tightness have a high
impact on the measured natural frequencies. Since these will vary from pump
to pump, a modelling approach providing reliable predictions for all pumps can
scarcely be developed. It is also shown that if the internal parts, i.e. cylinder
28
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barrel, pistons, swash plate etc., are mounted and if the pump is lled with
uid, the natural frequencies are reduced by 5% whereas the damping coecient is doubled compared with an empty housing. Furthermore, it is stated
that the calculations using the fairly simple model give an accuracy within 5%
of measured results which is vary satisfactory.
3.5
Noise emission from hydraulic systems
Once the excitation energy and the mechanical and hydraulic resonance responces are considered, the noise emissions can be reduced further by screening,
insulation, suspensions etc., see for instance [59]. Many industrial systems are
contained within sealed compartments, or located in seprate rooms, in order to
reduce noise emissions. In the SAAB 2000 aircraft, negative sound is employed
for reducing the perceived sound level in the cabin.
Screening and insulation can be very eective means of reducing noise; so
eective, in fact, that noise reduction of the system as described above may
seem unnecessary for some applications. Noise is, however, not only to be
considered as an unpleasant property. It also gives a hint as to the well-being
of the system in general. A very high noise level is often correlated to reduced
fatigue life as well as reduced eciency. In addition, a very noisy source that
is screened o to reduce noise will very likely produce substantial, possibly
injurious, vibrations. It is therefore important rst of all to design a system
with a low noise level and to consider screening and insulation as a last step in
noise reduction.
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4
Noise origins in
axial piston pumps
A substantial amount of the noise generated in hydraulic circuits origi-
nates directly or indirectly from the hydrostatic pump. Therefore, a detailed

discussion, focusing on the internal dynamics and the dierent noise generating
mechanisms of the pump, is given in the present section.
Being exclusively of displacement type, the hydrostatic pump divides the
ow into separate chambers that portion the uid out to delivery line. Several
dierent hydrostatic pump concepts [60] exist, for instance vane pumps, gear
pumps, screw pumps and piston pumps. They all share the same fundamental principle, but with dierent geometrical solutions for transporting the uid
from suction to discharge line. Of these concepts, the most common industrial
and mobile unit for high-pressure hydraulics is the axial piston pump. For conventional industrial and mobile applications, axial piston pumps are designed
to withstand pressures up to about 40 - 50 MPa in continious operation but
considerably more at pressure peaks. Often, the axial piston units are designed
with variable displacement, implying that delivered ow can be controlled continuously which enables energy savings. Even though this section focuses on
axial piston pumps, the theory outlined is analogous for other concepts and
also for motors and transformers.
Axial piston pumps comprise several pumping elements, i.e. pistons, normally 5, 7 or 9, organised in a compact rotating group. Due to the inclined
swash plate design, the pistons execute harmonic axial motions as the group
rotates. When the pistons are retracted, uid is drawn into the cylinder from
the suction port and when they are engaged, the uid is pushed out into the
delivery line. The two main designs for axial piston pumps are in-line and
bent-axis, illustrated in gures 4.1 and 4.2 respectively. A novel alternative to
existing axial piston pump designs is the oating cup machine [61]. This design
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page 32
enables more pumping elements to be combined in one unit, which aects uidborne as well as structure-borne noise. The working principle of the oating
cup unit is similar to both the in-line and the bent-axis units but is not studied
further in this work.
Figure 4.1 Illustration of an in-line axial piston pump. Courtesy of Parker

Hannin.
Figure 4.2 Illustration of a bent-axis axial piston pump. Courtesy of Parker

Hannin.
As the cylinder barrel rotates, the barrel top slides against the xed valve
plate, also known as the port plate see gure 4.3. It is important to design the
valve plate and the cylinder ports so that a sucient hydrostatic bearing is
obtained between the two parts. Metallic contact must be avoided since this
would cause rapid breakdown. The valve plate comprises two kidney-shaped
ports, one for discharge uid and one for suction port uid. For strength
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Noise origins in axial piston pumps
reasons, the discharge kidney port is often divided into several smaller ports,
as shown in gure 4.3. The principal idea of the valve plate is to separate the
two ports, i.e. to guarantee that one cylinder is not simultaneously linked up
to both ports, which would result in an internal leakage known as cross-ow.
But the valve plate design is also decisive for the noise generation, which is
further described in chapter 5.
Figure 4.3 Illustration of valve plate.
As already mentioned, the pump generates both hydraulic excitation energy,

i.e. ow ripples, and mechanical excitations, i.e. internal forces and bending
moments. Together, these noise excitations are considered the main origins of
overall noise in hydraulic systems. Another, principally dierent, kind of noise
is cavitation, recognised as a high-frequency hissing sound. Cavitation normally
occurs in valves, but does to some extent also appear in pumps. These dierent
noise generating mechanisms are treated in detail below. It is explained how a
simulation model can be used to predict the pump dynamics on a very detailed
level. Unless stated otherwise, all simulations and measurements carried out in
this thesis concern the geometry of a 60 cm3 /rev P2-pump, which is a sevenpiston in-line pump manufactured by Parker Hannin. To study the dierences
between pumps with odd and even piston numbers, however, this chapter also
show simulation results from a six-piston unit. The geometry of this six-piston
pump is scaled from the seven-piston pump according to a pre-dened scaling system [62]. The two pumps have the same displacement and the same
maximum displacement angle which makes the two units comparable. Also,
unless stated otherwise, all simulations are carried out at full displacement, at
a rotational speed of 2000 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. The only reason for the boosted suction port pressure is to
improve the quality of the source ow measurements in the experimental work
described later in this thesis. To obtain consistency in the thesis and to enable
comparisons of simulations from dierent valve plate designs, all simulations
are carried out using the same suction port pressure.
33
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4.1
The pump simulation model
A simulation model of a component or system serves several purposes.

The most obvious purpose concerns rapid parametrical investigations and
simulation-based optimisation in the development of new, or improvements
of existing, components or systems. Another important purpose is of an educational nature. With a simulation model it becomes very convenient to
study how a system or a component behaves. This is particularly important
in pump design. Due to the high-frequency nature of the pump dynamics,
and also since the cylinder barrel rotates, measurements of internal states are
practically dicult to accomplish and time-consuming. Simulation models can
therefore be used to obtain a thorough knowledge of the pump behaviour and
how it is aected by dierent design modications. Experimental studies have
also conrmed that simulation models often provide reliable predictions of the
pump dynamics on a highly detailed level. Today, a vast part of the pump
dynamics are well understood and can be simulated mathematically with very
satisfactory accuracy.
A pump can be modelled with dierent levels of complexity, serving dierent
purposes. At the system design stage, where the pump excitation energy is
not known in detail, it may be important to know how the external hydraulic
system interacts with a typical pump ow ripple input. For such investigations,
a very simple pump model which produces fairly likely ow ripples can be
employed. In [39], the authors show that a typical pump ow spectrum for
such investigations can be suciently modelled using two parameters only:
Q(k) = (A Bk)
for 1 k A/B
(4.1)
where k is the harmonic number of the ow oscillations. The parameters A

and B dene the harmonic spectrum amplitude and the maximum frequency
studied. This expression approximates the ow amplitude spectrum to a triangular envelope with a constant -180 phase. At pump designer stage, such
a model is obviously insucient. Instead, models with a considerably higher
level of complexity, capable of capturing how specic design modications correlate to dynamic behaviour such as ow ripples, internal forces, cavitation
etc., is required. Over the years, a wealth of dierent simulation models have
been developed for this purpose, see for instance [6365]. The pump simulation model employed in this work originates from an early model [62] developed
by Weddfelt and Pettersson. That simulation model contributed substantially
to the work published in their theses, see [66] and [22] respectively, and the
model accuracy has been extensively veried by experiments. The simulation
model is an application to the simulation program hopsan [67] developed at
Linkping University, mainly for hydraulic simulations. In [68], the model was
expanded to cover a more general geometry and in a last step the simulation
model was re-designed into a modularised approach in a graphical environment, see [69, 70]. Using this approach, physical components in the pump
34
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are represented by model components; a seven-piston pump has seven cylinder

components and so forth, see gure 4.4. A main simulation routine determines
piston strokes and velocities as functions of the cylinder barrel rotation. At the
same time, the valve plate routines determine the restriction coecients for the
openings between each cylinder and the discharge and suction port respectively.
The modelling principle holds for any displacement machine concept. The
dierence between for instance an in-line piston pump and a vane pump is principally encoded by the main routine and the valve plate kidney routines. Also,
leakage normally dier for the dierent machine concepts. This dierence can,
however, easily be implemented as add-on components. The modularised modelling technique used is based upon the same geometry and dynamic equations
as the previous model [62] but instead of one large and complex simulation
code describing the complete pump behaviour, the code is distributed into individual components sharing information, see gure 4.4. Due to the distributed
modelling technique, additional functionalities and design features can easily
be incorporated as new separate components.
Discharge
kidney
Cylinder
barrel
qdis
Inlet
kidney
qinl
Figure 4.4 Illustration of the modularised pump modelling approach. Each

physical component, such as piston and valve plate etc. is represented by a
model component, containing the modelling code necessary for this component
alone. A main routine determines the piston stroke, velocity, and the valve plate
restrictions between cylinder and the two kidneys as functions of rotated angle.
To obtain reliable predictions of the pump dynamics, it is important to

account for variations in pressure and for the free air in the uid. In this
simulation model, the bulk modulus is modelled according to the tangent value
35
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page 36
method:
oil
e =
1+
x0 oil
p 1x0
p0
p
1
(4.2)
The term x0 represents the volume fraction of free air at the reference pressure
p0 , and is the polytropic exponent. Each cylinder pressurisation and depressurisation occurs very fast and therefore the pump dynamics can be assumed
to be an adiabatic process. In this thesis, a value of 1.8 has been used, which
can be justied by the high pressure levels considered. For all simulations in
this thesis, 1.2% air content has been used, since this was indicated by some
initial measurements.
4.1.1
Fourier series expansion
The simulation model used produces simulation results as functions of time,

i.e. in the time domain, which is useful for understanding the pump dynamics,
i.e. how dierent design parameters inuences the behaviour. Time domain
simulations also reveal for instance peak-to-peak values, pressure overshoots
and indicate the risk of cavitation. However, the transformations from excitation energy into noise and vibrations are frequency dependent properties.
Also, as described in section 3.1, the human ear hears the frequency spectrum
of noise. It is thus important to also investigate the frequency content, i.e. the
Fourier series, of the simulated signals.
On condition that [71]:
f (t) is bounded and periodic, i.e. f (t) = f (t + Tp ), where Tp is the period
in any period, f (t) is continuous, except for a nite number of discontinuities
in any period, f (t) has only a nite number of maxima and minima
the function f (t), oscillating at multiples k of the fundamental harmonic frequency 0 = 2/Tp , can be described using its Fourier series coecients ak
and bk :

a0
+
(4.3)
ak cos(k0 t) + bk sin(k0 t)
f (t) =
2
k=1
where ak and bk are determined as:

T
ak = T2p 0 p f (t) cos(k 0 t)dt
T
bk = T2p 0 p f (t) sin(k 0 t)dt
(4.4)
(4.5)
In practice, only the rst requirement will be important when dealing with
physical quantities. The Fourier series, Fk = ak ibk , is a complex quantity,
often represented graphically using absolute value (amplitude) and phase. In
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this thesis, capital letters are generally used for frequency domain quantities
and small letters for time domain quantities.
In reality, it is not possible to directly obtain the Fourier series from a sampled signal. Instead, a numerical Fourier transformation is carried out, often
employing the computationally ecient Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. If the total simulation time is an integer multiple of the period of the
sampled signal, the Fourier series coecients can be obtained from the FFT
spectrum. This requirement can easily be guaranteed if the sampled signals
are obtained from simulations. In practical measurements, however, where the
period time of the original signal is normally not known exactly, a more sophisticated mathematical procedure [72] is required to derive the accurate Fourier
series coecients from the FFT spectrum, see section 8.4.1.
4.2
Flow pulsations
High-frequency ripples superimpose the pump generated ow in both discharge

and suction port. These ripples appear as a consequence of the ow discretisation, obtained when the uid is separated into a discrete number of compartments delivered pulse-wise to the discharge and suction ports. The ow ripples
comprise two principally dierent parts: the kinematic ow ripples due to the
kinematic motion of each individual piston and the compressible ow ripples
caused by the uid compliance. The simulation results shown in the following sections are determined using zero-lapped valve plates, which means that
the lands between the kidneys can accommodate exactly one cylinder port, see
gure 4.5.
Figure 4.5 Illustration of zero-lapped valve plate. The lands between the kidneys can accommodate exactly one cylinder port.
37
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4.2.1
Kinematic ow
The kinematic discharge ow, which is the sum of the positive ow contribution
from each piston motion, can normally be determined as:
qk (t) = Dp n
z
gj > 0
gj
(4.6)
j=1

2
gj (t) = sin 2nt + (j 1)
z
The kinematic suction port ow is obtained in the same manner. There is a
fundamental dierence between the kinematic ow ripples from pumps with
odd and even piston numbers, which can be seen in gure 4.6. In pumps
with odd piston numbers, cylinders enter and leave the discharge port alternately, separated by a half period Tp = 1/(nz). In pumps with even piston
numbers, however, the cylinders enter and leave the discharge port in pairs.
Consequently, during each period the kinematic ow ripples reproduce twice
for pumps with odd piston numbers but only once for pumps with even piston
numbers.
150
100
Kinematic flow [l/min]
150
Tp
50
4.6(a)
10
Time [ms]
15
20
100
Tp
50
10
Time [ms]
15
20
4.6(b)
Figure 4.6 Kinematic ow from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump (b)
respectively. Dotted lines correspond to the kinematic ow from each individual
piston motion, whereas the solid lines are the total kinematic ows. As can be
seen, the kinematic ow ripples reproduce twice each period Tp for pumps with
odd piston numbers but only once for pumps with even piston numbers.
One common gure of merit used for rating ow ripples in the time domain
is the degree of non-uniformity. The kinematic degree of non-uniformity can
be approximated with very high accuracy as:

1 2
qk
for odd piston numbers
8 z
=
(4.7)
k =
2
1
qp
for even piston numbers
2 z
as shown in [73], where qk is the peak-to-peak kinematic ow and qp is the
theoretical pump ow. The ratio between the kinematic non-uniformities of
38
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page 39
a six-piston and a seven-piston unit can be approximately determined to 5.4

which is substantial.
The dierence in kinematic ow ripples from pumps with odd and even piston
numbers can be further understood by studying the Fourier series expansion of
equation 4.6, see [73]:
1
j = 2, 4, 6, ...for odd piston numbers
Qk = 2Dp n
(4.8)
j = 1, 2, 3, ...for even piston numbers
(zj)2 1
Thus, the kinematic ow ripples from a pump with odd piston numbers contain information only at every second multiple of the fundamental harmonic
frequency 0 = 2nz, which can also be seen in gure 4.7(a). For pumps with
even piston numbers, on the other hand, the frequency content is located to
each multiple of the fundamental frequency, gure 4.7(b).
8
8
6
4
2
0
4.7(a)
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
6
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
4.7(b)
Figure 4.7 Kinematic ow from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump (b)
respectively. The kinematic ow is located to every second multiple of the fundamental frequency 0 for pumps with odd piston numbers, but to each multiple
when using even piston numbers. This is an important argument why pumps
almost entirely have odd piston numbers.
Few means exist to reduce the kinematic ow ripples. One way is to modify
the geometrical motions of the pumping elements. This may be relevant in for
instance vane machines, where the kinematic contribution to the overall ow
ripples is often considerable. This is also practically accomplished fairly easily
in a vane machine by modifying the cam ring prole. A similar approach for
minimising the kinematic ow ripples from radial piston units is carried out
in [74]. Such eorts, however, have limited practical value in high-pressure
applications, where the compressible ow ripples clearly dominate.
Another way to aect the kinematic ow ripples is to distribute the pumping
elements unevenly along the lap, as done in [75]. As a consequence, the dynamics becomes periodic with the fundamental frequency equivalent to the driving
shaft frequency. This means that the frequency content is spread out over a
greater number of harmonic frequencies than for a conventional pump. Such a
39
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page 40
design will also have an eect on the compressible ow and on the piston forces
and bending moments. The concept of uneven distribution of cylinders in axial
piston pumps has not been investigated to date. However, since the internal
force balance between the cylinder barrel and the valve plate is crucial, uneven
distribution of pistons could be detremental to proper function.
4.2.2
Compressible ow
20
Compressible flow [l/min]
The compressible part of the ow ripples appears as a consequence of the uid

compliance. If the cylinder pressure is not matched to the port pressure at the
moment when the cylinder links up to the port kidney, a sudden ow pulse
will appear into or out from the cylinder. For a zero-lapped valve plate, the
cylinder pressure is equal to suction pressure as the cylinder port links up to the
discharge kidney and vice versa. Obviously, this will cause a maximum of ow
ripples in both discharge and suction ports. Figure 4.8 shows the compressible
discharge ow obtained with a seven-piston and a six-piston pump respectively,
both with zero-lapped valve plates. The sudden ow pulse into the cylinder
pressurises the cylinder uid from suction pressure to discharge pressure. As
can be seen, the ow pulse is somewhat larger when using the six-piston pump.
The reason is that both the stroking volume and the cylinder dead volume is 7/6
times larger for the six-piston unit than for the seven-piston unit, which hence
implies more uid to pressurise. This dierence originates from the scaling
system used to make the two units comparable [62]. Similar ow pulses appear
in the suction port. The degree of non-uniformity can also be determined
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100
4.8(a)
Time [ms]
20
0
-20
-40
-60
-80
-100
Time [ms]
4.8(b)
Figure 4.8 Compressible ow from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump

(b) respectively. When the cylinder links up to the discharge port kidney, uid
ows back into the cylinder. Even though the peak-to-peak ow pulse can be
reduced by the valve plate design (see section 5), the total compression loss, i.e.
the integrated area of the compressible pulse, remains unaected.
for the compressible ow ripples, but becomes considerably more complicated,

see [73].
As illustrated in gures 4.8(a) and 4.8(b), one compressible pulse appears
40
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10
each period both for the seven-piston and the six-piston pump. Thus, irrespective of the piston number, the frequency content is located to each harmonic
frequency. Figures 4.9(a) and 4.9(b) show the amplitude spectra of the compressible ow ripple from a seven-piston and a six-piston pump respectively.
For the zero-lapped valve plate, the compressible ow ripples clearly dominate
the kinematic ow ripples, which can be seen both in the time and in the
frequency domain. However, in contrast to the kinematic ow ripple, the compressible kind can be widely modied by small modications in the valve plate
design, which is further described in chapter 5.
8
6
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
4.9(a)
30
10
8
6
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
4.9(b)
Figure 4.9 Frequency content of the compressible ow from a seven-piston (a)

and a six-piston pump (b) respectively. Besides the fact that the six-piston unit
produces more compressible pulsations due to the slightly larger stroking volume
and cylinder dead volume, the shapes of the two spectra are very similar.
4.2.3
Total ow
The total ow is obviously obtained as the sum of the kinematic and compressible ows. Figures 4.10 and 4.11 show the simulated total ow ripples from the
seven-piston and the six-piston units in the time domain and in the frequency
domain respectively. In the latter diagrams, the total heights of the lled bars
represent the total ow ripple amplitudes whereas the empty bars correspond
to the kinematic ow contribution.
Normally, the rst harmonic frequency dominates the amplitude spectra for
both kinematic and compressible ows. Thus, when using a pump with even
piston numbers, the rst harmonic of the kinematic ow adds on to the rst
harmonic of the compressible ow. Together, this results in a large pulsation
amplitude for the rst harmonic frequency. In a pump with odd piston numbers
on the other hand, the rst harmonic of the kinematic ow adds on to the second
harmonic of the compressible ow. The second harmonic of the compressible
ow ripples normally has lower pulsation amplitude than the rst harmonic
which implies that both the rst and the second harmonic frequency of the
41
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total ow ripples are lower for pumps with odd piston numbers. The dierence
becomes obvious by comparing gures 4.11(a) and 4.11(b) and is to date one
of the more important reasons why pumps with odd piston numbers clearly
dominate the market. However, along with the ever increasing system pressure
levels, the compressible ow ripples increase. This in turn implies that the
kinematic contribution to the total ow ripple becomes less important. A more
comprehensive mathematical description of both kinematic and compressible
ow ripples is given in [73] and more on the dierences between pumps with
odd and even piston numbers is to be found in [22].
140
Discharge flow [l/min]
140
100
60
20
Time [ms]
100
60
20
4.10(a)
Time [ms]
4.10(b)
Figure 4.10 Total discharge ow from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump
(b) respectively obtained as the sum of the kinematic and the compressible ows.
20
20
15
10
5
0
4.11(a)
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
15
10
5
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
4.11(b)
Figure 4.11 Frequency content of the kinematic and total ow ripples for a
seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump (b) respectively. The absolute height of
the lled bars corresponds to the total ow whereas the empty bars illustrate
the kinematic ow contribution. Thus, the dierence between the total ow and
the kinematic ow is the compressible part.
42
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page 43
4.3
Pump internal forces and moments
As the barrel rotates, the cylinder pressure inherently alternates between suction port and discharge port pressure. Thus, each piston will be exposed to
varying loads of several ten thousand Newton. The sum of all piston forces,
referred to as the resulting piston force Fp,tot , can be determined as:
Fp,tot (t) = Ap
z
pc,k (t)
(4.9)
k=1
35
30
25
20
4.12(a)
Time [ms]
Resulting piston force [kN]
where pc,k is the pressure in cylinder k. In pumps with odd piston numbers, the
number of cylinders connected to the discharge port alternates between (z+1)/2
and (z1)/2. Consequently, the resulting piston force also inherently alternates
z1
between the distinctive values z+1
2 Ap pd and 2 Ap pd . For a zero-lapped valve
plate, the pressurisation and depressurisation of cylinder uid becomes almost
instantaneous. This implies that the shape of the resulting piston force will
approach a pulse train oscillating with the fundamental frequency 0 = 2nz,
see gure 4.12(a). For units with even piston numbers however, the average
number of cylinders connected to discharge port is always z/2. Exept for a
small transient at the commutation region, i.e. where the cylinders switch
between the two kidneys, the resulting piston force therefore remains constant,
see 4.12(b). This is one of the more important arguments for designing pumps
with even piston numbers. The corresponding amplitude spectra are shown in
gures 4.13(a) and 4.13(b) respectively.
35
30
25
20
Time [ms]
4.12(b)
Figure 4.12 Resulting piston force as function of time from a seven-piston (a)
and a six-piston pump (b) respectively. In pumps with odd piston numbers, the
resulting piston force alternates between two distinctive values. For pumps with
even piston numbers, the resulting piston force remains constant, except during
commutation.
As for the compressible ow ripples, the internal forces can also be aected
signicantly by modifying the design of the valve plate, which is shown in
chapter 5. For pumps with even piston numbers, the peak-to-peak force transient obtained at commutation, see gure 4.12(b), can be reduced. This is
43
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5
4
3
2
1
0
4.13(a)
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
5
4
3
2
1
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
4.13(b)
Figure 4.13 Frequency content of the resulting piston force from a seven-piston
(a) and a six-piston pump (b) respectively. The considerably lower pulsations of
the resulting piston force is one of the more important arguments for designing
pumps with even piston numbers.
not possible for pumps with odd piston numbers since the number of cylinders
connected to the discharge port inherently alternates. It is, however, possible
to widely modify the shape of the force prole, i.e. the cylinder pressurisation
and depressurisation, by the valve plate design. To reduce the directly emitted
pump noise, and thereby also the structure-borne noise from the pump out
into the surrounding mechanical system, it is important that the cylinder uid
be pressurised and depressurised as smoothly as possible. As shown in [22],
the transformation from pump internal piston forces and bending moments to
noise emission is as much as a hundred times larger for high frequencies than
for low frequencies. Hence, the broad band frequency spectrum of a pulse train
shaped resulting piston force, see gure 4.12(a), which is almost the case for
pumps with odd piston numbers using zero-lapped valve plates, is expected
to generate severe noise emissions from the pump. The smoothest resulting
piston force ever obtainable, given a certain peak-to-peak value, is a pure sine
signal with energy located exclusively to one single frequency, see gure 4.14.
In practice, it is very dicult to design a valve plate that creates perfectly sine
shaped resulting piston force. A guideline for the pump designer, however, is
to keep the pressurisation and depressurisation rates, dened as dpc /dt, as low
as possible and thereby obtain the smoothest possible resulting piston force
prole, see section 6.3.1.
Regarding noise emissions, the decompression region is at least as important as the pre-compression region, which can be understood by the following
discussion. During the last part of the suction phase, very low cylinder pressures may appear since the opening to the suction port is about to close. As
a consequence, the play between the piston slipper and the swash plate may
increase. When the cylinder links up to the discharge port, the pistons are
rapidly loaded, which implies that this play is rapidly reduced. A prevalent
theory in pump design is that this so-called hammering eect, i.e. when the
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1.5
Fourier series amplitude []
Time function []
2
0
4.14(a)
0.5
Time [s]
0.5
0
0
10
20
Harmonics []
30
4.14(b)
Figure 4.14 For a given peak-to-peak value, no prole smoother than the perfect sine curve can be obtained. The sine curve (solid and lled) is strictly
located to the rst harmonic frequency whereas the pulse train shaped prole
(dashed and empty) comprises a large number of harmonic frequencies.
piston slipper bounces on the hydrostatic bearing between the slipper and the
swash plate, contributes strongly to noise and vibrations in the pump housing.
In [76], however, the author claims that even though the piston acceleration
due to the cylinder pressurisation may be large, the distance between slipper
and swash plate is far too small to cause any signicant piston velocities. The
impact of the piston momentum on the swash plate thus becomes negligible
and no noise is therefore expected from this phenomenon. This fact is further
conrmed by the study conducted in appended paper [II]. If the hammering
eect is the main reason for direct noise emission, the decompression region
should be of less importance since no such hammering occurs in this region.
The study in appended paper [II], however reveals that the decompression region is at least as important as the pre-compression region regarding direct
noise emission. It is hence conrmed that the vibration of the pump housing
obtained as a consequence of the pulsating force are more important for noise
emission than the hammering eect.
The experimental work carried out in [22] shows that even though alternating
piston forces are the most important source of direct noise emissions and vibrations in pump housing, the bending moments inside the pump also strongly
contribute. The study in [22] also shows that noise emissions and pump housing vibrations can be predicted with very high accuracy by only considering
the resulting piston force and the bending moments, Mx and My , and that
the driving shaft torque Mz is of minor importance. For other applications
with weaker pump support structure and for pump housings that are weak in
the rotational direction, however, the driving shaft torque is also expected to
inuence the noise emissions and housing vibrations.
With geometry dened as in gure 4.15, the bending moments Mx and My
45
9:7
page 46
obtained by the piston forces can be determined as:

Mx (t)
My (t)
=
=
z1

k=0
z1

k=0

k2
pc,k (t)Ap Rb cos t +
z
(4.10)

k2
pc,k (t)Ap Rb sin t +
z
(4.11)
and the driving shaft torque Mz required to rotate the barrel as:
Mz (t) =
z1

k=0

k2
pc,k (t)Ap Rb tansin t +
z
(4.12)
These expressions are simplied, ignoring friction as well as inertia terms. They
are, however, considered to give fair approximations and are also used in [22].
Thus, the bending moments and the driving shaft torque do not only vary as
wt
i
2p
z
y
x
Discharge
port
Suction
port
Figure 4.15 Geometry for determining the bending moments and driving shaft
. x
torques. The angular distribution of z cylinders on one complete lap is 2
z
and y corresponds to the spatial location of the resulting piston force. t is the
rotated angle of the cylinder barrel, starting from the positive y-axis.
a result of the varying piston forces. In addition, the cylinder barrel rotates,
implying that the centre of action of the resulting piston force varies. Figures
4.16(a) and 4.16(b) show simulation results of the bending moments and the
driving shaft torques obtained by the seven-piston and the six-piston pump respectively, both with zero-lapped valve plates. Several interesting observations
can be made. The peak-to-peak value of the bending moment Mx is not only
considerably larger than those of My and Mz . In addition, Mx oscillates between positive and negative values. Geometrical plays are thereby very likely
to be released, which could be an important source of noise. Another observation is that when using zero-lapped valve plates, both the seven-piston and the
46
9:7
page 47
six-piston units give rise to saw tooth shaped bending moments which are rich
in frequencies, see gures 4.17(a) and 4.17(b). Furthermore, it is shown that
the pulsations of the driving shaft torques are negligible compared with the
bending moments. Apparently, Mx should be given much higher priority than
the other two quantities in pump design. Generally, the six-piston unit seems
to produce larger peak-to-peak moments than the seven-piston unit. This is
due to the fact that the cylinders enter and leave the discharge port in pairs
which is another argument in favour of pump designs with odd piston numbers.
400
Moments [Nm]
Moments [Nm]
400
-400
-800
-400
Time [ms]
-800
4.16(a)
Time [ms]
4.16(b)
250
250
200
200
Moments [Nm]
Moments [Nm]
Figure 4.16 Bending moment Mx (solid) and My (dotted) and driving shaft
torque Mz (dashed), from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump (b) respectively.
150
100
50
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
4.17(a) Seven-piston pump.
30
150
100
50
0
10.0
20
Harmonics [-]
30
4.17(b) Six-piston pump.
Figure 4.17 Spectra of bending moment Mx (empty) and My (shaded) and

driving shaft torque Mz (lled), from a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump
(b) respectively.
Unlike the resulting piston force, the bending moments are not bounded to a
certain pulsation peak-to-peak value. The pump designer thus has the ability
to aect both peak-to-peak values and frequency content of the moments. The
problem is to know what to aim at. As illustrated earlier, the energy content
47
9:7
page 48
of the resulting piston force is minimised as the prole reproduces a sine curve.
Interestingly, the bending moments and driving shaft torques are also benecially inuenced by a sine shaped resulting piston force prole. To illustrate
this, dimensionless bending moments Mx,n and My,n and driving shaft torque
Mz,n , determined as shown in equation 4.13, are derived. The moments are
normalised with respect to the cylinder barrel radius Rb . But also the piston
force Fp,n,k , used to determine the moments, is normalised with respect to the
maximum piston force, i.e. the piston force obtained when the cylinder is connected to the discharge port. Thus, the simulation results in following study
are not obtained using the HOPSAN model.
Mx,n (t)
My,n (t)
Mz,n (t)
=
=
=
z1

k=0
z1

k=0
z1

k=0

k2
Fp,n,k (t)cos t +
z
(4.13)

k2
Fp,n,k (t)sin t +
z
(4.14)

k2
Fp,n,k (t)tansin t +
z
(4.15)
The moments and the driving shaft torque are determined for two principally
dierent piston force proles Fp,n,k . Figures 4.18(a) and 4.18(b) show perfectly
sine shaped piston forces for a seven-piston and a six-piston pump respectively.
In the same way, gures 4.18(c) and 4.18(d) show pulse train shaped piston
forces for a seven-piston and a six-piston pump respectively. The normalised
bending moments and driving shaft torques obtained with the two idealised
piston force proles are shown in gures 4.19 and 4.20 for a seven-piston and
a six-piston pump respectively. Apparently, sine shaped piston force proles
create almost perfectly sine shaped bending moments and driving shaft torques.
As can be seen, a massive improvement is obtained for the moment Mx,n for
both the seven-piston and the six-piston unit. First of all, it is now constrained
strictly to positive values. Secondly, it becomes very close to a sine curve and
the frequency content is thus extremely concentrated to the second harmonic
frequency for the seven-piston pump and the rst harmonic frequency for the
six-piston pump. Thirdly, the peak-to-peak value is reduced by approximately a
factor of three. The moment My,n and the driving shaft torque Mz,n do not gain
such a considerable improvement. The most important improvement is that the
moment transient of both My,n and Mz,n , occuring each time a cylinder enters
or leaves the discharge port, is avoided when using sinusoidally varying piston
forces. Instead, smoother oscillations are obtained. As a consequence, it can be
seen that the high-frequency contents are reduced at the expense of a slightly
increased rst harmonic. The pulsations of My,n and Mz,n , however, are clearly
less than Mx,n which implies that these quantities should be subordinated in
pump design.
Given the normalised moments Mx,n and My,n , it is also possible to deter-
48
9:7
page 49
Norm. piston forces []
4
3
2
1
0
0
2
3
Time []
4
3
2
1
0
0
4.18(a)
4.18(b)
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
2
3
Time []
4.18(c)
2
3
Time []
2
3
Time []
4
3
2
1
0
0
4.18(d)
Figure 4.18 Figure (a) and (b) show normalised sinusoidally varying individual
piston forces (dashed) and resulting piston force (solid) from a seven-piston and
a six-piston pump respectively. Figure (c) and (d) show instantaneously varying
individual piston forces (dashed) and resulting piston force (solid) from a sevenpiston and a six-piston pump respectively.
mine the centre of action of the resulting piston force, normalised with respect
to the cylinder barrel radius Rb :
xn (t)
My,n (t)
Fp,tot,n (t)
M
(t)
x,n
yn (t) = Fp,tot,n
(t)
(4.16)
(4.17)
(4.18)
Figure 4.21 shows the calculated normalised centres of action obtained with
the two dierent idealised piston force proles illustrated in gure 4.18. The
centres of action move along the arrows. The height of each bar corresponds
to the magnitude of the normalised piston force and each bar is separated by
a simulation time step. Hence, sparsely located bars indicate rapid movement
of the centre of action and vice versa. Study to start with the centre of action of the resulting piston force for the seven-piston unit, gure 4.21(a). For
pulse train shaped piston forces (dotted lines), the centre of action follows two
49
0.4
Norm.moment Mx,n []
Norm. moment Mx,n []
0.8
0.8
0
0.5
Time []
10
20
Harmonics []
30
Norm. moment M
y,n
[]
Norm. moment My,n []
0.5
Time []
10
20
Harmonics []
30
10
20
Harmonics []
30
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0
4.19(c)
4.19(d)
0.65
0.01
Norm. shaft torque Mz,n []
0.04
2.2
0.64
0.008
0.63
0.004
0.62
0.003
0.61
4.19(e)
0.1
4.19(b)
2.1
0.6
0
0.2
4.19(a)
2.3
0
0.3
0.002
0.5
Time []
0
0
4.19(f )
Figure 4.19 Figures (a), (c) and (e) show the normalised bending moments
Mx,n and My,n and the driving shaft torque Mz,n as functions of time from a
pump with seven pistons. Figures (b), (d) and (f) show the frequency contents
of the same signals. Dashed lines and bars are obtained with idealised pulse
train shaped piston forces. Solid lines and stars are obtained with idealised sine
shaped piston forces. Please, note that the scales dier.
50
0.8
1.5
0.6
1.5
0
0.4
0.2
0.5
Time []
4.20(a)
Norm. shaft torque My,n []
Norm. moment My,n []
1.9
0.5
Time []
30
10
20
Harmonics []
30
0.1
0.05
4.20(d)
0.6
0.05
10
20
Harmonics []
0.15
4.20(c)
0.5
4.20(e)
30
0.2
1.6
0.4
0
10
20
Harmonics []
4.20(b)
1.3
2.2
0
0.5
Time []
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
4.20(f )
Figure 4.20 Figures (a), (c) and (e) show the normalised bending moments
Mx,n and My,n and the driving shaft torque Mz,n as functions of time from a
pump with six pistons. Figures (b), (d) and (f) show the frequency contents
of the same signals. Dashed lines and bars are obtained with idealised pulse
train shaped piston forces. Solid lines and stars are obtained with idealised sine
shaped piston forces. Please, notie that the scales dier.
51
9:7
page 52
dierent lines (1-2 and 3-4) in the x-y plane. The right hand side line (from
point 1 to 2) is obtained when three cylinders are connected to the discharge
port and the left hand side line (from point 3 to 4) when four cylinders are
connected. Between these two lines, no bars are present, which indicates that
the centre of action jumps instantaneously between points 2-3 and 4-1. In reality, where pressure changes are never completely instantaneous, even for a
zero-lapped valve plate, sparsely distributed bars will appear along these lines.
One of the improvements from having a sinusoidally oscillating piston force
is that the centre of action is constrained strictly to negative y-values (solid
lines), as already mentioned. The centre of action thereby no longer oscillates
around the zero and thus releases no play. Another improvement, visualised
by the very evenly sparsed bars, is that the movement occurs very smoothly
with no sudden jumps. It is also shown how smoothly the magnitude of the
resulting piston force is increased.
Study now the centre of action of the resulting piston force for the six-piston
unit shown in gure 4.21(b). Since three cylinders are always connected to the
discharge port, the centre of action smoothly follows the curved line (dotted
lines) from point 1 to point 2 when using pulse train shaped piston forces.
Here, an instantaneous jump back to point 1 along the arrow occurs. The sine
shaped piston forces (solid lines) give rise to the same improvements as for the
seven-piston unit; strictly negative y-values and very evenly distributed bars
indicate smooth movement.
This study illustrates the importance of smooth pressurisation and depressurisation. A concluding remark is that a sinusoidally varying force prole is
most likely very desirable from a noise point of view, not only since the force
oscillation energy is minimised, as shown in gure 4.14. Also, the bending moments and the driving shaft torques becomes almost sinusoidal. Such moment
and torque proles have very low energy content located almost exclusively at
one single harmonic frequency. By designing a pump housing that minimises
interaction around this specic frequency, noise emission can be succesfully reduced. In addition, when using sinusoidal piston forces, the peak-to-peak value
of the moment Mx,n , which is the bending moment that is considered to be the
most important from a noise point of view, is reduced by a factor of three.
4.4
Air-release and cavitation
Air-release and cavitation both occur as the static uid pressure drops to very
low values. Normally, these phenomena are predominantly obtained in valves,
but also appear in hydrostaic pumps.
All hydraulic uid contains air to a greater or lesser degree. As long as the air
is dissolved in the uid, it has negligible inuence on the dynamic behaviour of
the pump. However, as the static pressure drops below the saturation pressure
52
Normalised resulting
piston force []
2
3
0
0.4
in []
e
nc ion
sta ct
Di dire
y
0
0.4
0.4
0.6
Distance in x direction []
0.8
4.21(a)
Normalised resulting
piston force []
3
2
1
0
0.4
in []
e
nc ion
sta ct
Di dire
y
0
2
0.4
0.4
0.6
0.8
Distance in x direction []
4.21(b)
Figure 4.21 Centres of action of resulting piston force, normalised with respect
to the cylinder barrel radius, for a seven-piston (a) and a six-piston pump (b)
respectively. Dotted lines correspond to the idealised pulse train shaped piston
forces, whereas the solid lines correspond to the idealised sine shaped piston
forces.
53
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page 54

level 1 , free air bubbles are formed in the uid. The air bubbles increase the
compliance of the uid which indirectly aects the sound level by increasing
the compressible uid dynamics. Increased air content also reduces volumetric
losses, partly because of the increased uid compliance and partly because of
deteriorated cylinder lling.
In hydraulic pumps, the low static pressure levels giving rise to air-release
are obtained in two principally dierent ways. The most obvious way is as the
piston tries to suck uid but the cylinder has not yet linked up to the suction
port kidney, or has already closed the connection to the suction port. The
pressure thereby rapidly drops and air bubbles may be formed. The other way
is when the cylinder opens up to the suction port while the cylinder pressure
is still substantial. As a consequence, a jet ow is fed out to the suction port.
The high velocity in this ow pulse causes high dynamic pressure which in turn
implies reduced static pressure and hence air-release. Thus, the suction port
design is important for the air-release as shown in appended paper [II].
Cavitation is obtained in a very similar manner. If the static uid pressure drops below current vaporisation pressure, depending among other things
upon the uid temperature, the uid will spontaneously vaporise and form gas
bubbles. As the pressure is regained, the gas bubbles collapse, which causes
local temperature rises. For very rapid collapses, which occur when the pressure rapidly grows to high values, the local temperature gradients may be so
excessive that spontaneous combustions occur. Such combustions generate the
characteristic hissing sound of cavitation, which is very rich in frequencies. The
broad band properties of cavitation are due to the random size of the gas bubbles formed. Besides noise, cavitation may very rapidly wear down uid as well
as components. In the experimental studies presented in [77], where cavitation
was provoked, valve plates were destroyed within a few minutes.
1 The air saturation pressure is the pressure level at which the air is dissolved into the
uid. For most hydraulic systems, this pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure.
54
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5
Pump design for
noise reduction
T
he valve plate is a key component of noise reduction in hydraulic pumps

and motors. With a careful design of the kidney opening and closing angles, the
cylinder pressures can be matched to the port pressures as the cylinders link
up to the kidneys. Thereby, both discharge and suction port ow ripples can
be modied dramatically regarding peak-to-peak values as well as frequency
content. But pressurisation and depressurisation are not only important for
reducing ow ripples. As shown in the previous chapter, transient changes in
cylinder pressure also give rise to transient piston forces and bending moments,
which substantially contribute to noise. To obtain smooth forces and moments,
it is important to consider the cylinder pressures and the cylinder pressure rates
dpc /dt. With the valve plate it is also possible to reduce the risk of cavitation
and reduce uid air-release, which both contribute to increased noise levels, as
shown in section 4.4.
The design of the valve plate, also known as timing, has interested many
researchers throughout the years and a great variety of dierent design features have been developed in order to reduce pump generated noise. Today,
most pumps have some sort of noise reducing design feature in the valve plate.
This chapter deals with some more or less eective design modications and
how these aect the dynamic behaviour of the pump. The discussion concerns
exclusively how dierent valve plate design features can be implemented at
discharge port commutation in pumps. However, the described features can
also be used at the suction port commutation in motors as well as in transformers. Since the principal eects of the design features proposed only aects
the compressible part of the uid dynamics, which is identical for any piston
number, the simulations in the present chapter concerns a seven-piston pump
only. Furthermore, all designs studied in the present chapter are optimised for
minimising peak-to-peak discharge ow ripple at full displacement, at a rotational speed of 2000 rpm, at 20MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction
port pressure.
55
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page 56
5.1
Pre-compression and decompression angles
A very simple way to match the cylinder pressure to the port pressure is to
postpone the opening to the discharge kidney, referred to as pre-compression
angle, gure 5.1. The piston motion thereby pressurises the cylinder uid before
BDC
Pre-comp
angle
Discharge
kidney
Figure 5.1 Illustration of an ordinary pre-compression angle. The postponed

opening enables the piston motion to pre-compress the cylinder uid before
linking up to the discharge kidney. If the cylinder is matched to the port pressure
at the opening moment, the ow ripple is reduced.
the cylinder links up to the kidney. Using such a simple design feature, the
ow ripples are improved considerably compared with a zero-lapped valve plate
both regarding peak-to-peak value and frequency content, see gures 5.2(a)
and 5.2(b). Identical improvements are also obtained for the suction port ow
ripples by implementing a decompression angle. It is important to realise that
the total compressible eect is inherently determined by the cylinder volume at
piston bottom and top dead-centre, and that it therefore remains constant for
all valve plate designs on condition that no cross-ow between the ports occurs.
Dierent valve plate designs, however, enable the ow pulse to be extended for
a longer time. As shown in gure 5.2(c), the optimal pre-compression angle
also gives a very smooth cylinder pressurisation, which is also visualised by the
almost linearly increasing cylinder pressure rate, gure 5.2(d).
Even though the pre-compression angle gives a smooth pressurisation and
a low peak-to-peak ow ripple, the design is very sensitive to varying operational conditions. With an ordinary pre-compression angle, the piston motion
alone determines the pressurisation. Therefore, if the system pressure level or
the displacement angle is changed, the piston motion no longer provides optimal pre-compression, implying that the ow ripples deteriorate. To reduce
the sensitivity to varying operational conditions, more sophisticated design features such as pressure relief groove or pre-compression lter volume must be
considered [78].
5.2
Pressure relief groove
The pressure relief groove is a complement to the ordinary pre-compression

angle. As illustrated in gure 5.3, the pressure relief groove is a narrow passageway milled into the valve plate at the port entrance. A small amount of
56
9:7
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Pump design for noise reduction
10
140
120
100
80
60
40
Time [ms]
20
15
10
5
5.2(c)
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
5.2(b)
Time [ms]
Cylinder pressure rate [Pa/s]
Cylinder pressure [MPa]
5.2(a)
25
1x1011
6x1010
2x1010
-2x1010
Time [ms]
5.2(d)
Figure 5.2 Flow ripples in the time domain (a), in the frequency domain (b),
cylinder pressures (c) and cylinder pressure rates (d). The dotted lines correspond to a zero-lapped valve plate whereas the solid lines are obtained using the
optimal pre-compression angle.
uid can thereby be transferred between the cylinder and the discharge port a
short moment before the cylinder links up to the port, which further improves
the cylinder pressure matching. As shown in gures 5.4(a) and 5.4(b), the ow
ripples are not considerably improved compared with ordinary pre-compression
angle, neither regarding peak-to-peak value nor the amplitude spectrum. The
benet from using a pressure relief groove, however, is that a fairly good cylinder pressure matching can be obtained even though the discharge pressure level
and the displacement angle vary [78]. As concluded in [79, 80], the pressure relief grooves are capable of reducing higher harmonic frequencies more eectively
than the ordinary pre-compression angles. At the lower harmonics, however,
especially the rst and the second, the amplitudes are about the same for the
two designs, which can be seen by comparing gures 5.2(b) and 5.4(b).
The uid transfer via the narrow passage channel requires a certain amount
of time. Therefore, the performance of the pressure relief groove deteriorates
at high rotational speeds. It has also been shown by experiments that very
high-frequency oscillations, due to inertia eects of the uid captured within
the pressure relief groove, are superimposed on the source ow [81]. In that
57
BDC
Discharge
kidney
Figure 5.3 The pressure relief groove is a narrow milled passageway that enables
a small amount of uid to be transferred between the cylinder and the port before
linking up. This improves the cylinder pressure matching when the operational
conditions vary.
10
140
120
100
80
60
40
Time [ms]
20
15
10
5
5.4(c)
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
5.4(b)
Time [ms]
5.4(a)
25
1x1011
6x1010
2x1010
-2x1010
Time [ms]
5.4(d)
optimal pressure relief groove design.
58
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page 59
study, the authors are concerned with modelling and experimental verication
of this inertia eect. Another technique for modelling this inertia eect, using
the nite volume approach, can be found in [82]. However, Kojima et. al.
claim that the uid inertia in the groove has virtually no inuence, except for
extremely high orders of harmonics [79].
When using a pressure relief groove, the cylinder pressurisation is slightly
increased compared with ordinary pre-compression angle. This is due to the
discharge uid being fed into the cylinder via the groove before the cylinder
has linked up to the discharge port. On the other hand, when linking up to
the discharge port, the commutation is smoother, which reduces the transient
cylinder pressure rate occuring at this point. In all, the peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate is about the same as for the ordinary pre-compression, which can
be seen in gure 5.4(d).
5.3
Pre-compression lter volume, PCFV
In order to further reduce the sensitivity to variations in operational conditions,

the pre-compmression lter volume PCFV (also known as pre-compression volume, PCV ) was developed at Linkping University, see [22, 83, 84]. As for the
pressure relief groove, the PCFV also uses a small amount of discharge port
uid to pressurise the cylinder before the cylinder has linked up to the discharge port. This pressurisation uid, however, is not taken directly from the
discharge port, but via an auxiliary volume (the PCFV) in the pump housing,
see gure 5.5. The pre-compression using a PCFV can be divided into two
phases. In the rst phase, the cylinder connects to the to the PCFV channel
which gives a rapid and excellent pressurisation of the cylinder that is about
to link up to the discharge kidney. During the second phase, which is the recharging phase, the cylinder is connected to both the discharge port and the
PCFV. Thereby, a small amount of discharge uid ows via the cylinder into
the PCFV that becomes recharged for the next cylinder to be pressurised.
Vpcfv
BDC
Discharge
kidney
Figure 5.5 A pre-compression lter volume, PCFV, gives a very good reduction
in ow ripple. The most important benet from using a PCFV is the extremely
low sensitivity to variations in operational conditions.
59
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The size of the PCFV studied in the present section is 125cm3, which is about
6 times the total volume of one cylinder (including stroking volume and dead
volume) for the particular pump. This is considerably larger than is proposed
in [22]. The importance of the PCFV size regarding peak-to-peak ow ripple
and peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate is illustrated in an example in chapter
7.
As shown in gure 5.6(a), the PCFV excellently reduces the peak-to-peak
ow ripple. An important aspect of the PCFV, that cannot be found for
other timing devices, is that also the rst two harmonics of the ow ripples are
signicantly reduced, see gure 5.6(b) (compare with gures 5.2(b) and 5.4(b)).
The amplitude of the rst harmonic of the ow ripple from the PCFV design
is reduced by a factor of two compared with both pre-compression angle and
pressure relief groove.
The cylinder pressurisation starts very early with a rapid increase, which is
obtained when the cylinder links up to the PCFV, gure 5.6(c). However, the
pressurisation also abates early and therefore the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate becomes low, as shown in gure 5.6(d). As can be seen in gure 5.6(c),
the pressurisation starts slightly before the zero-lapped valve plate design. The
optimisation carried out actually yields an opening angle to PCFV channel
that is 1 less than zero-lap, which obviously implies cross-ow between the
ports. Simulations, however, indicate that this cross-ow is only about of 0.03
l/min which is clearly negligible in relation to other losses in the pump.
The most important aspect of the PCFV is that it produces very good ow
ripples even though the operational conditions are changed [78]. Therefore, it
is a preferable choice in modern pumps which are normally exposed to widely
varying operational conditions. The drawbacks with the PCFV are the rather
high implementation cost and that it requires space in the pump housing. It has
also been shown [22] that a standing pressure wave between the cylinder and
the PCFV volume may occur. That study also describes a special cylinder port
design that reduces this eect and provides even smoother ow ripples. The
PCFV was patented in 1993 [85] and is frequently used in many conventional
pumps of today. More on the PCFV can be found in [86].
As for the other design features described, the PCFV can also be used at the
entrance to the suction port, then referred to as pre-expansion lter volume,
PEFV. The ability to reduce cavitation by means of a PEFV is investigated
in [87], and very satisfactory results are reported.
A comparison of these dierent design features concerning their sensitivity
to variations in operational conditions can be found in section 7.
5.4
Cross-angle
The operational point sensitivity is clearly one of the most challenging aspects
of valve plate design, especially in modern load sensing or constant pressure
controlled pumps, which operate with widely varying operational conditions.
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10
140
120
100
80
60
40
Time [ms]
20
15
10
5
5.6(c)
4
2
0
10
20
Harmonics [-]
30
5.6(b)
Time [ms]
5.6(a)
25
1x1011
6x1010
2x1010
-2x1010
Time [ms]
5.6(d)
optimal PCFV design.
Even though the sensitivity of the PCFV is considerably lower than when using
ordinary pre-compression or pressure relief groove, see section 7, there is a need
for timing devices that can account for varying operational conditions.
One such device is the revolving valve plate [88] which enables tunable precompression and decompression regions. The practical usage of revolving valve
plates, however, is limited since external on-line control devices are required
and due to complex and expensive implementation. Grahl, however, claims
in [88] that the industry will be forced to consider such solutions since both the
span of operational conditions and the environmental requirements concerning
low machinery noise are steadily increasing.
Another design that gives similar results to the revolving valve plate is the
cross-angle, see appended papers [IIIV]. The cross-angle is an additional incline of the swash plate perpendicularly to the traditional displacement direction, according to gure 5.7. With the cross-angle, the piston dead-centres vary
as functions of the displacement angle which enables variable pre-compression
and decompression. Thus, the principle is very similar to the revolving valve
plate, but no external control device is required since the varying dead-centres
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Swash axis
Cross-angle g
Figure 5.7 The cross-angle is an additional incline of the swash plate, in the
direction that is perpendicular to the traditional displacement direction. When
using the cross-angle, it is possible to obtain varying piston dead-centres as
functions of the displacement angle.
are inherently obtained as functions of the swash plate angle. Given constant
discharge pressure, the cross-angle can provide minimisation of discharge and
suction port ow ripples for all displacement angles simultaneously. It is thus
especially suited for constant pressure, variable displacement units. The crossangle, however, is unable to reduce the sensitivity to varying discharge pressure.
On the other hand, when using a cross-angle, the sensitivity to discharge pressure levels is not worse than when using a traditional swash plate, i.e. without
the cross-angle. The cross-angle can be accompanied by conventional valve
plate design features such as pressure relief groove and PCFV, which further
improves performance. More on the design of the cross-angle and how it reduces the sensitivity to variations in operational conditions is to be found in
chapter 9. The cross-angle is rarely used in commercial machines today.
5.5
Other design features for varying operational

conditions
A great number of other design features developed for reducing the sensitivity
to operational conditions also exist. This section will give a brief overview of
some dierent proposals.
One group of design features employ check valves. As shown in gure 5.8(a),
a drilled hole enables uid to ow from the cylinder to the discharge port via the
check valves. The valve plate can thereby be designed for maximum discharge
pressure. At lower pressure levels, exaggerated cylinder pre-compression is
avoided since excess uid is fed via the check valve to the discharge port,
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see [22, 88]. A drawback with the principle, however, is excessive wear due
to the almost undamped oscillations of the check valve poppet. The poppet
must also have a very low mass in order to obtain suciently rapid movements.
Modern ceramic materials may enable the low weight required and this kind of
inertia problem is perhaps no longer an issue. To benet from the behaviour of
the check-valves, but avoid the poppet oscillations, the performance of a vortex
diode is investigated in [89]. The diodicity of this device, however, is reported
to be insucient for this application.
In [90] a slightly dierent approach is presented, that uses several highly
damped check valves (HDCV) mounted in series as shown in gure 5.8(b), is
presented. Since these check valves are highly damped, they do not oscillate.
Instead, the pressure balance over the poppet gives a stationary opening that
is automatically adjusted if the operational conditions change. Several HDCV
in series are somewhat like a variable pressure relief groove; the virtual crosssectional area and length of this variable pressure relief groove is determined by
the pressure balance over the HDCV. Implementation of such check valves is
however expected to be very costly and the results are not improved drastically
compared with a PCFV.
Highly damped
check valves
Traditional
check valve
Discharge
kidney
5.8(a)
Discharge
kidney
5.8(b)
Figure 5.8 Dierent concepts using check valves to reduce the sensitivity to
varying operational conditions have been investigated. Figure (a) shows a traditional check valve whereas gure (b) illustrates several serially mounted highly
damped check valves (HDCV).
Another design feature developed for, among other things, reducing noise
in the Innas hydraulic transformer concept, IHT, is the shuttle, illustrated for
instance in appended paper [I] and in [91]. In the IHT, commutation occurs
at places other than piston dead-centres. Therefore, considerable piston motions at commutation give rise to excessive pressure overshoots. With shuttles
mounted between consecutive cylinders, a small amount of uid can be transferred between the cylinders, thereby eectively reducing the large cylinder
pressure overshoots. In turn, this implies that some of the transients in the
driving shaft torque can be reduced, which improves the controllability. The
noise level, however, is not unambiguously reduced as expected, see [91]. One
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reason for this may be that the shuttle design is not optimised in the test hardware. Another reason may be that the excessive cylinder pressure overshoots
are not the dominant noise contributing mechanism. For pump and motor
applications, the shuttles seem to have a very low practical value. In order
to obtain a shuttle movement, and thus a uid transfer between the consecutive cylinders, the cylinder pressure overshoots must be very large. Normally,
pumps are never that badly designed and the shuttles cannot contribute to any
improvement.
5.6
Suction port timing for reduction of airrelease and cavitation
The design of the valve plate at suction port commutation is decisive for how
well air-release and cavitation can be reduced. But also the noise level of the
pump is highly correlated to the suction port timing. If the cylinder uid is
not decompressed to suction port pressure at the moment where the cylinder
links up to the suction port, transient piston forces and severe suction port
ow ripples are obtained. A traditional decompression angle provides eective decompression of the cylinder uid before linking up to the tank port,
and thereby reduces air-release, cavitation and noise emissions. Such a design,
however, is very sensitive to variations in operational conditions, in the same
way as for the pre-compression angle. In order to obtain reasonable decompression for a wider span of operational conditions, special valve plate designs
involving for instance pressure relief grooves or the PEFV [87], mentioned in
section 5.3, must be considered. More on the importance of suction port timing in order to reduce air-release and noise level can be found in appended
paper [II]. That study also includes a small investigation of a valve plate
design feature at suction port opening, referred to as the Air Drain Groove,
ADG. The ADG is a sort of pressure relief groove, but instead of connecting
the cylinder to the suction port, as for a conventional pressure relief groove,
it connects to the pump casing, see gure 5.9. The sudden ow pulse, and
hence the air-release, are thereby directed into the drain port instead of into
the suction port. This is expected to reduce the air-release in the uid that
runs through the main circuit. The result from this small investigation of the
ADG does not, however, reveal any considerable improvement compared with
conventional pressure relief grooves at suction port commutation.
Air-release and cavitation at suction port commutation may also be benecially inuenced by the cross-angle, since it provides optimal decompression
for all displacement angles, given constant discharge pressure, see chapter 9.
64
Figure 5.9 The air drain groove, ADG, is a sort of pressure relief groove, but instead of connecting to the suction port, like a conventional pressure relief groove,
it connects to the drain. The idea of the ADG is to direct the compressible ow
pulse, and hence the air-release, into the drain port instead of into the suction
port. This is expected to reduce the air-release in the system uid.
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6
Simulation-based
optimisation
I
n order to reduce development time and cost, which may be decisive for
how successful the nal product will be in the marketplace, there is very limited room for mistakes in the product development process. It is important
that product development is rapid without jeopardising product quality and
performance. Each decision must be carefully considered in order to avoid very
costly and time-consuming development process iterations [92]. This becomes
increasingly important for larger design projects involving many people in different development teams, where one faulty decision may imply development
process iterations for each of the teams.
In order to make well-founded decisions, thorough investigations are required.
However, these investigations are also costly. Modern product development has
gained considerably by incorporating simulation models in the design process.
Using simulation models, design studies can be carried out with rather small
nancial means and within a limited time. Simulation models can thereby
contribute to more well-founded decisions, and hence reduce the risk for design
process iterations.
In many modern products, it is possible to trace the present design back to
the rst prototype. The design process of such a product is characterised by
successive improvements to a functional platform/concept and is hence referred
to as evolutionary design. Eventually, the design will become as good as this
particular concept allows. It is, however, not obvious that this design fulls the
desired characteristics better than any others since its performance is bounded
to the particular concept chosen. Such a design is said to be sub-optimal,
since it is only optimal given certain limitations regarding the design. To nd
the solution that fulls certain desired characteristics better than any other
design, for any other concept, i.e. the global optimum, the complete solution
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space must be explored. Without simulation models, this obviously becomes

very expensive and time-consuming.
Along with the ever increasing computational eciency of computers,
simulation-based optimisation has grown dramatically in recent years. Using
simulation-based optimisation, it is possible to systematically explore huge
solution spaces in a limited time and at a limited cost, in the search for the
optimal design. Simulation-based optimisation can be used at early design
stages to elucidate the possibilities and drawbacks of dierent concept, which
hence will contribute to a more credible concept choice. But simulation-based
optimisation can also be employed at later design stages, to determine detailed
design of a chosen concept.
The unprejudiced search for an optimal solution, with no consideration
regarding earlier designs or personal opinions etc., that is facilitated by
simulation-based optimisation, is referred to as revolutionary design, as the
opposite to evolutionary design. Simulation-based optimisation enables development of new revolutionary products which will further push the performance
envelope.
6.1
The single-objective optimisation problem
The Latin word optimum is dened in the Merriam-Webster dictionary [93]

as: the amount or degree of something that is most favourable to some end.
In engineering terms, optimisation can be explained as a systematic search for
the solution that best fulls some desired characteristics dened in an objective
function (also known as goal function). The solution space is made up of design
variables xi , i.e. quantities that are allowed to vary in the optimisation, and
delimited by their lower and upper parameter limits, xli and xui respectively
and by the optimisation constraints, gj . The dierence between objectives and
constraints is that objectives relate to desired/undesired phenomena that are
to be maximised or minimised whereas constraints refer to unacceptable solutions. Often, the constraints are also implemented in the objective function
formulation. A violated constraint contributes to the objective function evaluation with a large penalty. The optimisation algorithm is thereby informed
that this solution is unacceptable rather than only undesired.
The single-objective optimisation problem can be formulated as:
maxf (x)
s.t.
xli
xi xui
gj (x) 0
i = 1, 2, ...
j = 1, 2, ...
(6.1)
This particular formulation concerns a maximisation problem. Minimisation

problems can be treated identically, simply by expressing the objective function
as max(f (x)).
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Simulation-based optimisation
Dierent optimisation algorithms suitable for dierent optimisation problems

exist. These algorithms are generally divided into gradient and non-gradient
methods. As indicated by the name, gradient methods use the gradient of
the objective function to nd the search direction. In engineering problems,
the objective function is often very noisy as a function of the design variables,
as illustrated is gure 6.1. When gradient methods are used to solve such
problems, the likelihood of nding sub-optimal solutions, i.e. local optima, is
therefore high since the gradients in these solutions are truly zero. Also, in
engineering problems, the gradient of the objective function can often not be
analytically determined. Therefore, non-gradient methods are frequently used
in simulation-based optimisation.
f(x)
Local
optima
Global
optimum
x
Figure 6.1 In engineering problems, the objective function is often noisy as a
function of the design variables. Such an objective function comprises several
sub-optimal solutions.
An eective optimisation algorithm is characterised by a careful search

through the whole solution space and rapid convergence to an optimal solution. Obviously, these are contradictory characteristics. It is dicult to determine beforehand which algorithm is best suited to a particular problem. Since
the searching procedure diers between the algorithms, their search eciencies
vary for dierent optimisation problems.
Evolutionary algorithms have been given much attention in recent years.
One class of evolutionary algorithms is called Genetic Algorithms [9496], which
originate from the mechanisms of natural selection in evolutionary theory. Each
design variable is encoded by a gene and the genes for all design variables form
a chromosome, capable of completely describing an individual, i.e. a design.
A number of individuals form a population that is subjected to a pre-dened
collection of rules describing the likelihood of dierent individuals to breed and
produce children. The children replace other individuals considered too weak
for breeding, this also according to a pre-dened set of rules. As the evolution
progresses, the preferred characteristics are improved until an optimum design
is reached.
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More on dierent optimisation algorithms can be found in [97]. The optimisations in this thesis are carried out using mainly Genetic algorithms and the
Complex algorithm [98].
6.2
The multi-objective optimisation problem
In almost every engineering problem, several individual objectives, f1 , f2 , ..., fn ,

exist, and in most cases, these are competing with each other. For such problems, it is not possible to minimise all objectives simultaneously. Instead, a
trade-o solution must be chosen. The procedure for nding a fair trade-o
solution is illustrated in this section.
It is possible to use single-objective optimisation to determine the individual optima for each objective fn . But single-objective optimisation can also
be employed to determine a trade-o optimum reecting several competitive
objectives concurrently. This is done by combining the dierent competitive
objectives into one aggregated objective function. In this aggregated objective
function, the relative importance of the competitive objectives are assigned
using weights An :
(6.2)
ftot = A1 f1 + A2 f2 + ... + An fn
An interesting aspect of equation 6.2 is that dierent weights correspond to
dierent optima. The question is then Which optimum gives the best design
for a specic purpose? Obviously, the main diculty when formulating an
aggregated objective function for single-objective optimisation is to rate the
relative importance of the competetive objectives beforehand. If the predicted
weighting does not reect the actual relative importance in the nal product,
a poor trade-o solution is obtained.
A more systematic way to treat multi-objective optimisation problems with
competitive objective functions is to use the concept of Pareto optimality, outlined by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). All optimal solutions can be graphically
visualised simultaneously in the Pareto optimal front, shown in gure 6.2 for
the dual objective optimisation problem. Along this Pareto front, all solutions
are optimal in the sense that no solution exists that is simultaneously better
in both objectives. At the ends of the Pareto front, the individual optima, f1
and f2 appear. The Pareto front clearly illustrates how much an improvement
in one objective costs in deterioration of other objectives, i.e. the trade-o
relationship between the competitive objectives. In a good compromise point,
the improvement in one objective is larger than the loss in the other objective.
When the Pareto front is obtained, the designer may for instance produce a
couple of dierent designs from various locations of the Pareto front for experimental evaluation. This will reveal the relative importance of the competitive
objectives, enabling the trade-o solution that gives the best product characteristics to be chosen. This is also a more reliable procedure in the search for
the best optimum, since all possible solutions are considered all the way in the
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f2
Pareto front
- the set of
optimal solutions
f2*
f1
*
f1
Figure 6.2 The Pareto front illustrates all optimal solutions for the multiobjective optimisation problem. For each solution along the front, no other
solution exists that is simultaneously better in all objectives. It is, however,
possible to improve one objective at the expense of a deterioration in the other
objective.
optimisation.
As long as the Pareto front is convex, as in gure 6.2, it can be found by performing several consecutive single-objective optimisations with dierent weight
setups. This process is illustrated in gure 6.3. The dierent weights corf2
f2
Search direction,
A1<A2
Search direction,
A1=A2
*b
Search direction,
A1>A2
c
tan (A2 )
1
-1
6.3(a)
f1
f1
6.3(b)
Figure 6.3 Convex Pareto fronts can be found by several consecutive singleobjective optimisations using aggregated objective functions. By assigning different weights to the competitive objectives, the search direction is aected which
implies that dierent optima along the Pareto front are found.
respond to dierent search directions. In turn this implies that the dierent
optima along the Pareto front are found. However, more rened optimisation
algorithms exist, capable of nding the complete Pareto front at once. For this
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purpose, the multi-objective optimisation problem could be dened as:

T

maxf (x) =
f1 (x), f2 (x), ..., fk (x)
s.t.
x1i xi xhi
i = 1, 2, ...
gj (x) 0
j = 1, 2, ...
(6.3)
Although the Pareto front in gure 6.2 refers to dual objective optimisation,
i.e. considering only two competitive objectives, the theory holds for an arbitrary number of objectives. However, it becomes very dicult to interpret
Pareto fronts for optimisation problems with more than three objectives. Also,
the population, and thereby the optimisation time, increases drastically for optimisation problems of higher orders, i.e. the number of objectives considered.
More on multi-objective optimisation in engineering design and the concept of
Pareto optimality can be found in [99].
6.3
Formulation of optimisation problem for

noise reduction in hydraulic pumps
As shown in section 4, noise is generated from several dierent mechanisms in

the pump. Hence, noise minimisation is a typical multi-objective optimisation
problem. All noise generating objectives, i.e. ow ripples in both discharge
and suction port, internal piston forces, bending moments and driving shaft
torque, must all be simultaneously considered in the objective function formulation. It is, however, very dicult to rate the relative importance of these
objectives beforehand, simply because the rating depends upon the system in
which the pump is to be used. In some hydraulic systems, the noise generation is completely dominated by system pressure ripple, whereas other systems
suer more from noise that is directly emitted from the pump, i.e. originates
from the internal forces and bending moments.
While minimising the noise generating objectives, it is important to avoid
cavitation and excessive cylinder pressure overshoots which thus constitute the
optimisation constraints. Other undesired characteristics such as friction and
leakage etc. should be treated as objectives to minimise rather than constraints
since they cannot be completely avoided. These quantities, however, are not
treated in this thesis.
How should the objective functions be formulated then? The obvious way
is to minimise pulsation peak-to-peak values, i.e. by studying the objectives
in the time domain. In the time domain, constraints such as cavitation and
cylinder pressure overshoots can also be observed. However, the fact that
the hydraulic and the mechanical system resonance responces are frequency
dependent properties and that the human ear hears the frequency spectrum of
noise, strongly argues for formulating objective functions also in the frequency
domain. In the frequency domain, the dierent harmonics of the spectra must
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be combined to form a representative gure of merit. One gure of merit

that may be representative for noise emission [100] is the square sum of each
harmonic of the amplitude spectrum:
f=
2
Xk (i)
(6.4)
In hydraulic pumps, the excitation energy is dominated by the pulsation amplitudes of the rst harmonic frequencies, see chapters 3 and 5, which would
thus be heavily penalised by formulating the objective function according to
equation 6.4. In turn, this implies that high-frequency oscillations are less emphasised. From a noise point of view, such an objective function formulation
is not ideal. As shown in [22], transformation from piston forces and bending
moments into emitted noise is about 100 times higher at 3000 Hz than at 200
Hz, which implies that high-frequency content should be given higher priority.
Another strategy is to introduce frequency dependent weighting in the objective function formulation, which can be obtained by multiplying the spectrum
X(i) of the objective quantity by a weighting function:

f=
Xk (i)k
(6.5)
k
The exponent controls how hard higher order harmonics are penalised.
Obviously, it is possible to formulate objective functions as combinations of
time and frequency domain signals.
6.3.1
Minimisation of cylinder pressure rate for overall pump

noise reduction
Minimisation of ow ripples only considers the matching between cylinder

pressure and port pressure at the precise moment when the cylinder links up
to the kidney. Thus, minimisation of ow ripples may be a somewhat decient
objective concerning minimisation of totally emitted sound level since no attention is paid to how the pressurisation or the depressurisation has proceeded
up to this point. As mentioned in section 4.3, the smoothness of the cylinder pressurisation and depressurisation is also crucial for the noise generation
since it directly aects the piston force proles and in turn also the bending
moments.
One quantity exists that better than any other reects the overall noise
generated in the hydraulic pump and that is the cylinder pressure rate dpc /dt
[8]. The cylinder pressure rate gives rise to two pulses each shaft revolution;
one where the cylinder uid is pressurised and one where it is depressurised.
If the peak-to-peak values of these pulses are minimised, the pressurisation
and depressurisation times are as long as possible. Hereby, the pistons are
loaded as smoothly as possible, which is in turn also benecial for the bending
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moments. This also means that high-frequency content of the piston forces
and bending momentes are emphasised. The integrated area of the cylinder
pressure rate always equals the dierence between discharge and suction port
pressures. Hence, in order to minimise the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure
rate, the duration time for the pressurisation and depressurisation should be
maximised.
An interesting aspect of the cylinder pressure rate however is that it not only
reects the internal forces and bending moments but also pump generated ow
ripples. If the cylinder pressure is not completely matched to the port pressure
as the cylinder links up to the kidney, a sudden ow into or out from the
cylinder appears. In turn, this ow pulse causes a transient change in cylinder
pressure which hence gives rise to a large cylinder pressure rate. Following the
fair assumption that smooth forces and moments are benecial for the emitted
sound level, the cylinder peak-to-peak pressure rate simultaneously reects ow
ripples, direct noise emissions from the pump housing and housing vibrations.
The longest pressurisation time possible, and hence the lowest possible
peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate, is obtained when using an ordinary precompression angle. In fact, the same pre-compression angle that minimises
discharge ow ripple simultaneously also minimises the peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate, as can be seen in gure 6.4. It is hence not possible to further
improve ow ripples at the expense of increased cylinder pressure rate or vice
versa. This makes perfect sence, considering that for constant bulk modulus
during pressurisation, the compressible ow pulse is directly proportional to
the cylinder pressure rate. This also means that the peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate is highly correlated to the peak-to-peak value of the total ow
ripple.
By using larger cylinder dead volumes, the duration times for cylinder pressurisations and depressurisations are increased, which in turn implies lower
cylinder pressure rates. Larger cylinder volumes, however, give rise to increased compressible ow ripples. The opposite also holds. Still, however,
the pre-compression and decompression angles that minimise ow ripples also
minimises the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate. Thus, the size of the cylinder dead volume controls the trade-o between cylinder pressure rate and ow
ripples, as illustrated by the Pareto front in gure 6.5. The designer has, normally, very limited ability to change the cylinder dead volume; it should always
be as small as possible to reduce compression losses. Generally, in-line pumps
have considerably larger cylinder dead volume than bent-axis pumps. The ratio between ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates therefore diers for the
two concepts, i.e. they are located at two dierent regions along the Pareto
front, as shown in gure 6.5. This is one of the reasons why in-line pumps are
generally perceived as the less noisy of the two concepts.
When using a pressure relief groove, the pressurisation is slightly increased
due to the discharge uid being fed into the cylinder before the cylinder has
linked up to the discharge port. On the other hand, the pressure relief grooves
74
110
100
90
80
Time [ms]
20
15
10
5
0
Time [ms]
6.4(b)
6.4(a)
25
4x1010
3x1010
2x1010
1x1010
0
-1x1010
-2x1010
Time [s]
6.4(c)
Figure 6.4 Discharge ow (a), cylinder pressure (b) and cylinder pressure rate
(c) for 19 pre-compression angle (solid lines), 18 pre-compression angle (dotted
lines) and for 20 pre-compression angle (dashed lines). As can be seen, both
ow ripple and peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate values are minimised for 19
pre-compression angle.
Flow ripple
In-line units
Increased cylinder
dead volume
Bent-axis units
Cylinder pressure rate
Figure 6.5 Both ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates are minimised for the
same pre-compression angle. The ratio between the two quantities is controlled
by the size of the cylinder dead-volume. This is visualised as a Pareto front.
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provides a better cylinder match at the moment where the cylinder links up to
the discharge kidney which gives a slightly smoother cylinder pressure rate at
this point. In all, the cylinder pressure rates are about the same as when using
an ordinary pre-compression angle, and there is still a very tight correlation
between ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates.
When using a PCFV, however, the ow ripple is poorly correlated to the
cylinder pressure rate. The reason is that during the time when the cylinder
is linked up to the PCFV only, excessive pressurisation rates may appear that
are not reected in the discharge ow ripples. When designing PCFV, it is
therefore important not only to consider discharge ow ripples. By instead
designing the objective function from the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate,
both ow ripples and smooth pressurisations are reected simultaneously. It
should be pointed out, however, that a PCFV design optimised for minimising
ow ripples generally also produces low cylinder pressure rates for all operational conditions, which is shown in the following chapter.
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7
Sensitivity of the
optimal design
When it is veried that the obtained optimal solution is globally optimal, it is
highly important to investigate the sensitivity of this design, i.e. how the design performs when exposed to disturbances. These disturbances can be either
variations in design variables x or variations in operational conditions y. Mathematically, the sensitivity of an optimal design is dened as the dierentiation
of the objective function f with respective either to x or y:
f (x, y)
x
f (x, y)
y
(7.1)
(7.2)
Thus, low sensitivity is represented by a at objective function with respect

to design variables and operational conditions. It is, however, not only relevant to investigate the sensitivity of the objective function. There are often
several more desired and undesired characteristics, not explicitly outlined in
the objective function, that need to be assessed regarding their sensitivity to
disturbances. The sensitivity functions for these characteristics are formulated
in the same way as for the objective function, i.e. in accordance with equations
7.1 and 7.2. Furthermore, it is also important to investigate if any constraints
are violated when the optimal solution exposed to disturbances.
The sensitivity to variations in design variables is useful mainly for investigating how sensitive the optimal design is to machining tolerances. Machining
tolerances are highly important regarding for instance fatigue life, leakage,
friction etc., but they are too small to have any signicant inuence on sound
emission. Therefore, this type of sensitivity is not treated in this thesis. The
pumps ability to generate noise is however essentially dependent upon the
operational conditions.
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7.1
Sensitivity to variations in operational conditions
In modern load sensing or constant pressure hydraulic systems, the pumps are
normally exposed to widely varying operational conditions and it is important
that the overall system noise level is acceptable throughout the whole region
of conditions. The term acceptable, however, does not require the system to
be equally quiet under all operational conditions. For instance, as the user
demands a large power output, a higher noise level from the hydraulic system
may be accepted. In fact, the driver may even expect the noise level to increase. If not, the system may be perceived as inecient and slow. Another
example of the relative term acceptable is that there is no reason to emphasise
noise reduction in the hydraulic system under operational conditions where
the background noise is considerable, for instance when the driving source is
loud. It is, however, crucial that the noise level from the hydraulic system is
low as the power demand is low. Especially at zero displacement, which is a
condition where the hydraulic system is principally turned o and no power is
demanded, it is very important that the hydraulic system produces little noise.
A hydraulic system is interpreted as quiet when it is invisible, meaning that
the noise level from the hydraulic system is drowned in surrounding machinery
noise. It is thus advisable to emphasise low noise levels in low-power regions
in particular.
Very little work on the operational point sensitivity in hydraulic pump design
can be found in the literature. Reference [101] focuses on the understanding of
pump dynamics under varying operational conditions and system parameters
and in [102] the authors discuss the need for a variable timing device to cover a
wide range of operational conditions. In [78, 103], the framework for the sensitivity study carried out in this section is presented. This section, however, aims
to illustrate a more general approach for visualising sensitivity, simultaneously
reecting variations in all operational conditions.
The three dierent valve plate designs1 optimised in chapter 5 are here further investigated regarding their sensitivity to varying operational conditions.
The rst design has an ordinary pre-compression angle, the second has a pressure relief groove and the third has a pre-compression lter volume, PCFV. All
valve plate designs have zero-lap at the entrance to the suction port to make
them comparable. The sensitivity study is carried out by performing a number of consecutive simulations for dierent operational conditions: Six dierent
fractions of displacement between 0 and 1, eight dierent discharge pressure
levels between 0.1 and 35 MPa and rotational speeds of 1000, 2000 and 3000
rpm. Altogether, this results in a total of 144 simulations which are used for
sensitivity visualisation.
1 In chapter 5, the three dierent valve plate designs are optimised for minimisation of
peak-to-peak discharge ow at full displacement, at 2000 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge pressure
and 0.5 MPa suction port. The PCFV size is 125 cm3 .
78
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Sensitivity of the optimal design
Figure 7.1 illustrates how the peak-to-peak values of the ow ripples and
the cylinder pressure rates, for the three valve plate designs, are aected by
variations in operational conditions. The three surfaces in each diagram are
obtained at the three dierent speeds. The uppermost surface corresponds to
3000 rpm while the lowermost surface corresponds to 1000 rpm in all diagrams.
As explained in section 6.3.1, cylinder pressure rate is highly correlated to
the ow ripple when using ordinary pre-compression angle and pressure relief
groove. This can be seen by the very similar shapes of the sensitivity surfaces
in gure 7.1(a) and 7.1(b) for the pre-compression and in gures 7.1(c) and
7.1(d) for the pressure relief groove. In addition, the peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate is minimised at the same operational point as where the peak-topeak ow ripple is minimised. However, this does not hold when using a PCFV.
Minimisation of peak-to-peak ow ripple does not coincide with minimisation of
peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate, and the general shapes of the sensitivity
surfaces, are thus not identical. This is also the conclusion in section 6.3.1.
Even so, the sensitivity of the PCFV design is clearly lower than for the two
other valve plates. Both ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates are very low
for all operational conditions.
When using a pressure relief groove, the sensitivity is lower than when using
the valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle, as expected. An important
advantage of pressure relief grooves, compared with ordinary pre-compression
angle, is that ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates are reduced more eectively in the low-power regions. At the optimal point, however, pre-compression
angle and pressure relief grooves are very similar, also as expected. For all three
designs, there seems to be a slightly higher sensitivity to variations in discharge
pressure than to variations in displacement angle.
At high pressures and low displacements, the peak-to-peak cylinder rate
values are very similar at 1000 and 2000 rpm when using the PCFV, see gure 7.1(f). At 3000 rpm, however, the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate is
slightly increased. The reason for this is that the exchange of uid between
the PCFV and the cylinder takes a certain amount of time. For the two lower
speeds, the duration time where the cylinder is only connected to the PCFV
is sucient to equalise the cylinder pressure and the PCFV pressure before
linking up to the discharge kidney. At 3000 rpm, however, this duration time
is insucient, which gives rise to a cylinder pressure transient, and in turn
increased peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate, when linking up to discharge
kindey. The insucient pressurisation at 3000 rpm can also be observed in the
ow ripples, see gure 7.1(e).
One last comment from this study is that the PCFV eectively reduces pulsations in low-power regions, which further emphasises the excellence of the
PCFV compared with other valve plate design alternatives. However, by considering minimisation of peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate in the PCFV design optimisation, it may be possible to obtain even smoother pressurisation
with preserved ow ripples. This has however not been investigated in this
thesis.
79
Flow ripple [l/min]
100
80
60
40
20
0
40
11
x 10
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
40
Discharge 20
pressure [MPa]
30
20
Discharge
10
pressure [MPa]
0.5
0 0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.1(a) Peak-to-peak ow ripple,
0.5
0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.1(b)
Peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate, ordinary precompression.
ordinary pre-compression.
Cylinder presure rate [Pa/s]
11
Flow ripple [l/min]
100
80
60
40
20
0
40
x 10
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
40
20
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
30
Discharge
10
pressure [MPa]
0.5
0 0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.1(c) Peak-to-peak ow ripple,

pressure relief groove.
7.1(d)
pressure
groove.
0.5
0
Fraction of
displacement []
rate, pressure relief
Flow ripple [l/min]
80
60
40
20
0
40
1
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
0.5
0 0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.1(e) Peak-to-peak ow ripple,
PCFV.
11
100
x 10
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
40
30
20
Discharge
10
pressure [MPa]
0.5
0
7.1(f )
Peak-to-peak
pressure rate, PCFV.
Fraction of
displacement []
cylinder
Figure 7.1 Figures (a), (c) and (e) illustrate the simulated peak-to-peak ow
ripple as function of operational conditions for the three dierent valve plate
designs. Figures (b), (d) and (f) show the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate
during pre-compression as functions of operational conditions. The three surfaces in each diagram represent dierent speeds: 1000 rpm, 2000 rpm and 3000
rpm respectively from bottom surface and up. In gure (f), the two lowermost
surfaces are very similar, corresponding to 1000 and 2000 rpm.
80
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Obviously, the same visualisation technique can also be employed for investigating how other characteristics, such as piston forces, bending moments etc.,
perform when exposed to varying operational conditions. The sensitivity study
shown in gure 7.1 concerns time domain quantities. However, frequency content can also be visualised by formulating a representative gure of merit, as
shown in section 6.3, for each operational condition. However, this not considered further here.
This visualisation technique can also be employed for investigating whether
constraints are violated. As an example, the minimum cylinder pressure obtained during the decompression phase is investigated for varying operational
conditions, which will reveal the risk of cavitation. A new valve plate with ordinary decompression angle is designed. It is optimised for minimising suction
port ow ripples at full displacement, at a rotational speed of 2000 rpm and
at 20 MPa discharge pressure. In this study however, the suction pressure is
set to 0.1 MPa, which is a more realistic value. Simulations are carried out
at the same 144 operational points as above and the minimum cylinder pressure obtained for each operational condition is shown in gure 7.2. The region
where the cylinder pressures drop to zero grows at higher rotational speeds, as
expected. Also, high displacement angles seem to increase the risk of obtaining
very low cylinder pressures, which is due to the large piston movements. At
low displacement angles on the other hand, the limited piston motion provides
insucient decompression as the cylinder links up to the suction port.
Obviously, the region in which the minimum cylinder pressure drops to zero
should be small to reduce the risk of air-release and cavitation. This is satised by reducing the decompression angle. However, insucient decompression
causes severe suction port ow ripples which may also cause air-release and
cavitation due to the high uid velocity, see section 4.4. Often, a pressure relief
groove is implemented at suction port commutation. A smaller decompression
angle can then be tolerated which is benecial for the minimum cylinder pressure, whereas the groove helps to reduce the suction port ow ripples and is less
sensitive to the operational conditions.
It should be pointed out that it is very dicult to obtain reliable simulation
results at low pressure regions since the eective bulk modulus becomes very
dicult to predict. In reality, the bulk modulus drops to very low values when
the pressure is reduced which is indicated by equation 4.2. In the simulations,
however, a minimum bulk modulus of 100 MPa is used for obtaining numerical
stability. Thus, the absolute level of the minimum cylinder pressure is unreliable. The simulated sensitivity study shown in gure 7.2 is, however, useful for
prediction of which designs are more likely to cause air-release and cavitation.
To sum up this discussion, with only very few diagrams like the ones shown,
the performance of a particular design under all plausible operational conditions becomes obvious. For a pump designer, such diagrams clearly illustrate
how good an optimal solution really is. For a system designer choosing between dierent pumps from dierent suppliers, these diagrams are suciently
81
Min p
cyl
[MPa]
0.1
40
0
0
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
1 0
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
7.2(a)
Min pcyl [MPa]
0.1
40
0
0
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
1 0
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
7.2(b)
Min pcyl [MPa]
0.1
40
0
0
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
1 0
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
7.2(c)
Figure 7.2 The minimum cylinder pressure obtained under various operational
conditions using ordinary decompression angle at 1000 rpm (a), 2000 rpm (b)
and 3000 rpm (c). As expected, the higher speeds increase the risk of obtaining
very low cylinder pressure levels, which may increase air-release and cavitation.
82
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informative for making well founded predictions about which pumps are more
interesting than others at an early system design stage.
Example 7.1 The importance of the PCFV size
The applicability of the sensitivity visualisation technique described above is
here illustrated by an example. In section 5.3, the importance of the PCFV
size for adequate pulsation reduction is discussed. This question can rather
easily be answered using the sensitivity visualisation technique outlined above.
The size of the PCFV investigated up to this point is 125 cm3 which is
considerably larger than is proposed in [22]. A new PCFV design based upon
a 50 cm3 volume is optimised for minimisation of peak-to-peak ow ripple for
the same operational point2 as the large PCFV design.
Figure 7.3 shows the peak-to-peak values of the ow ripples and cylinder
pressure rates for both the 125 cm3 and the 50 cm3 PCFV at various operational
conditions. The sensitivity surfaces clearly illustrate how both ow ripples and
cylinder pressure rates are improved for all operational conditions when using
the large PCFV. As claimed in [22], PCFV sizes up to about three times the
cylinder volume at bottom dead centre are benecial, but larger volumes do
not improve much. Apparently, this statement correlates fairly well with the
results shown in gure 7.3. Compared with ordinary pre-compression angles
and pressure relief grooves, the 50 cm3 PCFV reduces both ow ripples and
cylinder pressure rates considerably. An increase in PCFV size to 125 cm3
further improves behaviour, but the improvement in relation to the small PCFV
is not as considerable.
2 At full displacement, at 2000 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction
port pressure.
83
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Flow ripple [l/min]
80
60
40
20
0
40
1
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
11
100
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
40
1
30
20
0.5
0 0
x 10
2.5
Discharge
10
pressure [MPa]
Fraction of
displacement []
7.3(a) Peak-to-peak ow ripple,
0.5
0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.3(b)
pressure rate, PCFV size 125cm3 .
PCFV size 125cm3 .
Flow ripple [l/min]
80
60
40
20
0
40
1
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
7.3(c) Peak-to-peak ow ripple,

PCFV size 50cm3 .
11
100
x 10
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
40
30
20
Discharge
10
pressure [MPa]
0.5
0
Fraction of
displacement []
7.3(d)
pressure rate, PCFV size 50cm3 .
Figure 7.3 Sensitivity to variations in operational conditions. Figures (a) and

(b) are simulation results when using the large PCFV (125cm3 ) whereas gures
(c) and (d) are obtained when using the small PCFV (50cm3 ).
7.2
Sensitivity considerations in objective function formulation
To nd a trade-o design that works fairly well over the whole operational
range rather than a design that works excellently but only in a narrow region
of operational conditions, sensitivity can be considered in the formulation of the
optimisation problem. This is practically accomplished by determining the objective function for dierent operational conditions. For each operational condition it is also investigated whether the optimisation constraints are violated
or not. This obviously expands the optimisation problem to a multi-objective
kind. Such optimisation problems can be solved by employing multi-objective
optimisation algorithms and Pareto optimality, as described in section 6.2. In
this study, however, an aggregated objective function approach is employed.
The dierent regions considered to be more important than others are given
higher weights in the aggregated objective function.
84
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Suppose for instance that a pump designer has no budget or room inside
the pump housing that allows a pre-compression lter volume design. Still,
low ow ripples are desired in the regions where low power is demanded, i.e.
along =0 and along pd =0.1 MPa. The best alternative to a PCFV is then
a pressure relief groove. Figure 7.4(a), which is the same as gure 7.1(c),
illustrates the ow ripple sensitivity to varying operational conditions when
using a pressure relief groove. This particular groove design is optimised for
minimising peak-to-peak ow ripple at full displacement, 2000 rpm, 20 MPa
discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure, see section 5.2. Two
points are marked out with stars. At point 1, the discharge pressure is 35 MPa
and the displacement angle is zero. At point 2, the discharge pressure is 0.1
MPa and the fraction of displacement is 1. The goal is now to nd a new
groove design that simultaneously minimises the peak-to-peak ow ripples at
these two operational points. For illustrative purposes, point 2 is considered to
be 10 times more important than point 1 in this study. Thus, the aggregated
objective function is formulated as:
ftot = (max(qd,1 ) min(qd,1 )) + 10 (max(qd,2 ) min(qd,2 ))
(7.3)
As for the optimisation for the rst groove design, no constraints are accounted
for. The sensitivity surfaces of the new pressure relief groove design are shown
in gure 7.4(b). As can be seen, the peak-to-peak ow ripples at both these
points are improved with the new groove design. At point 1, the peak-to-peak
ow ripple is reduced by 16%, and at point 2 with 34%. The trade-o for
this improvement, however, is a deterioration in the region of the point that
the previous design was optimised for (full displacement, 2000 rpm, 20 MPa
discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction pressure). At this specic operational
point, the peak-to-peak ow ripple is increased by as much as 22% compared
with the initial groove design. Since the new groove design emphasises noise
reduction in the low power regions, this design will very likely be perceived as
less noisy than the rst groove design.
85
Flow ripple [l/min]
100
80
60
40
1*
2*
20
0
40
1
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
0 0
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
7.4(a)
Flow ripple [l/min]
100
80
60
40
20
1*
0
40
1
20
Discharge
pressure [MPa]
0 0
0.5
Fraction of
displacement []
7.4(b)
Figure 7.4 Figure (a) illustrates the peak-to-peak ow ripple for varying operational conditions when using a pressure relief groove. This design is optimised
for minimising peak-to-peak ow ripple at full displacement, 2000 rpm, 20 MPa
discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. Figure (b) shows the
same thing but for a groove design optimised for minimising peak-to-peak ow
ripple at points 1 and 2 simultaneously. In both these points, the ow ripples
are reduced. The trade-o, however, is increased ow ripples in the region that
was previously optimal.
86
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8
Measurement of
fluid-borne noise
I
n previous chapters, it has been shown how the uid dynamics from the
pump can be modelled on a very high level of detail. It is also shown how these
simulation models can be used for design optimisation considering a variety of
objectives and constraints under varying operational conditions. Obviously, the
practical use of such simulations and optimisations is very limited before the
results of the simulation model have been conrmed experimentally. Therefore,
this section focuses on dierent methods for measuring uid-borne noise from
hydraulic pumps. Drawbacks and advantages of the dierent methods are
discussed, and for some methods extensions are proposed.
A generally accepted, but nevertheless often misleading quantity for rating
uid-borne noise from hydraulic pumps, is the system pressure ripples. System
pressure ripples are not produced by the pump alone, but appear as a system response when the pump generated ow ripples interact with the external
hydraulic system. It is thus not possible to reveal how much of the pressure ripples originates from the pump and how much is caused by system interference.
Therefore, measured pressure ripples should only be used as a comparative
gure of merit for rating uid-borne noise from pumps operating in identical
external systems. It is however not possible to verify a pump simulation model
with this quantity.
Cylinder pressure is one measurement quantity that can be employed for
simulation model verication. Practically, cylinder pressure measurements can
be conducted by mounting a pressure transducer inside the cylinder bore in
the rotating barrel. The measured pressure signal is fed out via telemetry
elements in the driving axis [104]. Obviously, a drawback with the technique
is the complicated practical implementation of pressure transducer inside the
rotating cylinder barrel. If dierent pumps are to be compared, this is also a
87
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time-consuming technique. Another approach to measure the cylinder pressure

allows the pressure transducer to be mounted in a xed part in the pump
[82]. A drilled channel connects the pressure transducer to the cylinder and
a mathematical model compensates for the dynamics of this channel. The
adequacy of this mathematical compensation is debatable.
Another drawback with cylinder pressure measurements is the inability to
measure the source impedance, which is required for a complete description of
the uid dynamics from a pump. The following sections treat mainly methods
for measuring the source characteristics, i.e. both source ow and source impedance, since these quantities are entirely system independent and together
capable of completely describing the uid dynamics of the pump.
8.1
Source characteristics
The pump source ow Qs is a theoretical and completely system-independent

ow created in the close vicinity of the valve plate. The fact that the source
ow is system-independent implies that it is constant for any dynamic pressure
outside the valve plate. It is however very sensitive to the stationary discharge
pressure level, as shown in chapter 7. The source impedance Zs can be seen as a
transfer function describing the geometry of the outlet channel of the pump, i.e.
the geometrical compartment between the valve plate and the pump ange. A
generally accepted model for describing source characteristics of pumps where
the valve plate is located close to the pump ange is illustrated in gure 8.1.
The source ow can hence be seen as driving two parallel impedances, Zs and
Z1 where the latter represents the quotient between dynamic pressure and ow
Pump
Qs
External
system
P1
Zs
Z1
Figure 8.1 Impedance representation of pump outlet channel if valve plate is

located close to pump ange.
at the pump ange, i.e. the point impedance at the pipe entry. Due to the
obvious analogy between uid dynamics and electricity, Norton equivalents are
henceforth used for establishing relationships between pressures and ows in
88
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Measurement of fluid-borne noise
the frequency domain. The impedance model illustrated in 8.1 can thus be
formulated mathematically as:
Qs
1
Z1
P1
Zs
Qs
1
P1
Zs
Q1 +
(8.1)
(8.2)
The understanding of this source model representation is essential since it forms

the basis for all existing measurement techniques for capturing source ow and
source impedance. The outlet channels, and thereby the source impedance,
often become much more complex than what is illustrated in gure 8.1. These
complex outlet channels are, however, mathematically re-congured into the
shape given by gure 8.1 and can therefore be treated in a similar manner.
More on complex outlet channels can be found in section 8.5.
Often, when the valve plate is located close to the pump ange, the source
impedance Zs is modelled as a volume and a laminar restrictor, as shown in
gure 8.2. The volume Vs can be seen as the sum of all cylinder volumes
connected to the discarge channel and the volume between the valve plate and
Qs
Vs
Q1
P1
kc
Qs
Q1
P1
Zs
Figure 8.2 The impedance Zs is often modelled using a volume Vs and a laminar
restrictor kc . The volume represents the total volume comprised within the
outlet channel, also including the cylinder volumes for all cylinders connected
to the discharge port. The laminar restrictor accounts for the leakage occurring
between cylinder and piston wall and between the valve plate and the cylinder
barrel.
the pump ange. The laminar restrictor, kc , represents the total leakage from
the volume Vs , i.e. the leakage between pistons and cylinder walls and between
valve plate and cylinder barrel etc. The circuit in gure 8.2 is mathematically
determined as:
1
(8.3)
Zs = Vs
e s + kc
Due to the high-frequency nature of the uid dynamics, direct measurement
of ow ripples is practically impossible. Attempts to develop dynamic ow
ripple sensors have been carried out [105], using a membrane type of sensor.
The dynamic response of this specic ow transducer, however, is only about
89
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300 Hz which corresponds to the rst and possibly also the second harmonic
frequency in normal industrial and mobile applications. Hence, such low sensor dynamics are insucient for source ow measurements from pumps. In
addition, the reported accuracy is rather low. Instead, indirect methods based
upon dynamic pressure measurements along rigid measurement pipes are employed. Via mathematical models of the measurement pipe, dynamic ows can
be determined.
8.2
Measurement at anechoic condition
A simple but informative method for measuring the uid-borne noise from
pumps is to conduct measurements at reection-free or anechoic condition.
Anechoic condition implies that no pressure waves are reected in the system.
This means that except for time shifts due to the wave propagation time, the
measured pressures at any point along the measurement pipe are identical,
given that the viscous friction in the pipe can be ignored. Also, at anechoic
condition, the measured pressure at each point along the measurement pipe is
proportional to the ow in the same point, which is shown later in this section. This means that the pump outlet ow is directly obtained from pressure
measurement at the pump ange.
A system setup that can create reection-free condition at dierent pressure
levels and ow rates, comprises two orices separated by a volume, as illustrated
in gure 8.3. The terms kc1 and kc2 correspond to the linearised ow-pressure
Zc
P1
Q1
kc1
kc2
P2
Q2
Figure 8.3 System for anechoic measurements. Using two serial restrictors,
separated by a volume, it is possible to generate reection-free conditions at
dierent static pressure levels.
coecients for the rst and the second orice respectively. With the rst orice,
the anechoic condition is tuned whereas the second orice is used to adjust the
stationary system pressure. It is important that the inner diameters of the
measurement pipe and the pump outlet channel are very close to avoid ow
disturbances. Reference [106] gives a detailed description of the possibilities
and limitations of the reection-free termination and how it should be designed.
An on-line method that automatically tunes the rst restrictor to reection-free
condition, for any stationary pressure level adjusted by the second restrictor,
is presented in [107].
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Below follows a mathematical description of anechoic measurements. It is

possible to describe the two-dimensional viscous compressible ow propagating
in the measurement pipe using a four-pole equation that relates unsteady dynamic pressures and ows at two locations of a rigid pipe. With ow denitions
according to gure 8.4, the four-pole equation can be expressed as in equation
8.4. This frequency domain four-pole description is further explained in for
instance [108].
Q1
P1
Q2
P2
Figure 8.4 Denition of the ow directions for four-pole equation 8.4.
Q2
P2
A
C
B
D
Q1
P1

(8.4)
The terms A, B, C and D are pipe specic transfer functions determined as:
(8.5)
A = cosh(T s N )
1
B = sinh(T s N )
(8.6)
Zc N
(8.7)
C = Zc N sinh(T s N )
D = A
(8.8)
where
s = i
a
Zc = 2
r
L
T =
a
N =
a=

J0 (ir
J2 (ir

s/)
s/)
By dividing the two equations

in matrix 8.4 with each other, while ignoring the
frequency dependent friction ( N = 1), the following expression is obtained:
Q1 cosh(T s) P1 Z1c sinh(T s)
Q2
=
P2
Q1 Zc sinh(T s) + P1 cosh(T s)
(8.9)
which can be re-arranged as:

P2
Q1
1 (Zc cosh(T s) + Q2 sinh(T s))
=
P2
P1
Zc ( Q
cosh(T s) + Zc sinh(T s))
2
(8.10)
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For the rst orice, the linearised restriction coecient Rv1 can be formulated
as:
1
P2
1
2p
=
= q2 =
(8.11)
Rv1 =
kc1
Q2
q2
p
where p refers to the stationary pressure drop over the rst orice and q2 to
the stationary ow through the same orice. If Rv1 is tuned to match the pipe
characteristic impedance Zc , it becomes obvious from equation 8.10 that:
Q1 =
P1
Zc
(8.12)
Thus, for anechoic condition (Rv1 = Zc and N 1), the pressure measured
at transducer 1, or in fact any pressure along the rigid measurement pipe, is
proportional to the dynamic ow at the same point.
If the source impedance is suciently large, the anechoic pump ange ow
Q1 is close to the pump source ow Qs , according to equation 8.1. For many
pumps, the two ows are very similar, see for instance [22] showing the resemblance between measured anechoic pump ange ow and measured source
ow for a xed bent-axis pump. This close similarity can not, however, be
guaranteed for all pumps since the large source impedance requirement does
not automatically hold. Therefore, anechoic ow is not ideal for model verication. It is nonetheless generally considered to be a representative quantity
for rating uid-borne noise from hydraulic pumps. In addition, the anechoic
ow is practically obtained in a fairly simple manner.
8.3
High impedance pipe test method
Using the high impedance pipe test method, it is possible to measure the
product between the source characteristics Qs Zs which also referred to as the
blocked acoustic pressure [13, 20]. The blocked acoustic pressure is considered to be a suitable quantity for rating uid-borne noise since it is completely
system-independent. It is, however, not ideal for verication of simulation
models since the source ow is not obtained as a separate quantity. The main
advantage of the method is that measurements are carried out fairly easily
using a relatively simple test setup. In 1983 this technique was established
as a British standard [109]. A renement of the measurement procedure was
in 1999 adopted as an international standard [110] for rating pump-generated
uid-borne noise.
If the pipe entry impedance Z1 is much larger than the source impedance,
equation 8.2 turns into:
P1 Qs Zs
(8.13)
Thus, the blocked acoustic pressure is obtained directly by measuring the pressure at the pump ange. The pipe entry impedance for a measurement pipe
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terminated by ZT , ignoring pipe friction, is obtained as:

Z1 =
Zc (ZT + tanh(T s)
ZT tanh(T s) + Zc
(8.14)
Hence, the most ready way to guarantee high pipe entry impedance is by making the characteristic pipe impedance Zc large [21], which implies a small measurement pipe radius. A recommendation for the test method to provide measurement results within 10% accuracy is that Z1 > 8Zs [21]. This is obviously
also the reason why this method is called high impedance pipe.
8.4
Methods that separate the source characteristics
Often, the methods presented above provide measurements that are suciently
informative when for example evaluating and comparing the uid-borne noise
generated by dierent pumps. They are, however, unable to determine source
ow and source impedance as individual quantities. To be able to verify pump
simulation models, it is important to be able to measure which part of the
uid-borne noise originates from the pump excitation ow and which part is
obtained from the interaction with the pump outlet channel. The methods
described in this section are all able to determine the source impedance and
the source ow as individual quantities.
8.4.1
How to derive the correct Fourier series coecient

from an FFT spectrum
All the methods for separating the source characteristics rely on mathematical
relations between dynamic pressures and ows. The dynamic pressures and
ows are represented by their Fourier series at integer multiples of the fundamental frequency 0 = 2nz. It is therefore decisive for the measurement
methods described below, that Fourier series amplitudes as well as phases of
the measured pressures are obtained accurately. If not, neither source impedance nor source ow will be correctly determined. Generally, the Fourier series
coecients cannot be obtained directly from sampled signals. Instead, the signals are Fourier transformed, normally employing the computationally ecient
FFT-algorithm, which results in FFT spectra. It is important to realise that
even though the Fourier transformed signal and the Fourier series of a signal
are related, they are not equivalent.
A sampled signal contains information only for a limited time. This can be
seen as if the original signal is pre-multiplied with a rectangular time-window,
as in gure 8.5, see [72]. The FFT then assumes the signal to be repetitive with
a period equal to the time-window period. On condition that the analysis period, i.e. the time-window width, is an exact multiple of the signal period, the
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Original signal
Rectangular
time-window
Sampled signal
Interpreted as
a periodic signal
Figure 8.5 Since the original signal is sampled for a limited time, this can be
seen as if the signal is multiplied with a rectangular time-window. The FFT
assumes the signal to be repetitive, with the period equal to the length of the
time-window.
Fourier coecients can be obtained from the FFT spectrum. However, since
the period time of the sampled signal is normally not known exactly in practical measurements, spectral leakage occurs. Spectral leakage means that signal
information, located at a specic harmonic frequency for the original signal,
will spread out to neighbouring frequencies when conducting the FFT, see for
instance [71]. A spectrum that contains spectral leakage thus does not correspond to the original signal alone, but to the product of the original signal and
the time-window. In practice, it is very dicult to completely avoid spectral
leakage. There are, however, specially designed time-windows that cause less
spectral leakage than the rectangular window. A problem with time-windows is
that they not only reduce spectral leakage; they also aect the amplitudes and
phases of the original signal. Hence, the original signal information becomes
distorted.
It is possible, however, to restore the original signal information, i.e. the
true Fourier series coecients mathematically, from an FFT spectrum using
the novel technique presented in [72]. It is shown that the analytical expression for the time-window employed can be used to exactly determine the true
harmonic frequency of the original signal from the FFT spectrum. By compensating for the windowing eect at this specic frequency, the true Fourier series
component of the original signal can thereafter be determined. This is done at
each harmonic frequency of the original signal, which yields the complete and
accurate Fourier series coecients of the original signal.
8.4.2
The hydraulic trombone
The hydraulic trombone originates from the extended pipe length technique
developed at the University of Bath, see [12]. The experimental setup for this
method is a test pump connected to a pipe that is terminated by an orice.
By performing several consecutive measurements with dierent pipe lengths,
mathematical algorithms can be used to separate the source characteristics of
the test pump. The procedure is rather tedious and time-consuming as it re-
94
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quires measurements to be carried out for numerous dierent pipes lengths.

Therefore, a test setup known as the hydraulic trombone, see [21, 23, 24], was
developed, also at the University of Bath. The hydraulic trombone consists of
an outer pipe, which is the actual measurement pipe, into which an insertion
pipe is slipped, thus making it possible to vary the pipe length without dismounting the circuit. Instead, the insertion pipe is slid to create dierent pipe
lengths for the dierent measurements. A numerical algorithm for separating
the source characteristics is presented in [111].
8.4.3
The secondary source method
Another test method, capable of separating the source characteristics, is the

secondary source method, [2527]. In 1990 this powerful method replaced the
high impedance pipe test as the British standard technique for measuring uidborne noise from hydraulic pumps [112]. The method was also adopted as an
international standard [113] in 1996 for high-precision measurement of uidborne noise from pumps. The test setup for the secondary source method is
illustrated in gure 8.6. Besides the test unit pump, the circuit also contains
an auxiliary ow generator, i.e. the secondary source. The test procedure
for the secondary source method can be divided into two steps. In the rst
Zc
Qs
Zs
P1
Q1
P2
Q2
Secondary
source
Figure 8.6 Test setup for the secondary source method. The secondary source
is used to introduce disturbances into the measurement pipe, which enables the
source impedance of the pump to be measured. In the second step, the secondary
source is turned o and the source ow from the test unit is determined.
step, the secondary source is operating, thus introducing disturbances into the
system. The orice between the pipe and the secondary source is opened and
the bleed-o valve is adjusted to set the desired pressure level. The secondary
source should produce a broad band spectrum within the frequency range of
interest but with harmonic frequencies exclusively dierent to those of the test
unit. By combining the two matrix equations in equation 8.4 and eliminating
the ow Q2 , the pipe entry impedance Z1 is obtained by means of equation
8.15.
P1
Zc N sinh(T s N )
Z1 =
=
(8.15)
2
Q1
cosh(T s N ) P
P1
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At the harmonic frequencies of the secondary source, the test pump source ow
Qs equals zero, simply because the harmonic frequencies of the ow from the
two sources dier. Following equation 8.2 it becomes obvious that Zs = Z1 .
Thus, the source impedance Zs can be determined by measuring the dynamic
pressures P1 and P2 :
P1
Zc N sinh(T s N )
(8.16)
= P
Zs =
2
Q1
P1 cosh(T s N )
So far, the source impedance is only evaluated at the harmonic frequencies of
the secondary source. Dierent techniques exist to obtain the source impedance at the harmonic frequencies of the main test pump. Perhaps the simplest
method is to linearly interpolate between the frequency components, as recommended in the British standard, [112]. However, when using a smoothening
technique, described in [27], the results have shown to be more repeatable.
In the second step of the measurement procedure, the secondary source is
turned o. The orice to the secondary source is now closed and the desired
test pressure level is adjusted using the bleed-o valve. Again, the pressures P1
and P2 are measured. The source ow can now be determined by combining
equation 8.2 and 8.15:
P1 cosh(T s N ) P2
P1
Qs =
(8.17)
+
Zs
Zc N sinh(T s N )
8.4.4
Two pressures - two systems
The method two pressures - two systems [114] was developed by Kojima, at
Kanagawa University. The method has been used to measure source ow from
both axial piston pumps [79] and vane pumps [115]. Generally, very good agreement between simulations and measurements is shown. Except for a dierent
procedure for obtaining two dierent dynamic loads, this method is analogous
to the two-microphone method. Therefore, this method is not discussed further
here.
8.4.5
The two-microphone method
Another method for separating the source characteristics is the two-microphone

method, which has its origin in the eld of acoustics [116]. This method does
not use any secondary source. Instead, the test unit is also used as the noise
generator for determining source impedance. The test setup, as illustrated in
gure 8.7, is very simple. As indicated by the methods name, pressures are
measured at two locations along a rigid pipe, P1 and P2 .
In the same manner as for the secondary source method, the two matrix
equations 8.4 are combined and the ow Q2 is eliminated. The pipe entry
96
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Qs
Zc
P1
Q1
Zs
ZT
P2
Q2
Figure 8.7 Test setup for the two-microphone method. Source ow and source
impedance from the test pump is obtained by measuring P1 and P2 at two suciently dierent dynamic loads, achieved by adjusting the termination impedance
ZT . No secondary source is used. Instead, the test pump is also used as a noise
source when determining the source impedance.
impedance Z1 is obtained as:
P1
Zc N sinh(T s N )
Z1 =
=
2
Q1
cosh(T s N ) P
P1
(8.18)
Two consecutive measurements carried out at two dierent dynamic loads, denoted by indices L1 and L2 respectively. Two dierent dynamic loads imply
that the pipe termination impedance ZT is adjusted to create two dierent
reections of the pressure wave, i.e. two dierent system pressure ripple proles. The stationary pressure level, however, is constant at the two dierent
dynamic loads. Measurements at two dierent loads enable two dierent pipe
entry impedances, Z1 = Z1L1 and Z1 = Z1L2 , to be determined using equation
8.18. If the loads are suciently dierent, equation 8.2 can be expanded into
two linearly independent equations:

1

1
1
Qs
P1L1
Z1L1
=
(8.19)
1
1
1
1
Zs
P1L2
Z1L2
which can be re-arranged as:

1
Qs
= 1
1
Zs
P1L2

1
P1L1
1
1
P1L2
1
P1L1
1
Z1L1
1
Z1L2

(8.20)
The source impedance and the source ow can thereby be determined as individual quantities:
Zs
P1L2 P1L1
P1L1
P1L2
Z1L1 Z1L2
(8.21)
Qs
1
Z1L1
1
P1L1
(8.22)
1
Z1L2
1
P1L2
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page 98

A recommendation for obtaining suciently dierent loads is that Z1L1 = 2Zc
and Z1L2 = 0.5Zc [22]
One problem when measuring pressures at two locations along a pipe line is
that cancellation errors may appear at frequencies where multiples of the pressure wave length coincide with the distance between the pressure transducers
=
n
T
(8.23)
At these frequencies,
the hyperbolic functions take the values sinh(T s N ) 0
and cosh(T s N ) 1 since N 1. Obviously, this is also an issue in the

secondary source method. Furthermore, Bodn and strm, [117] and [118],
suggest the following criteria to guarantee the accuracy of the two-microphone
method:
0.1 T 0.8
(8.24)
Their study, however, concerns gaseous ow in ducts. No similar requirements
have been explicitly given for the two-microphone method in liquid ow, but
the criteria seem to be conservative for that purpose, see [22, 28].
The test setup is slightly simpler for the two-microphone method than for
the secondary source method since no auxiliary ow source is required. On the
other hand, the two-microphone circuit must be modied to create two dierent termination impedances. This can be done, without having to dismount
the circuit, by employing a reection-free termination device as illustrated in
gure 8.3. The two orices are then adjusted to create dierent termination
impedances. Regarding measurement quality, both methods are similar.
8.4.6
The three-microphone method
The methods presented above all require the eective bulk modulus e , representing the combined stiness of the mechanical structure and the uid, including free air, to be able to determine source ow and source impedance.
Dierent models exist for predicting the eective uid modulus as a function
of pressure, uid temperature and air-release, see for instance [119]. The main
problem is to predict the amount of free air in the uid.
The three-microphone method is an extension of either the secondary source
method or the two-microphone method. The three-microphone measurements carried in this thesis, however, are exclusively based upon the twomicrophone method. Compared with the secondary source and the twomicrophone method, the three-microhpone method diers by also using a third
pressure transducer. It is thereby possible to determine the speed of sound
of the propagating pressure wave in the measurement pipe using numerical
optimisation. The idea was rst presented in [120] based upon ideas in [121]
and in [122]. From pressure measurements at locations i and o along a rigid
measurement pipe, it is possible to determine the point impedances at these
98
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locations using equations 8.25 and 8.26, where Po is downstream of Pi and so

forth.
Zc N sinh( Lsa N )
Pi
Zi =
=
(8.25)
Qi
cosh( Lsa N ) PPoi
Zc N sinh( Lsa N )
Po
=
(8.26)
Zo =
Qo
cosh( Ls N ) Pi
a
Po
As the pressure is measured at three dierent locations along a pipe line, equation 8.25 and 8.26 can be expanded to three dierent equations:

P2
L23 s N
L12 s N
L13 s N
P3
+
sinh
= 0 (8.27)
sinh
sinh
P1
a
P1
a
a

P3
L12 s N
L23 s N
L13 s N
P1
sinh
sinh
+ sinh
= 0 (8.28)
P2
a
a
P2
a

P2
P1
L13 s N
L23 s N
L12 s N
+
= 0 (8.29)
sinh
sinh
sinh
a
P3
a
P3
a
where L12 is the distance between pressure transducer 1 and 2 etc. By multiplying equation 8.27 by P1 , equation 8.28 by P2 and equation 8.29 by P3 , it
becomes obvious that all three yield the same equation:

L12 s N
L13 s N
L23 s N
P3 sinh
+ P2 sinh
P1 sinh
= 0 (8.30)
a
a
a
The error term en is now formulated as how much the left hand side of equation
8.30 deviates from zero for harmonic frequency n. An objective function f can
formulated as the total error for all frequencies, for instance as in equation 8.31
reecting the sum of all square errors:
f=
n
|en |2
(8.31)
Using numerical optimisation, the speed of sound that minimises the objective
function, can thus be determined. Of several dierent optimisation algorithms
tested the most suitable is the Complex algorithm [98], providing rapid and
repeatable convergence. On condition that the uid density is constant, which
can normally be assumed, it is possible to determine the eective bulk modulus,
e :
e = a2
(8.32)
As a nal step, the air content can be obtained using a model of the eective
bulk modulus, for instance by means of equations 8.33 and 8.34.
e =
1
f
1
r
+ 2hE
(8.33)
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oil
f =
1+
x0 oil
p 1x0
p0
p
1
(8.34)
The term x0 is the volume fraction of free air at the reference pressure p0 .
Each pressure oscillation can be assumed to be an adiabatic process. At normal
hydraulic pressure levels, a polytropic exponent of about 1.8 is reasonable.
For each measurement system, there is an upper frequency limit for reliable
measurement results. Thus, at high rotational speeds of the pump, only a
few harmonic frequencies can be captured within the reliable frequency region.
The objective function f is thereby made up of truncated frequency pressure
spectra which makes the determination of the speed of sound less reliable. It
is, for instance, possible to observe small variations in the speed of sound for
two dierent dynamic loads, but at the same stationary pressure level. This is
due to the truncation error appearing when not treating the complete pressure
spectra, which is also considered the main problem with the technique.
Also for the three-microphone method, cancellation will occur at frequencies
dened by equation 8.23. As three pressure transducers are used, there are
three lengths to consider, L12 , L13 and L23 . Consequently, multiples of three
harmonics may cause cancellation errors. However, this has not been observed
as a problem when determining the speed of sound.
As the eective bulk modulus is determined, the source ow and source impedance can now be obtained as shown in section 8.4.5. A possibility when
using three pressure transducers is that the two-microphone calculations for
obtaining source ow and source impedance can be carried out using both
transducers 1-2 and transducers 1-3. The agreement between these two measurements gives an indication of the measurement accuracy. These two dierent
source characteristic measurements can also be used to eliminate possible cancellation errors. Since these two measurements are carried out using dierent
lengths between the pressure transducers, they give cancellation errors at different frequencies. At frequencies where cancellation errors occur for one pipe
length, the measurement using the other pipe length is probably more reliable.
As shown, the introduction of a third pressure transducer is benecial since
it also enables the eective bulk modulus to be measured. Would more pressure transducers along the measurement pipe then introduce new measurement
possibilities? It is possible that more measurement pipe quantities, such as
uid density, pipe friction etc. could be determined. Since the certainty of
these quantities is already fairly high, this is not assigned considerable priority. The largest source of errors in both the secondary source method and the
two-microphone method of today is that both methods require a mathematical
model of the source impedance to obtain the source ow. For simple pump
outlet channels, that can be modelled easily, this is not a problem. However,
for pumps with more complex outlet channels, that are dicult to model, substantial errors may appear, see section 8.5. That problem will not be solved by
introducing more pressure transducers along the measurement pipe.
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8.5
Source models for more complex outlet channels
In reality, most pumps have non-negligible distances between the pump ange
and the valve plate. This implies that the source model illustrated in 8.1 is
insucient for determining the accurate source ow. Normally, the pump outlet
channel between the valve plate and the pump ange can be approximated fairly
well using a constant diameter rigid pipe, as in gure 8.8. Except for the pipe
element, this circuit is very similar to the circuit in gure 8.1.
The general procedure for treating pumps with complex outlet channels is to
re-arrange the circuit into the shape shown in gure 8.1. Both the secondary
source and the two-microphone method can thereby be used as explained above.
However, to obtain what is considered to be the true source ow, a model of
the source impedance is required. This procedure is described in the present
section.
QS0
Q0
P0
Q1
Ap, Bp, Cp, Dp
P1
Z1
Zs0
Figure 8.8 Common impedance representation of pump outlet channel if there

is a non-negligible distance between valve plate and pump ange.
A Norton representation of the circuit upstream of the outlet channel pipe

in gure 8.8 is obtained as:
Qs0 = Q0 +
P0
Zs0
(8.35)
where Qs0 is now the true source ow at the valve plate. The term Zs0 is
commonly modelled as a volume and restrictor, in the same way as in gure 8.2.
It is also possible to formulate a four-pole matrix relating ows and pressures
at both ends of the outlet channel pipe:

Ap Bp
Q0
Q1
=
(8.36)
P1
Cp Dp
P0
Together, equation 8.35 and the matrix equations 8.36 can be combined into:
Qs0
1
1
=
Z1
P1 X1
X2
(8.37)
101
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page 102
where X1 and X2 are determined as:

X1
X2
Dp
Cp
Zs0
Dp
Cp
Zs0
Ap
Zs0
(8.38)
(8.39)
Bp
Equation 8.37 can be graphically illustrated as shown in gure 8.9(a). By

introducing the variables
Qs1
Zs1
Qs0
X1
X2
(8.40)
(8.41)
equation 8.37 can be re-written as:

Qs1
1
1
=
Z1
P1
Zs1
(8.42)
which is graphically illustrated in gure 8.9(b). Obviously, the shape of this

circuit is identical to the shape of the circuit in gure 8.1. Therefore, both the
Qs0
X1
8.9(a)
Q1
Qs1
P1
X2
Q1
P1
Zs1
Z1
Z1
8.9(b)
Figure 8.9 The circuit in gure 8.8 can be re-arranged into the shape shown
s
and X2 = Zs1 , the
in gure (a) according to equation 8.37. By using X1 = QQs1
circuit shown in gure (b) is obtained. The shape of this circuit is identical to the
circuit shown in gure 8.1. The circuit in gure (b) is described mathematically
using equation 8.42.
secondary source method and the two-microphone method can be employed

as described. These methods, however, yield the ow Qs1 , according to gure
8.9(b), which is not equivalent with what is considered to be the true source
ow Qs0 . To obtain Qs0 , the term X1 must be determined, which is carried out
in two steps. As can be seen in gure 8.9, the measured source impedance Zs1
equals the term X2 . Hence, in the rst step, the parameters dening the source
model X2 (in this case pipe diameter, pipe length and the volume and orice
in Zs0 ), see equation 8.39, are tuned so that a satisfactory match is obtained
102
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between X2 and the measured source impedance Zs1 . In the second step, the
same model parameters are used to determine X1 , using equation 8.38. The
true source ow Qs0 can now obtained from equation 8.40.
It may appear confusing to have two dierent source ows (Qs0 and Qs1 ) and
two dierent source impedances (Zs0 and Zs1 ). As pointed out in [22], the ow
considered to be the true source ow for source impedances with non-negligible
distance between valve plate and pump ange is created close to the valve
plate and is thus best described by the quantity Qs0 . The generally accepted
true source impedance, however, is considered to be the one close to the pump
ange, i.e. Zs1 . Consequently, the source ow and source impedance according
to this approach do not correspond to a source model pair since they do not
appear at the same location. They are, however, considered to be the two most
suitable individual quantities for characterising the pump dynamics.
Using the same analogy, it is possible to model any type of complex passageway, for instance including pre-compression lter volumes, regulator channels
etc.
8.6
The source admittance method
As shown, all existing methods for measuring the source characteristics require
a mathematical model of the source impedance to determine the true source
ow. For xed displacement pumps, where the outlet channels are fairly easily
modelled using constant diameter pipe elements, the procedure illustrated in
the previous section has shown to work well. In variable displacement units
however, the outlet channel is often much more complicated, partly due to
the regulator channel connecting the pump outlet channel to the swash plate
stroking piston. The regulator channels often have several sharp-edged turns,
which clearly complicate the modelling. There is also reason to believe that
the outlet channel in many pumps is poorly described using simple constant
diameter rigid pipes. For instance, the cross-sectional area often varies as a
function of the distance from the valve plate. In addition, the cross-sectional
shape of the outlet channel changes from a kidney shape close to the valve plate
to a circular shape at the pump ange. It often becomes very dicult, if not
impossible, to model such geometries using the conventional methods shown in
the previous section. And if the modelled source impedance X2 does not match
the measured source impedance Zs1 , the source ow is determined incorrectly.
Figure 8.10(a) shows the source impedance amplitude for the P2-pump measured with the three-microphone method. The measurement is carried out for
a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle at 1700 rpm, at 20 MPa
discharge pressure and at 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. Since this unit is a
variable displacement type, there is a regulator channel connecting from the
pump outlet channel to the stroking piston. As can be seen, the measured
source impedance uctuates in an apparently random fashion for frequencies
above 1000 Hz. Substantial modelling eort, involving optimisation, has gone
103
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11
120
Measurement
10
Simulation
results
Source model2
Source flow [l/min]
Source impedance [Ns/m5]
10
10
10
Source model1
8
10
10
100
8.10(a)
1000
Frequency [Hz]
10000
Flow with source

model2
110
100
Flow with source
model1
90
80
0
Time [ms]
8.10(b)
Figure 8.10 Figure (a) shows measured source impedance (solid) and two different source models (dashed and dotted). These source models give rise to
the measured source ows (dashed and dotted) in gure (b). Figure (b) also
illustrates the simulated source ow (solid).
into trying to obtain a satisfactory match between source model and measured
source impedance, but without success. The gure shows two dierent source
models with dierent parameter values. None of them give any good match,
even though model 1 perhaps reminds slightly more of measured source impedance than model 2. In gure 8.10(b), the corresponding source ow ripples
using the two dierent models is shown. As can be seen, the two source ows
dier. They both have a high-frequency superimposed scillation, but this oscillation diers for the two ows. Considering, however, that the two source
models diers greatly, the agreement between the source ows is remarkable.
The reason for this could be that the particular valve plate design studied has
a very good timing at this operational condition. Hence, the ow ripples are
mainly located below 1000 Hz, where both source impedance models match the
measured source impedance fairly well. The eects of the modelling errors in
the high-frequency regions may thus be subordinated. For pumps with a broad
band ow ripple spectrum however, such considerable modelling errors will be
devastating for the determination of source ow ripples.
To be able to measure the source ow accurately for pumps with complex
outlet channel geometries, a new method, that requires no model tuning process
to obtain the source ow, is needed. One method for this purpose is referred
to as the source admittance method. The study of this novel measurement
method was initiated after a personal communication with Dr Johnston at the
University of Bath [123]. Nothing has yet been published on the technique
however.
The dynamic ows and pressures at the ends a and b of any hydraulic circuit
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page 105
can be generally described using an admittance matrix:
Qa
Qb
h11
h21
h12
h22
Pa
Pb

(8.43)
with notations according to equation gure 8.11. The admittance matrix elements h11 - h22 are frequency dependent complex functions, and h12 = h21 for
any circuit due to reciprocity.
Qa
Pa
Source admittance
Qb
Pb
Figure 8.11 Flows and pressures on two sides of an admittance can be correlated
to each other using an admittance matrix representation.
Using the admittance notation for the pump outlet channel, the following
matrix is obtained:
Qs
Q1
h11
h21
h12
h22
Ps
P1

(8.44)
where Qs and Ps are source ow and source pressure and Q1 and P1 the ow
and pressure at the pump ange. The source ow Qs = Qa since the source
ow is dened as positive into the outlet channel. Obviously, an additional
pressure transducer, located at the origin of the source ow, is required. Since
the source ow is only a theoretical ow, the precise location of its origin is
rather dicult to predict. Most likely, the transducer should be located close
to the valve plate. The pressures Ps and P1 are obtained directly, whereas
the pump ange ow Q1 is indirectly determined from measurements of two
pressures P1 and P2 along a rigid pipe line using equation 8.18. By carrying out
these measurements at two suciently dierent loads L1 and L2, the equations
of the admittance matrix 8.44 can be expanded into the following four linearly
independent equations:
Qs
= h11 PsL1
+h12 P1L1
(8.45)
Qs
Q1L1
= h11 PsL2
= h12 PsL1
+h12 P1L2
+h22 P1L1
(8.46)
(8.47)
Q1L2
= h12 PsL2
+h22 P1L2
(8.48)
In the expressions above, the term h21 is eliminated since it equals h12 . It is
thus possible to determine the four unknown quantities h11 , h12 , h22 and Qs
105
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page 106
individually as:
h22
h12
h11
Qs
PsL1 Q1L2 PsL2 Q1L1

P1L2 PsL1 P1L1 PsL2
Q1L1 h22 P1L1
=
PsL1
P1L2 P1L1
= h12
PsL1 PsL2
= (h11 PsL1 + h12 P1L1 )
=
(8.49)
(8.50)
(8.51)
(8.52)
By combining the matrix equations 8.44 and eliminating the source pressure
Ps , the following equation is obtained:

1
Qs h12 h212
=
h22
Z1
P1
h11
h11
(8.53)
By comparing this equation with the expression in equation 8.37, it becomes

obvious that the source impedance Zs can be determined as:
Zs = X2 =
1
h12 2
h11
h22
(8.54)
Thus, the advantage of using the source admittance method compared with
the secondary source or the two-microphone method is that the source impedance model is no longer required for obtaining the source ow. The measurement results obtained with this method, however, are not satisfactory. Figure
8.12 shows simulated and measured source ow spectra obtained at dierent
operational conditions using the source admittance method. These measurements are obtained from the same valve plate as for the measurements shown
in gure 8.10, i.e. with an ordinary pre-compression angle and the suction
port pressure boosted to 0.5 MPa. The agreement between simulations and
measurements using the admittance method is very good for frequencies up to
1000 Hz. Severe oscillations are observed in the region of 1500-2000 Hz,
which are not predicted by the simulation model. No such source ow oscillations are reported in literature and the dierence between simulations and
measurements can therefore very likely be related to measurement errors. By
carrying out measurements at dierent pipe lengths, it has been veried that
these obscurities are not caused by cancellation errors.
There are several potential reasons for the measurement errors obtained.
The most likely source of error is that the source admittance method assumes
linear relationships between ows and pressures in the frequency domain. In
reality, however, the complex shape of the outlet channel may very likely not
correspond to such linear representation. This could also imply that reciprocity
does not hold and thus that h12 = h21 . Another plausible source of error is
that the pressure transducer is not mounted exactly at the location where the
source ow is generated.
106
25
20
20
15
10
5
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
15
10
5
0
0
3000
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
3000
8.12(a) 1700 rpm, 20MPa and 16
8.12(b) 1700 rpm, 25MPa and 16
displacement, i.e.
ment.
displacement.
full displace-
25
25
20
20
Source flow [l/min]
Source flow [l/min]
0
0
15
10
5
0
0
Source flow [l/min]
Source flow [l/min]
25
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
15
10
5
0
0
3000
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
3000
8.12(c) 1700 rpm, 15MPa and 12
8.12(d) 1700 rpm, 25MPa and 9
displacement.
displacement.
Source flow [l/min]
Source flow [l/min]
3
2
1
0
0
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
3000
3
2
1
0
0
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
3000
8.12(e) 1000 rpm, 20MPa and 16
8.12(f ) 1000 rpm, 25MPa and 16
displacement.
displacement.
Figure 8.12 Simulated (bars) and measured (stars) source ow for ordinary precompression for a variety of dierent operational conditions using the admittance
method.
107
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page 108
8.7
Simplifying the source impedance by plugging the regulator channel
There does not appear to be any method that provides reliable source ow and
source impedance measurements for pumps with complex outlet channels. In
order to verify the simulation model used in this thesis, the regulator channel
is mechanically blocked using a plug. The variable pump thus appears as a
xed displacement unit, with a source impedance that is fairly well dened
for a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle. Measurements are then
carried out using the three-microphone method. Using a model as in gure 8.8,
a fairly good match between measured source impedance and source impedance
model can be obtained, see gures 8.13(a) and 8.13(b), at least up to 1500
Hz. Figures 8.13(c) and 8.13(d) show close agreement between measured and
simulated source ow. The measured and simulated results in gure 8.13 are
obtained at full displacement, at 1700 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge pressure and
at 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. Measurement results at other operational
conditions can be found in appendix A.
The pump outlet channel is modelled using a constant diameter rigid pipe
element, as in gure 8.8. Such a source impedance model will give rise to
a resonance peak at precisely twice the anti-resonance frequency, see gure
8.13(a). However, for the measured source impedance, the resonance peak
appears at about 1.5 times the anti-resonance frequency. This indicates that
the outlet channel cannot be perfectly modelled in the high-frequency regions
using such a simple pipe element. Even though the model match is rather poor
at high frequencies, the agreement between measured and simulated source ow
is very good. One reason for this is that the valve plate studied provides very
good timing at this particular operational condition. Therefore, the frequency
content of the ow ripple power spectrum is mainly located to low frequencies
and the poor agreement at higher frequencies has thus only minor inuence.
Less good timing, obtained at dierent operational condition, causes more highfrequency ripples, implying that source ow measurements are less accurate.
This can for instance be seen in appendix A.
8.8
Time-variant source impedance
The previous section showed that for a valve plate with ordinary precompression angle, the source impedance can be modelled fairly well if the
regulator channel is plugged. When using a valve plate with a PCFV however,
the measured source impedance still becomes very dicult to interpret, even
though the regulator channel is plugged, see gure 8.14. A conventional way of
modelling the source impedance of a pump with a PCFV is illustrated in gure
8.15. Using this modelling approach, literature has shown that the source
impedance can be modelled with high accuracy, resulting in accurate source
108
11
100
Source impedance [deg]
10
10
10
10
10
10
Frequency [Hz]
10
50
100 2
10
8.13(a)
8.13(b)
10
120
110
10
50
6
4
2
0
0
8.13(c)
1000
2000
Frequency [Hz]
3000
10
Frequency [Hz]
10
100
90
80
70
60
0
2 Time [ms] 4
8.13(d)
Figure 8.13 Example of measured source characteristics when the regulator

channel is plugged. Figures (a) and (b) show the amplitude and phase of the
measured source impedance (dotted) and corresponding source model (solid)
when the regulator channel is plugged. In gure (c) and (d) the corresponding
measured (stars and dashed) and simulated (bars and solid) source ows are
shown.
109
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page 110
11
150
Source impedance [deg]
10
10
10
10
100
50
0
50
100
150
10
10
10
Frequency [Hz]
10
8.14(a)
200 2
10
10
Frequency [Hz]
10
8.14(b)
Figure 8.14 Amplitude (a) and phase (b) of measured source impedance using
valve plate with a large PCFV and plugged regulator channel.
ow measurements, see for instance [84]. Despite substantial modelling eorts,
Vpcfv
Lpcfv
dpcfv
QS0
Q0
P0
Q1
Ap, Bp, Cp, Dp

Zs0
P1
Z1
Figure 8.15 Common impedance representation for a pump with a PCFV. The
volume Vpcf v connects to the cylinder via a short, but normally not negligible,
pipe.
no reasonable match between measured source impedance and source model is

obtained for this particular pump. One plausible reason for the unpredictable
behaviour of the source impedance measurements is that the PCFV is connected to the source impedance for only a fraction of the period time and
disconnected the remaining time. Hence, the source impedance is not constant
over the period which means that source impedance becomes time-variant.
All the existing measurement methods described in section 8.4 require constant, i.e. time-invariant source impedance, as illustrated by expanding equa-
110
9:7
page 111
tion 8.1:
Qs,1 Q1,1
Qs,2 Q1,2
..
Qs,n Q1,1n
1
Zs,1
0
..
.
0
1
Zs,2
..
.
0
...
...
..
.
...
0
0
..
.
1
Zs,n
P1,1
P1,2
..
.
P1,n
(8.55)
The terms Qs,n , Zs,n and P1,n represent source ow, source impedance and
pump ange pressure respectively, at the n:th harmonic frequency. The diagonal structure of the transfer function matrix 1/Zs implies that an input signal
at one specic frequency aects the output signal only at the same frequency,
which is also the denition of a time-invariant system. Thus, the equations in
matrix 8.55 can be determined frequency-wise, i.e. as the quotient between the
frequency dependent quantities for each harmonic frequency at a time, as is
done in the conventional measurement methods described earlier.
When the source impedance is time-variant, however, it is not possible to
form a transfer function. Instead, the source impedance becomes an operator,
operating on the pressure P1 :

S1,1 S1,2 . . . S1,n
P1,1
Qs,1 Q1,1
Qs,2 Q1,2 S2,1 S2,2 . . . S2,n P1,2
x
= .
(8.56)
..
.
.
.
.. .
..
..
..

. .
.
Qs,n Q1,1n
Sn,1 Sn,2 . . . Sn,n
P1,n
The matrix is non-diagonal which clearly shows that an input signal at one
specic frequency not only aects the output signal at the same frequency,
but rather at all output frequencies. This system of equations is obviously
under-determined and the equations can no longer be solved frequency-wise.
In reality, all pumps have more or less time-variant source impedances, for
instance due to the piston motions and the varying number of cylinders connected to the discharge port. These eects, however, are most likely negligible
and the operator matrix therefore becomes highly diagonally dominant. For
such source impedance, time-invariance can be approximated, and the conventional measurement methods are applicable. The pump studied in [84] has a
rather small PCFV. The good agreement between the source impedance model
and the measurements obtained may be an indication that this time-variance
is also negligible. The PCFV size studied in this thesis, however, is substantially larger in relation to the piston stroking volume. The dierence in source
impedance when the PCFV is connected and disconnected thus becomes more
obvious and therefore, the time-variance may be relevant.
Practically, varying source impedance gives rise to additional system pressure
ripples besides those originating from the source ow. Since all conventional
measurement methods assume time-invariant source impedance, these additional pressure ripples will all be assigned to the source ow, which is thereby
111
9:7
page 112
determined incorrectly. An indication that the source impedance varies during

the time analysis period is that it is very dicult to nd a match between the
source model X2 and the measured source impedance Zs using physically reasonable parameter quantities. It is, however, dicult to know beforehand the
magnitude of the source impedance variations that can be tolerated without
obtaining measurement errors. The following simplied example illustrates the
dierence between a time-invariant and a time-variant representation. Even
though the circuit studied is simplied, the theory can be expanded to also
cover more complex circuits.
Example 8.1 Time-variant source impedance

Consider the simplied circuit illustrated in gure 8.16. Volume, Va corresponds to an auxiliary volume, whereas volume V1 represents the complete
internal volume, including all cylinders connected to the discharge port and
the discharge passage channel. The term kl is the laminar restrction between
the two volumes. The value of kl alternates as a pulse train between zero and
a certain maximum opening. The circuit can hence be seen as a simplication
of a source impedance employing a PCFV. For the circuit in gure 8.16, the
Va
kl(t)
Qs
Qa
V1
P1
Q1
Z1
Figure 8.16 Simple system used for investigating how the source impedance is
aected by instantaneously connecting and disconnecting the auxiliary volume
Va by opening and closing the laminar restriction kl as a pulse train.
following equations can be established:

1 (t)
qs (t) q1 (t) qa (t) = V1e dpdt

qa (t) = kl (t) p1 (t) pa (t)
qa (t) =
Va dpa (t)
e
dt
(8.57)
(8.58)
(8.59)
By treating the pump outlet channel as time-invariant, equations 8.57, 8.58
112
9:7
page 113
and 8.59 can be Laplace transformed as follows:

V1 Va s
1
+
(V1 +Va )kl e
V1 + Va

Qs (s) Q1 (s) = s
P1 (s)
e
1 + Va s
(8.60)
kl e
e
1
V1 +Va s
s
a +1
s
b +1
P1 (s) =
1
P1 (s)
Zs
(8.61)
where kl is assumed constant. The breaking frequencies of the source impedance transfer function Zs can be determined as:
a
b
kl e
kl e
Va + V1
= kVl ae
Consider now a time-variant analysis of the circuit which starts out in the
time domain. Equations 8.57, 8.58 and 8.59 are combined to form the following
expression:

d
1
e
e
V1 d
e2
+ kl (t)
+
qs (t) q1 (t) =
kl (t)
kl (t)
kl (t) p1 (t)
e dt V1
Va V1
dt Va
(8.62)
The laminar restriction coecient kl is now treated as a variable quantity as a
function of time. With y(t) = qs (t) q1 (t), x(t) = p1 (t), = V1e , = Vae the
equation is re-written in a more convenient form:

d
1
d
y(t) = + kl (t) kl (t)
+ kl (t)
kl (t) x(t)
(8.63)
dt
dt
The function kl (t) is periodic with time T , i.e. kl (t + T ) = kl (t). Introduce
T
also the quantity k0 (t) = kl (t) so that 0 k0 (t)dt = 0, i.e. k0 (t) is identical
to kl (t) but has the mean value zero.
Study to start with the general dierential equation:
d

+ kl (t) f (t) = g(t)
dt
(8.64)
which also can be written as:

t
f (t) =
H(t, )g( )d
(8.65)
H is the Green function:

H(t, ) = e
kl (s)ds
= e(t ) e
k0 (s)ds
(8.66)
113
9:7
page 114
Ht (t, ) + kl (t)H(t, ) = 0
H(, ) = 1
(8.67)
The term Ht (t, ) is the time derivative of H(t, ). This implies that the term
y1 (t) which is the last part of y(t) in equation 8.63, can be written as:

1
d
+ kl (t)
y1 (t) = kl (t)
kl (t)x(t)
(8.68)
dt
t
=
kl (t)
H(t, )kl ( )x( )d
(8.69)
kl (t)H(t, )kl ( )x( )d
(8.70)
H(t, )x( )d
(8.71)
t
=
H(t, ) = h(t )kl (t)H(t, )kl ( )
(8.72)
where h(t) is the Heaviside function:
1 t>0
h(t) =
0 t<0
Equation 8.72 can also be written as:
H(t, ) = h(t )e(t ) e
k0 (s)ds
and with = and H0 (t, ) = h(t )e

following form:
(8.73)
( + k0 (t))( + k0 ( ))
(t )
(8.74)
, equation 8.74 takes the
H(t, ) = H0 (t, )( + k0 (t))( + k0 ( ))e
k0 (s)ds
(8.75)
Now, equation 8.63 can be written as:

y(t) =
=
dx
+ kl (t)x(t) y1 (t)
dt

dx
+ kl (t)x(t)
H(t, )x( )d
dt
(8.76)
(8.77)
Fourier transformation of equation 8.77 gives:

kl ( )
H(,
)
x()d(8.78)
y() = i
x() +
x()d
114

i( ) + kl ( ) H(,
) x
()d
(8.79)
9:7
page 115

where is Diracs function. Since kl (t) is periodic: kl (t) =
Fourier transform kl () is obtained as:
kl () =
cn e
2n
)
T
cn (
i n2
T t
the
(8.80)
and c0 = , i.e. the average value of kl . The main diculty is to determine
0 (, ) is determined:
H(,
). First, the term H
0 (, ) =
H

h(t )e(t ) eit eit dtd

(t ) i(t )
d ei (+) d (8.82)

t it
dt ei (+) d
(8.83)
1
ei (+) d
+ i

h(t )e
(8.81)
(8.84)
1
( + )
+ i
It then follows that:

0 (, ) =
H
(8.85)
1
( )
+ i
(8.86)
is obtained as the convolution between H

0 and
According to equation 8.75, H
the Fourier transform of:
( + k0 (t))( + k0 ( ))e
=
( + k0 (t))e
t
0
k0 (s)ds
( + k0 ( ))e
h1 (t)
= ( + k0 (t))e
h2 ( )
= ( + k0 ( ))e
t
0
k0 (s)ds
k0 (s)ds
where
= h1 (t)h2 ( )
k0 (s)ds
k0 (s)ds
(8.87)
(8.88)
(8.89)
Both h1 (t) and h2 ( ) are periodic with time T . The Fourier transform of
h1 (t)h2 ( ) is obtained as:
(t)h2 ( )(, )
(h1
= h1 ()h2 ()
(8.90)

=
an ( 2n/T )
bm ( 2m/T ) (8.91)
n
an bm ( 2n/T )( 2m/T )
(8.92)
n,m
115
9:7
page 116

where an and bm are complex valued Fourier series coecients for h1 and h2 re 0 (, ) and the term ( 2n/T )(
spectively. The convolution between H
2n/T ) is determined as:

H0 ( r, s)(r 2n/T )(s 2m/T )drds =

0 ( 2n/T, 2m/T )
H
Finally, this yields:
(8.93)

0 2n/T, 2m/T
an b m H
(8.94)

0 2n/T, ( 2m/T )
an bm H
(8.95)
H(,
) =

n,m
and
H(,
) =

n,m
When transforming back to hydraulic quantities, equation 8.79 can now be

re-written as:

V1
e
) P1 ()d (8.96)
Qs ()Q1 () =
i()+ kl () H(,
e
Va
where Qs () is now the Fourier transform of the source ow etc. It is now

convenient to introduce the following terms:
As (, )
Bs (, )
Cs (, )
S(, )
V1
i( )
e
= kl ( )
e
)
= H(,
Va
= As + Bs + Cs
=
(8.97)
(8.98)
(8.99)
(8.100)
The two terms Bs and Cs account for the varying laminar restriction whereas
As completely ignores the inuence of the restrictor. Equation 8.96 can hence
be re-written as:

S(, )P1 ()d
(8.101)
Qs () Q1 () =
Now, how does the Fourier transformed quantity S(, ) relate to the Laplace
transformed quantity Zs (s)? Equation 8.61 also can be expressed as a Fourier
transform:
1
Qs () Q1 () =
P1 ()
Zs ()

(8.102)
1
1
=
( )P1 ()d =
P
()d
1
Zs ()
Zs (, )
116
9:7
page 117

where Zs (, ) is a two-dimensional complex valued function. 1/Zs (, ) is zero
for all frequencies and exept for = where 1/Zs (, ) = 1/Zs (). It
thus becomes clear that S(, ) is comparable to 1/Zs (, ). When discretising
these functions, two-dimensional matrices are obtained. The term 1/Zs (, )
will give rise to a diagonal matrix, with the transfer function elelements 1/Zs ()
in the diagonal. The term S(, ), however, will give rise to a non-diagonal
but diagonally dominant matrix, since the system is time-variant. This clearly
illustrates that an input signal at one frequency will aect the output signal at
all frequencies.
The terms As , Bs , Cs and S are discretised as functions of frequencies and
computed numerically as kl alternates periodically as a pulse train with period
T . As a consequence of the discretisation, As , Bs , Cs and S become matrices;
As is strictly diagonal ignoring the pulsating restriction, Bs is a band structure
matrix with the Fourer series coecients of kl (t) in the diagonal elements and
Cs is a diagonally dominant symmetric matrix. The results in gures 8.17
and 8.18 are determined for V1 = 50 106 m3 and Va = 100 106 m3 , thus
quite a large auxiliary volume in relation to the piston stroking volume. In
the calculations, a bulk modulus of 1.7 GPa is used and the pump studied has
seven pistons and runs at 1700 rpm.
In gure 8.17, the laminar restriction coecient varies instantaneously between 0 and 1012 m5 /Ns. As can be seen, the information in As is strictly
located to the diagonal elements and the amplitude spectrum of the diagonal
elements increases linearly with frequency. Both Bs and Cs are approximately
zero at all frequencies which in turn implies that the sum S is identical to As
and the time-variance is thus negligible.
In gure 8.18, the laminar restriction coecient varies instantaneously between zero and 51010 m5 /Ns. The term As is unaected by this increased
maximum opening of the restrictor, which is expected since this term does not
account for the laminar restrictor at all. However, with such large openings, the
contribution from terms Bs and Cs becomes important. The sum S is clearly
dierent to that obtained in gure 8.17(d). This proves that the varying laminar restrictor introduces substantial time-variance to the source impedance,
and that conventional measurement techniques are inadequate since the timevarying source impedances cannot be considered. Obviously, variations in other
quantities also have similar inuences. More realistic outlet channels, including
for instance pipe elements, turbulent restrictors etc., can be investigated in a
similar manner, but the mathematics is expected to be much more complex.
It is perhaps possible to mathematically compensate for the time-variance
in pump outlet channels. This, however, requires that the variations of the
outlet channel as functions of time are known explicitly. Since such variations
are scarcely measured, a model is required for this purpose. No such attempts
were made in this thesis.
117
8.17(a) .
8.17(b) .
8.17(c) .
8.17(d) .
Figure 8.17 Figures (a), (b) and (c) show the amplitudes of terms As , Bs and
Cs respectively when the restriction kl alternates instantaneously between 0 and
11012 . The amplitude of S, obtained as the sum of As , Bs and Cs is shown in
gure (d).
118
8.18(a) .
8.18(b) .
8.18(c) .
8.18(d) .
Figure 8.18 Figures (a), (b) and (c) show the amplitudes of terms As , Bs and
Cs respectively when the restcition kl alternates instantaneously between 0 and
51010 . The amplitude of S, obtained as the sum of As , Bs and Cs is shown in
gure (d).
119
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page 120
9:7
page 121
9
Cross-angle design
T
he cross-angle is is an incline of the swash plate, in the direction perpendicular to the original displacement direction, as illustrated by gure 9.1.
The cross-angle is normally very small, 1-4 . Even so, it has signicant inuence on the pump behaviour by moving the piston dead-centres up to almost
Swash axis
Cross-angle g
Figure 9.1 Illustration of how the cross-angle is implemented in an in-line pump.
90 when the displacement angle is varied between zero and full displacement,
which enables variable timing. With an optimal cross-angle and a matching
valve plate it is possible to obtain optimal pre-compression and decompression
for all displacement angles simultaneously. The technique is very similar to
the revolving valve plate, but without any moving parts that require on-line
control. In addition, the implementation cost of a cross-angle is considerably
lower than for the revolving valve plate.
121
9:7
page 122
9.1
Geometrical description
The upper left illustration in gure 9.2 shows a non-displaced swash-plate. The
lowermost gure shows the swash plate displaced in the cross-angle direction
alone, viewed from the negative y-direction. The vector a is a vector directed
along the surface of the displaced swash-plate, i.e. in the x-z plane. In the
upper right gure, the swash-plate is inuenced by the normal displacement
angle only, viewed from the positive x-direction. The vector b is directed
along the surface of the displaced swash-plate, i.e. in the y-z plane.
yy
y
x
b
a
x
a
Figure 9.2 Illustration of a swash plate displaced in the traditional direction

and in the cross-angle direction.
A vector c, orthogonal to the swash-plate displaced in both and directions, i.e. perpendicular to both a and b, is determined as the vector
product between a and b:
c
a b = Rb (1, 0, tan) Rb (0, 1, tan)
Rb2 (tan, tan, 1)
(9.1)
where Rb is the barrel radius. The angle from the x-axis to the resulting deadcentre axis in the x-y plane, according to gure 9.3, can now be determined
from the x and y-components of the c vector as:
= arctan
cy
tan
= arctan
cx
tan
(9.2)
The cross-angle not only inuences the dead-centre locations but also the
eective displacement to some extent. Scalar multiplication between c and a
unit vector d along the z-axis enable the eective displacement to be determined
as:
cd
1
(9.3)
= arccos
= arccos
2
|c||d|
(tan + tan2 + 1)
All equations above refer to in-line type of pumps. Similar expressions are
obtained for bent-axis pumps.
122
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page 123
Cross-angle design
Dead centre
axis
Figure 9.3 Illustration of the dead-centre angle . The dead-centre angle varies
as function of the displacement angle when using the cross-angle.
9.2
Eects from using the cross-angle
For conventional swash plate designs, i.e. without the cross-angle, it is fairly
easy to optimise the valve plate pre-compression angle for minimisation of discharge ow ripple at one operational condition. However, as the displacement
angle is reduced, the piston motion becomes insucient to provide satisfactory
pre-compression of the cylinder uid. To compensate for this, variable precompression is required. The same also holds for the decompression region.
When using a cross-angle, the dead-centre angle decreases with reduced
displacement angle. By starting the piston stroke earlier, the piston motion
during the pre-compression region becomes longer and the cylinder pressurisation is thus improved. The cross-angle also has an analogous eect at suction
port commutation. Correctly designed, the cylinder pressurisations and depressurisations become more or less identical for all displacement angles. A number
of positive eects are achieved as a consequence of this. First of all, both discharge and suction port ow ripples can be minimised for all displacement
angles. Secondly, since the pre-compressions and decompressions are more or
less identical for all displacement angles, the peak-to-peak cylinder pressurisation rates can be minimised for all displacement angles, which is not possible
using a conventional swash plate design, i.e. without the cross-angle. The piston forces thereby become as smooth as possible, which is also benecial for
the bending moments. This is hence expected to reduce housing vibrations and
noise directly emitted from the pump housing. Thirdly, since the decompressions are identical for all displacement angles, air-release and cavitation can
be controlled in a better manner than when using a conventional swash plate.
Altogether, the cross-angle is expected to reduce both uid-borne, structureborne and air-borne noise. It may also possibly reduce volumetric losses and
cavitation.
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9.3
Optimal design of the cross-angle
Both discharge and suction port ow ripples can be minimised for all displacements when using the cross-angle. However, optimal discharge ow ripples require a slightly lower cross-angle than optimal suction port ow ripples. Hence,
there is a trade-o relationship between these two competitive objectives.
As described in section 6.2, the trade-o relationship between two competitive objectives can be visualised graphically by employing the concept of Pareto
optimality. The dual objective function, simultaneously reecting these two
competing objectives at three dierent fractions of displacement, = 1, = 0.5
and = 0.05, can be formulated according to equation 9.4. Thereby, the two
objectives are considered throughout the whole range of operational conditions.
minf (x) =
f1 (x)

f1 (x), f2 (x)

max(qd (, x)) min(qd (, x))
(9.4)
(9.5)
=1,0.5,0.05
f2 (x)
max(qi (, x)) min(qi (, x))
(9.6)
=1,0.5,0.05
To avoid cavitation, a minimum cylinder pressure of 0.05 MPa is implemented

as an optimisation constraint. Another constraint prevents the maximum cylinder pressure from exceeding 2 MPa above the discharge pressure level. The
cross-angle value and the four kidney opening and closing angles constitute the
ve design parameters considered. Thus, no other valve plate design features
than ordinary pre-compression and decompression angles are concerned in this
study. The optimisations are carried out at 1700 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge
pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. The Pareto front obtained is
shown in gure 9.4. The x-axis shows the average peak-to-peak value of the
discharge ow ripples at the three dierent displacements investigated. In the
same way, the y-axis shows the average peak-to-peak value of the suction port
ow ripples at three dierent displacements. A cross-angle of 2 provides a fair
trade-o between the two ow ripples. This compromise solution is chosen for
further investigations.
9.4
Evaluation of the optimal cross-angle design
To evaluate the eects obtained by the cross-angle, another valve plate is

designed with ordinary pre-compression angle. This one is designed to be
used with a conventional swash plate, i.e. without the cross-angle. The precompression angle is designed to minimise the peak-to-peak discharge ow ripple at the same speed and pressure levels as the cross-angle design but at full
displacement. These two designs are hence principally comparable. The only
dierence is that one valve plate is used with the cross-angle and the other one
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Average inlet flow ripple [l/min]
Cross-angle design
19
1.8
18
17
1.9
16
15
14
2.0
2.2
2.1
2.3
13
16
17
18
19
Average discharge flow ripple [l/min]
Figure 9.4 Pareto front illustrating the trade-o relationship between discharge
and suction port ow ripples. The x-axis shows the average peak-to-peak value
of the discharge ow ripple at three dierent displacements. In the same way,
the y-axis shows the average peak-to-peak value of the suction port ow ripple
at three dierent displacements. The 2 cross-angle is considered to give a fair
compromise between the two objectives.
with a conventional swash plate. The dierent designs are manufactured for
experimental evaluation.
9.4.1
Cross-angle inuence on ow ripples
Figure 9.5 shows the simulated and measured peak-to-peak ow ripple at different displacement angles and discharge pressure levels for the two designs.
At each point in the diagrams, source ow measurements using the threemicrophone method are carried out. All these measurements can be found in
appendix A. As shown in appendix A, high-frequency oscillations often superimpose the source ow in the time domain. There are two reasons for this.
The source model used to determine the source ow is very close to measured
source impedance up to about 1500 Hz. Above this frequency, however, the
match is not as good. Hence, the accuracy of the determined high-frequency
source ow is uncertain, which may give rise to high-frequency oscillations. In
addition, the measured pressure spectra are truncated at 3000 Hz, since this is
considered to be the upper frequency limit for reliable measurements. Hence,
ow ripples above 3000 Hz are cut o when transforming back to the time
domain, which also contributes to time domain oscillations. This is a problem particularly at low displacement angles without the cross-angle where the
poor timing gives rise to substantial high-frequency content of the source ow
spectra. Generally, however, the source ow measurements are satisfactory and
good agreement between measurements and simulations is obtained.
At full displacement, the peak-to-peak ow ripples with and without the
cross-angle respectively are very similar, as expected. When the displacement
angle is reduced, however, the benet from using the cross-angle is revealed.
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Without the cross-angle, the sensitivity to variations in displacement angle

becomes severe. For each discharge pressure level, the ow ripple reaches a
local minimum at a specic displacement angle. Around that displacement, the
pulsations are increased for both larger and smaller displacement angles. This
becomes especially serious at zero displacement where a low pump noise level is
expected since there is no hydraulic power demanded. Without the cross-angle,
the predicted peak-to-peak ow ripple at zero displacement reaches 40 l/min
for 20 MPa and almost 50 l/min for 25 MPa.
60
Discharge flow ripple [l/min]
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
9.5(a)
4
8
12
Displacement angle [deg]
16
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
4
8
12
16
9.5(b)
Figure 9.5 Peak-to-peak ow ripple as function of displacement angle without

cross-angle (a), and with cross-angle (b) for dierent discharge pressure levels.
The lines represent simulations and the markers are measured values. The dotted
line and circles represents 25 MPa, solid line and squares 20 MPa and dashed
line and triangles 15 MPa.
When using the cross-angle design, the ow ripples are reduced linearly by
the displacement angle for all pressures in a very controlled manner. This implies that the cylinder pre-compression obtained at full displacement angle is
preserved throughout the whole range of displacement angles. The negative
slope is a result of the reduced cylinder dead volume at BDC for lower displacement angles which inherently reduces the compressible ow ripples. This
also indicates that the cross-angle is correctly designed. An incorrectly designed cross-angle would imply higher sensitivity, with more well-dened local
minima as obtained without the cross-angle, see gure 9.5(a). For 20 and 25
MPa discharge pressure, the ow ripples are improved at all displacement angles when using the cross-angle. Especially at zero displacement, the predicted
peak-to-peak ow ripples are reduced by a factor of 3 and 4 for 20 and 25 MPa
discharge pressure respectively, compared with the results obtained without
the cross-angle.
At 15 MPa, however, the design without the cross-angle seems to be slightly
better than the cross-angle design, except at very low displacement angles.
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Cross-angle design
The reason is that at 15 MPa, the design without the cross-angle gives rise
to a local minimum at precisely half displacement, which provides a perfect
compromise between ow ripples at full and zero displacement. However, when
using the cross-angle design, the rather poor pre-compression obtained at full
displacement and 15 MPa discharge pressure is preserved for all displacement
angles.
The ow ripple obtained with the cross-angle design is worse than predicted
at 15 MPa. The reason is that the valve plate design is not optimal for 20
MPa, which was specied in the optimisatin formulation. Instead, the crossangle valve plate design is optimal for a pressure somewhere between 20 and
25 MPa, which is understood by the close similarity between the ow ripples
at these two pressure levels. The deviation between the predicted optimum
and the true optimum is due to a slightly underestimated bulk modulus in the
optimisations carried out. To obtain a satisfactory match between simulated
and measured ow ripples, the air-content in the simulation model must be
slightly reduced from the 1.2 % which was indicated by initial experiments
with similar valve plates. This information can be used to further improve
the valve plate design at 20 MPa, which would also give lower pulsations at
15 MPa. This design change would, however, imply a slight deterioration of
the ow ripples at 25 MPa discharge pressure as a trade-o. Nevertheless, the
behaviour of this rst prototype is very close to what was predicted and also
close to the real optimum.
9.4.2
Cross-angle inuence on cylinder pressure rate and

measured noise emissions
Figure 9.6 shows the simulated cylinder pressure rates of the designs with and
without the cross-angle. The cylinder pressures are not measured and therefore
the simulations of the cylinder pressure rates are not actually conrmed. However, since the agreements between simulated and experimental ow ripples are
satisfactory, see appendix A, the condence in the simulation results is high.
Figure 9.6(a) shows the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate as function of
discharge pressure levels. The simulated results are obtained at maximum
displacement angles for both designs. As can be seen, both designs behave
identically. When using the cross-angle, the dead-centres are aected by the
displacement angle alone, and it is unable to account for varying discharge
pressure. Therefore, at one specic displacement angle, the cross-angle has no
eect at all.
Figure 9.6(b) shows the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate as functions of
displacement angles, at 20 MPa discharge pressure, for both designs. The benet from the cross-angle is obvious also regarding cylinder pressure rates. At
full displacement angle, both designs provide smooth pressurisations, which is
expected. As the displacement angle is reduced, however, the design without
the cross-angle gives rise to high cylinder pressure rates, simply because the pis-
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10
10
x 10
10
10
8
6
4
2
0
5
9.6(a)
10
15
20
25
30
Discharge pressure [MPa]
35
x 10
8
6
4
2
0
0
4
8
12
16
9.6(b)
Figure 9.6 Peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate during pressurisation as function

of discharge pressure (a) and as function of displacement angle level (b). Solid
line is obtained without cross-angle and dashed line when using the cross-angle.
ton motion is unable to pressurise the cylinder uid satisfactorily. When using
the cross-angle the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate decreases linearly with
reduced displacement angles which indicates very good cylinder pressurisation
throughout the whole range of displacement angles.
Due to the smooth pressurisation for all displacement angles when using the
cross-angle, the piston forces and bending moments inside the pump are also
smooth. In turn, this is expected to reduce the sound level at low displacement
angles. To verify this hypothesis, the sound levels of the two dierent designs
were measured in an anechoic sound chamber. The sound level transducer was
located 1 m in front of the test unit. To measure the sound level from the
pump housing alone, thereby minimising the possible noise appearing from the
connecting hoses, these were kept as short as possible. It is, however, dicult
to completely avoid pressure ripples in hoses contributing to the overall noise
emission.
Figure 9.7 clearly shows that when using the cross-angle, the sound level
is reduced almost linearly as the displacement angle is decreased. The sound
level from the design without the cross-angle, however, tends to increase at
lower displacement angles. This conrms the discussion in section 6.3.1 concerning the correlation between low peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rates, i.e.
smooth piston forces and bending moments, and direct sound emission. At full
displacement, the design with the cross-angle seems to generate slightly more
noise than the one without the cross-angle. There are two reasons for this.
The valve plate that is used with the conventional swash plate, i.e. without
the cross-angle, has a pressure relief groove at the entrance to the suction port.
The valve plate that is used together with the cross-angle, however, has only
an ordinary decompression angle. As shown in appended paper [II], such small
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Cross-angle design
dierences in the suction port timing may have a signicant inuence on the
directly emitted noise. Another reason is that the design without the crossangle gives slightly better pressurisation at full displacement, especially for 20
and 25 MPa discharge pressures, see gure 9.5.
85
Sound level [dBA]
Sound level [dBA]
85
80
75
6
8
10
12
14
9.7(a)
16
80
75
6
8
10
12
14
16
9.7(b)
Figure 9.7 Measured A-weighted sound level as function of displacement angle

without the cross-angle (a) and with the cross-angle (b). The measurements are
obtained at 25 MPa (dotted line), 20 MPa (solid line) and 15 MPa (dashed line).
9.4.3
Cross-angle design compared with PCFV
It may be interesting to investigate how well the optimal cross-angle design

from above, i.e. using a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle, performs compared with a pre-compression lter volume, PCFV, without any
cross-angle. The PCFV is known to have very low sensitivity to variations
in operational conditions, as shown in section 7.1. A valve plate with PCFV
design is optimised to minimise peak-to-peak ow ripple at full displacement,
at 1700 rpm, at 20 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure.
Figures 9.8(a) and 9.8(b) show the peak-to-peak ow ripples for the crossangle design and the PCFV design respectively. Figure 9.8(a) is a reproduction
of gure 9.5(b), thus providing both simulated and experimental ow ripples.
The simulated ow ripples from the optimal PCFV design, shown in gure
9.8(b), however, have not been experimentally veried. It should be pointed
out here that the PCFV is based upon simulations of a design that is truly
optimal at 20 MPa whereas the cross-angle valve plate is optimal for a pressure
somewhere between 20 and 25 MPa, as already mentioned. As can be seen,
the PCFV produces very low ow ripples for all displacement angles at all
pressure levels. At full displacement, the PCFV clearly improves the ow
ripples compared with the cross-angle design. At lower displacements however,
the cross-angle design with ordinary pre-compression is almost equally good
regarding ow ripples as the PCFV design without the cross-angle.
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60
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
9.8(a)
4
8
12
16
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
4
8
12
16
9.8(b)
Figure 9.8 Peak-to-peak ow ripple as function of displacement angle with ordinary pre-compression angle and a cross-angle (a), and for a PCFV without crossangle (b) for dierent discharge pressure levels. The lines represent simulations
and the markers are measured values. The dotted line and circles represents 25
MPa, solid line and squares 20 MPa and dashed line and triangles 15 MPa.
It is also interesting to investigate if the two dierent designs produce dierent cylinder pressure rates under varying operational conditions. The diagrams
in gure 9.9 are the same as the diagrams in gure 9.6. Thus, they show the
peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rates as functions of discharge pressure and displacement angle for the valve plates with ordinary pre-compression angles used
without the cross-angle (solid lines) and with the cross-angle (dashed lines).
However, gure 9.9 also includes the simulated peak-to-peak cylinder pressure
rate obtained with the PCFV design (dotted lines).
The sensitivity to variations in discharge pressure is substantially reduced
with the PCFV compared with the two other designs, see gure 9.9(a), which
was expected.
Consider now the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rates as functions of displacement angle for the three designs, gure 9.9(b). At full displacement, all
three designs produce almost identical peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rates.
As the displacement angle is reduced, vast dierences can be observed. As
expected, the PCFV clearly improves the sensitivity compared with a valve
plate employing ordinary pre-compression and no cross-angle. Interestingly
enough, however, the cross-angle design, using a valve plate with ordinary precompression angle, is clearly better than the PCFV design. This conrms the
statement made in section 6.3.1 that the low ow ripples obtained by the PCFV
do not guarantee low peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rates.
A concluding remark from this study is that when using a cross-angle and
ordinary pre-compression angle, the sensitivity to varying displacement angles
is about the same as that obtained when using a PCFV with a conventional
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Cross-angle design
10
10
x 10
10
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
5
9.9(a)
10
15
20
25
30
35
x 10
8
6
4
2
0
0
4
8
12
16
9.9(b)
Figure 9.9 Peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate during pressurisation as function

of discharge pressure (a) and as function of displacement angle (b) for ordinary
pre-compression angle without cross-angle (solid), for ordinary pre-compression
with cross-angle (dashed) and for PCFV without cross-angle (dotted).
swash plate. When also the discharge pressure varies however, the PCFV design
is clearly preferable. It is obviously possible to combine the eects of a valve
plate PCFV and a swash plate cross-angle in the same unit. Such a design
would be superior to any existing design feature, giving eective reduction of
ow ripples for all displacement angles and pressure levels.
Cross-angle is not only interesting for axial piston units. In many variable
vane pumps, the eccentricity of the driving shaft axis can be tuned in relation to
the cam ring, in the direction that is perpendicular to the normal displacement
direction. This is practically achieved by adjusting a knob on the pump housing
and the eect obtained is the same as when implementing a swash plate crossangle in axial piston pumps.
The cross-angle is benecial for motors as well as pumps. A problem with
the cross-angle concept is, however, that the dead-centres will inherently be
obtained as functions of the displacement angle, which does not unambiguously
improve the behaviour at all operational quadrants 1 Figure 9.10 shows which
operational quadrants are benecially inuenced by positive and negative crossangles respectively. As can be seen, the displacement can be changed from
positive to negative values, with preserved benecial inuence from the crossangle. The rotational speed can also be switched. However, when changing
pressure port, a cross-angle in the opposite direction is required. The denition
of positive displacement direction, positive cross-angle direction and discharge
pressure port location is illustrated in gure 9.11. In gure 9.10, negative
1 An operational quadrant is dened by one specic displacement direction and one dened discharge pressure port. A machine operating with alternating positive and negative
displacements and alternating pressure port, thus operates in several operational quadrants.
131
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pd pi , i.e. negative y-axis values, imply switched pressure ports. The shaded
area in gure 9.10(a) thus corresponds to the pump quadrant studied in all the
measurements and simulations presented in this thesis.
Clockwise rotation:
Counter-clockwise rotation:
p-p
d i
p-p
d i
Pos
Pos
Pos
Pos

Neg
Neg
Neg
9.10(a)
Neg
9.10(b)
Figure 9.10 Dierent quadrants require positive cross-angle whereas others require negative. Negative pd pi implies that the pressure ports have switched.
Figure (a) corresponds to counter-clockwise rotation and gure (b) to clockwise
rotation. The positive and negative directions are dened in gure 9.11.
BDC when displaced

in only -direction
BDC when displaced
in both and -directions
pd
i
BDC when displaced
in only -direction
Figure 9.11 Illustration of positive displacement, positive rotation and discharge port location.
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10
Discussion and
conclusions
This thesis shows that noise primarily originates from pump generated ow
ripples, piston forces and bending moments. It is also illustrated that all these
noise mechanisms are highly correlated to the design of the valve plate which
is thus the key component in noise reduction in hydraulic pumps. The main
diculty when designing a valve plate for noise reduction is to properly rate
the dierent noise generating mechanisms mutually; in some systems, the ow
ripples are more important whereas others suer from noise emitted directly
from the pump housing, i.e. from the internal forces and moments. It is also
dicult to know whether to emphasise low pulsation peak-to-peak values or well
composed frequency spectra of the signals. It is shown that one quantity, known
as cylinder pressure rate (dpc /dt), simultaneously reects all these objectives.
A low peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate implies smooth piston forces and
bending moments which are in turn also benecial for noise emissions and
housing vibrations. But a low peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate also implies
low ow ripples since no cylinder pressure transients occur when the cylinder
links up to the port kidney. Hence, minimisation of peak-to-peak cylinder
pressure rate emphasises low overall noise level.
When using an ordinary pre-compression angle, there is a very tight correlation between ow ripple and cylinder pressure rate; the pre-compression
angle that minimises peak-to-peak ow ripple simultaneously also generates
the smoothest piston forces possible, which also gives rise to smooth bending
moments. When using a pressure relief groove, the pressurisation is slightly
increased due to the discharge uid being fed into the cylinder before the cylinder has linked up to the discharge port. On the other hand, the pressure relief
grooves provides a better cylinder match at the moment where the cylinder
links up to the discharge kidney which gives a slightly smoother cylinder press-
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ure rate at this point. In all, the cylinder pressure rates are about the same as
when using an ordinary pre-compression angle, and there is still a very tight
correlation between ow ripples and cylinder pressure rates. When using a
PCFV, however, the ow ripples are poorly correlated to the cylinder pressure
rate. The reason is that the pressurisation phase, i.e. when the cylinder is
linked up to the PCFV only, may give rise to excessive pressurisation rates,
that are not reected in the discharge ow ripples. When designing PCFV, it
is therefore important not only to consider discharge ow ripples. It is shown,
however, that the PCFV design studied in this work generally gives both low
ow ripples and low cylinder pressure rates throughout the whole range of
operational conditions.
This thesis also addresses the importance of investigating the operational
point sensitivity of a design proposal. A compact and informative technique
for visualising the sensitivity to variations in all operational conditions simultaneously is proposed. For a pump designer, such sensitivity diagrams reveal
directly how good a certain solution really is. For a system designer, choosing between dierent pumps from dierent suppliers, such information would
facilitate more well-founded decisions about which pump satises certain requirements better than others. The sensitivity technique is employed to show
the importance of the size of the pre-compression lter volume (PCFV). It is
shown that a rather small PCFV is enough to signicantly reduce ow ripples
as well as cylinder pressure rates compared with ordinary pre-compression angle and pressure relief grooves. The behaviour is further improved by larger
PCFV sizes, but the improvement compared with a small PCFV is not as
considerable.
The design of the cross-angle conducted in this thesis clearly illustrates the
applicability and reliability of simulation-based optimisation. When introducing a cross-angle, a complex behaviour is obtained and it is very dicult to nd
the optimal cross-angle design and a matching valve plate without simulationbased optimisation. For the particular pump studied, the optimisations carried
out propose a compromise cross-angle value of 2 . Excellent results are obtained
when using the cross-angle; optimal pre-compression and decompression can be
retained throughout the whole range of displacement angles. It is shown that
when using a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle together with a
cross-angle, the peak-to-peak values of the ow ripples and the cylinder pressure
rates are reduced to about the same extent as when using a PCFV together with
conventional swash plate designs, i.e. without the cross-angle. Experimental
investigations of manufactured hardware show very good agreement between
simulations and experiments which reveal that the predicted optimum is very
close to the real optimum, already for the rst prototype manufactured. The
small divergence obtained is a consequence of a slightly under-estimated bulk
modulus in the simulation model used for the optimisation. This information
can be used to re-design primarily the valve plate, which will result in an even
better design.
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Discussion and conclusions
Also measured sound levels from pump housing, with and without the crossangle, verify the benets gained from using the cross-angle. At low displacement angles, the sound level is reduced by about 3-5 dB when implementing
the cross-angle, which is considerable.
Since the dead-centres are obtained as functions of the displacement angles, the cross-angle is unable to compensate for varying discharge pressure
level. The cross-angle is therefore an ideal design feature in constant pressure
variable displacement pumps. On the other hand, the sensitivity to varying
discharge pressure does not deteriorate when using the cross-angle compared
with conventional swash plate design. To reduce the sensitivity to varying discharge pressure, it can be supplemented with conventional valve plate design
features such as pressure relief groove and PCFV. There is reason to believe
that many future variable pumps will prot from the preferable characteristics
obtained with the cross-angle, especially since the implementation is simple
and inexpensive.
The cross-angle is benecial for pumps as well as motors. A problem with
the cross-angle concept, however, is that the piston bottom dead-centre moves
only up to almost 90 from the swash axis when the displacement angle
varies between maximum positive and maximum negative displacement. It
is shown that one cross-angle value can be benecial for machines switching
between positive and negative displacements and also between positive and
negative rotation directions, given a specied discharge pressure port. If the
pressure ports are switched, a negative cross-angle, i.e. a cross-angle in the
other direction, is required. With a revolving valve plate, the timing can be
adjusted arbitrary, independently of the displacement angle. Such a design
is more appealing, but would require on-line measurements of pressures and
displacement angle and external control devices for valve plate control. A
revolving valve plate also implies a higher implementation cost.
Another issue that needs to be considered in the cross-angle design is the
forces obtained along the swash axis due to the additional swash plate incline.
Even though the cross-angle is only a few degrees, this axial force reaches thousands of Newton. In addition, this axial force pulsates due to the alternating
number of cylinders connected to the discharge port. Special bearings capable
of withstanding forces in this direction must therefore be considered.
The conventional measurement methods for capturing source characteristics
from hydraulic pumps require a tuned model of the source impedance, i.e. the
pump outlet channel geometry, to obtain the true source ow. Experimental
studies have shown that for pumps with well-dened outlet channels, that can
be modelled fairly easily, this principle works well. Often, however, variable
displacement pumps have more complex outlet channel geometries, partly due
to the regulator channel that connects to the stroking piston and partly due
to the often long outlet channel with varying cross-sectional area and shape.
Such complex outlet channels are very dicult to model with required accuracy,
which in turn implies that the source ow is obtained incorrectly.
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A new measurement method, called the source admittance method, is investigated. The strength of this method is that the source ow can be obtained
without any source model. The method, however, requires an additional pressure transducer to be mounted at the source ow origin, which enables the
complete outlet channel dynamics to be identied. Generally, the quality of
the source ow measurements is fairly good. However, in some frequency regions, severe unexpected oscillations appear. One plausible reason for this is
that the varying cross-sectional area and shape of the outlet channel are not
perfectly represented by the linear relationship between the dynamic ows and
pressures that is assumed by the source admittance method. This could also
imply that the circuit reciprocity, i.e. h12 = h21 , which is another assumption
required by the method, does not hold. Another source of error may be that
the source pressure sensor is not exactly located at the origin of the source ow,
which is required. In general, the method seems promising but more research
is required to examine possibilities, limitations and possible improvements.
To obtain satisfactory measurement quality for verication of the theories
outlined in this thesis, the regulator channel was mechanically blocked using a
plug. The source characteristics are then measured using the two-microphone
method. The plugged regulator channel implies a fairly well dened source
impedance using a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle. It is possible to obtain a satisfactory source model but only up to around 1500 Hz. For
good valve plate timing, the ow ripples are dominated by the low-frequency
oscillations and thus, that the rather poor match between source model and
measured source impedance at higher frequencies is of minor importance. For
valve plates with inadequate timing on the other hand, the high-frequency
source ow contribution is substantial which implies that the high-frequency
source ow components are determined incorrectly. When transformed back
into the time domain, this gives rise to high-frequency oscillations superimposed onto the source ow, as can be observed in the diagrams in appendix
A. Truncations of the measured pressure spectra also contribute to this eect.
The good measurement quality up to 1500 Hz implies however that the general
shapes of the time domain source ows are obtained satisfactorily.
The poor match between measured and modelled source impedance is most
likely due to the varying cross-sectional area and shape of the outlet channel between valve plate and pump ange. The rst resonant frequency of the
measured source impedance thereby appears at about 1.5 times the rst antiresonant frequency. Normally, the non-negligible distance between valve plate
and pump ange is modelled using a constant diameter rigid pipe element.
With such a model, the rst resonant frequency of the source impedance is
obtained at exactly twice the rst anti-resonance frequency. A more representative model, accounting for the varying cross-sectional area and shape between
the valve plate and the pump ange, is thus needed. Such a model, however, is
dicult to obtain with the conventional modelling techniques outlined in this
thesis.
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Even though the plugged regulator channel provides a fairly well-dened

source impedance for a valve plate with ordinary pre-compression angle, problems are encountered when measuring source characteristics for a valve plate
with a large PCFV. The source impedance obtained is very unpredictable and
hence dicult to model. One plausible reason for this is that the PCFV is
connected to the source impedance for only a fraction of the period time. As a
consequence, the source impedance becomes time-variant. The source impedance varies to some extent in all pumps. This variation, however, is normally
negligible which means that the source impedance can be approximated as timeinvariant. Hence, an input signal at one frequency only aects the output signal
at the same frequency, which is also the denition of a time-invariant system.
Thereby, the frequency dependent quantities can be solved frequency-wise, as
is done in all the conventional measurement methods such as the secondary
source method and the two-microphone method. For time-variant systems,
however, an input signal at one specic frequency aects the output signal at
all frequencies. Thus, for time-variant outlet channels, the source impedance
cannot be represented by a transfer function and the dynamic equations can
therefore not be solved frequency-wise. Hence, the conventional measurement
methods are insucient. The time-variance is illustrated in this thesis using an
example of a simplied circuit. Even for this simple circuit, the mathematics
for obtaining the source impedance is complex. More realistic circuits can be
modelled using a similar approach but even more complicated mathematics is
expected. It is probably dicult to account for these variations in actual measurements. To do so, the geometrical variations of the outlet channel must be
known. Since these variations can hardly be measured, a model is most likely
required for this purpose.
In conclusion, it is very dicult to obtain reliable measurements of source
characteristics from pumps with complex and varying outlet channels. More
research in this area is required.
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11
Outlook
For the future, increasingly stringent customer requirements and author-
ity legislation governing low noise and vibration levels are expected to have considerable inuence on the design of hydraulic components as well as systems.
To meet these requirements, it is important not only to emphasise quiet pumps,
quiet driving sources, eective pulsation dampers etc., but also to match these
components to each other, to achieve eective overall reduction of noise and
vibrations in complete systems. New engineering tools and methods for conducting complete system simulations and optimisations regarding overall reduction of noise and vibration are necessary. Also, the hydraulic industry will
be forced to consider noise reduction as an objective equally as important as
the traditional performance-related ones, such as eciency and controllability,
at early stages in the design process. Noise and vibration are today considered
almost exclusively as a last step in the design process if the system designed
is unacceptable. Small design modications are then considered, for instance
by implementing pulsation dampers, screening and insulation until satisfactory
noise levels are obtained. A greater focus on noise reduction at early stages
in the design process will most likely increase development time and cost and
will perhaps also lead to slight deteriorations in other objectives as a trade-o
for lower noise levels. This is something that the industry, and in the end the
consumers, may be forced to accept for requirements to be met.
To be able to predict the expected noise level of a complete system, representative gures of merit for a pumps ability to generate noise and vibration must
be obtainable. If, for instance, source ow and source impedance as functions
of operational conditions are provided by the pump manufacturers, the system
designers have full insight into how a certain pump is expected to interact with
a certain hydraulic system. The system designer is then able not only to chose
the most suitable pump for a particular system, but also to tune the external system to minimise the interaction with the introduced ow disturbances.
Today, pump manufacturers provide very meagre information about pumps
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ability to generate noise and vibration. Even though there exist standardised
measurement methods and representative quantities that are considered to be
comparable, no such gures are normally provided.
In this thesis, the diculties of measuring source impedance and source ow
in variable displacement pumps is addressed. Improved or new methods are
required that can handle complex outlet channels and perhaps also time-variant
source impedances. The source admittance method generally produces good
results, except for certain frequency regions where the measurements are very
unpredictable and unreliable. More research is needed regarding possibilities
and limitations with the method, and how the measurement quality can be
improved throughout the whole frequency region.
Active pulsation dampers are very interesting for the future. The expected
progress in research on piezo-electric materials may enable eective pulsation
damping also of larger ow pulsations, which is not possible today due to the
limited volumetric stroke of piezo stacks. There is also reason to believe that
existing components can be expanded for more than one purpose. An example
of such a component is the high pressure lter, which today exists in many
hydraulic circuits. The high pressure lter contains a large volume which could
obviously be designed also for attenuation of pressure ripple.
In the not too distant future, direct pump control is likely to increase radically. The power supply is then distributed to the consuming units; each piston
contains a package with a small pump driven for instance by an electric motor. The transferrable power in each pump unit will thereby be reduced, which
will reduce the overall sound level. In addition, long hoses and pipes can be
avoided, which will also reduce the resonance properties. On the other hand,
the sound emissions will appear closer to the user. It will therefore become
more dicult to screen and insulate noise emission from these numerous distributed noise sources, than when employing a central pump source. Quieter
pumps will therefore be important.
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12
Review of papers
Paper I
Dynamic Analysis of Shuttle Technique Performance Applied on Hydraulic Transformer
A hydraulic transformer is used to transform the hydraulic ow/pressure ratio,
ideally without power-losses. This concept has been developed as an alternative to traditional valving techniques, that are normally subject to large power
losses. Since the transformer has the ability to transform a large ow at low
pressure into a small ow at high pressure and vice versa, i.e. both up and
down transformation, the ability to recuperate energy is obtained.
One transformer concept, IHT 1 , is based on a modied hydrostatic motor,
with three valve plate kidney slots. This implies that commutation between
two kidney ports will occur as the pistons have considerable velocities, which
will give rise to very large cylinder pressure peaks. Besides excessive noise and
vibration, the cylinder pressures peaks will have a large impact on the overall
transformer performance, such as operational range, low speed behaviour and
eciency.
By implementing so-called shuttles between each pair of consecutive cylinders, uid excess can be transferred between adjacent cylinders. In this way,
the cylinder pre-compression and decompression during commutation is alleviated. The shuttles are described in detail in this paper. A simulation model
of a transformer with shuttles has been developed. The results are promising
and show that the use of shuttles in a transformer is very eective.
1 Innas
Hydraulic Transformer
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Paper II
The importance of suction port timing in axial piston pumps
The importance of correct timing at discharge port commutation in order to
reduce discharge port ow ripples is well known. Not much work, however,
adresses the importance of adequate suction port timing. This paper shows
that with appropriate suction port timing, the sound level is reduced by about
8 dBA in the particular system considered, compared with a valve plate that
is zero-lapped at suction port commutation. One reason for this sound level
reduction is obviously the reduced suction port ow ripples. But appropriate
decompression also implies smooth cylinder pressure drops. Piston forces as
well as bending moments inside the pump thereby become smoother, which
also contributes to the emitted sound level.
This paper also investigates how air-release can be modied with dierent
suction port timing. It is shown that the eective bulk modulus is increased
by approximately 3% when using an appropriate suction port commutation
compared with a zero-lapped valve plate. The increased bulk modulus is expected to increase the volumetric eciency, partly since the compression losses
are reduced and partly since the cylinder lling is improved by the reduced air
content. Increased bulk modulus also implies lower compressible ow ripples
which reduces uid-borne noise.
As an alternative to traditional pressure relief grooves at suction port commutation, the air drain groove, ADG, is examined. Instead of connecting
to the suction port as ordinary pressure relief grooves, the ADG connects
to the pump casing, i.e. the drain port. The free air in the main circuit
uid is thereby expected to decrease. In this small study, no signicant improvements are found by using ADG instead of ordinary pressure relief grooves.
Paper III
Optimal design of the cross-angle for pulsation reduction
in variable displacement machines
When using the cross-angle, the piston top and bottom dead-centres vary as
functions of the displacement angle, which gives rise to varying timing. It
is thereby possible to retain optimal timing throughout the whole region of
displacement angles.
This paper derives the geometrical relations of the pump when using the
cross-angle. Furthermore, the optimal design of the cross-angle for reduction
of discharge as well as suction port ow ripples for all displacement angles
simultaneously is investigated. Multi-objective optimisation and Pareto optimality are used to visualise the trade-o between the competing objectives.
The optimal cross-angle for the particular pump studied is 2 , which gives a
substantial improvement compared with conventional swash plate designs, i.e.
without any cross-angle.
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Review of papers
Paper IV
Inuence from the cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments in variable hydraulic piston pumps
When using the cross-angle, the variable timing as a function of the displacement angle not only inuences the ow ripples. The internal piston forces
and bending moments are also aected. In this study, ow ripples in both the
discharge and in the suction port, piston forces and bending moments are considered in the multi-objective optimisation. Objective functions are designed
in both the time and frequency domains. In the time domain, peak-to-peak
pulsations are suitable objectives. The smoothness of the signals, however,
is better represented in the frequency domain. Especially the piston force,
for pumps with odd piston numbers, can not be optimised at all in the time
domain. The reason is that the piston forces inherently alternate between two
distinctive levels and that the peak-to-peak value thus remains almost constant
for most valve plate designs. A better objective, therefore, is to formulate the
objective for piston forces in the frequency domain. In this particular study, the
objective functions are designed so that noise at high frequencies is penalised
more heavily than noise at low frequencies.
One interesting result from this paper is that both the time domain and
the frequency domain optimisations yield similar results, which was not known
beforehand. Another result is that the cross-angle representing a fair trade-o
between good discharge and suction port ow ripples also gives the smoothest
piston forces and bending moments. Hence, the cross-angle has benecial inuences on all the noise generating mechanisms considered.
The compromise cross-angle value in this study is about 3.3 , which is thus
slightly larger than proposed in appended paper [III]. The reason for this is
that in this paper, a more appropriate bulk modulus model is used, including
a small amount of air. This aects the pressurisations and depressurisations
as functions of the displacement angle.
Paper V
Experimental verication of cross-angle for noise reduction in
hydraulic piston pumps
This paper is concerned with experimental verication of the cross-angle. In
the rst step, multi-objective optimisation is carried out, simultaneously considering minimisation of discharge and suction port ow ripples at a variety of
dierent displacement angles. This results in a cross-angle of 2 and a corresponding valve plate design. In the second step, a swash plate including this
cross-angle and the corresponding valve plate is manufactured and evaluated
experimentally regarding source ow and direct sound emission. For comparison, another valve plate, used with a conventional swash plate, i.e. without
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the cross-angle, is also manufactured.

Source ows from the two dierent designs are measured using the threemicrophone method. The experimental results conrm the predicted improvements from using the cross-angle. Sound measurements, carried out in an
anechoic chamber for the two dierent designs, also reveal improvements when
using the cross-angle.
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noise, in ASME International Congress & Exposition, Chicago, November 1994.
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uid-borne noise characteristics, in 5th Bath International Power Workshop, pp. 111137, University of Bath, UK, 1992.
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for automotive hydraulic power steering system, International Journal
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[122] Bolleter U., Using transfer function measurements to determine energy propagation in uid lines, with application to centrifugal pump
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intensity measurements, Centre Technique des Industries Mechaniques,
Sentis, France, 1981.
[123] Johnston N., Personal communication, December 2004.
156
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A
Source flow
measurements
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Figure A.1 Measured and simulated source ow without cross-angle at 1700

rpm, 25 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure.
158
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Figure A.2 Measured and simulated source ow with cross-angle at 1700 rpm,
25 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure.
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164
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page 165
Paper I
Dynamic analysis of shuttle technique

performance - applied on hydraulic
transformer
Andreas Johansson, Ronnie Werndin,
Jan-Ove Palmberg and Peter Achten
9:7
page 166
This paper has been published as:

A. Johansson, R. Werndin, J.-O. Palmberg and P. A. J. Achten, Dynamic analysis of shuttle technique performance - applied on hydraulic transformer, in Proc. of the 3rd International Fluid Power Conference (IFK3)
(Ed. Frdervereinigung Fluidtechnik e. V., Achen), Vol 2, pp.249-261, Aachen,
Germany, March 2002.
9:7
page 167
Dynamic Analysis of Shuttle Technique

Performance applied on Hydraulic
Transformer
Andreas Johansson, Ronnie Werndin and Jan-Ove Palmberg
Linkping University, Sweden
Peter Achten, Innas BV, Netherlands
Abstract
As an alternative to traditional valve control, hydraulic transformation
has proved to be an attactive approach from an eciency point of view.
According to the Innas1 concept, hydraulic transformation is achieved
using a modied displacement machine design. In order to realise the
transformation using only one displacement machine, it is necessary to
use a valve plate containing three kidney slots for the three supply lines;
supply, load and tank. By displacing the valve plate, pressure/ow ratio
can be transformed, ideally with preserved eciency. When using three
kidney slots together with a traditional displacement machine with two
dead centres, the commutation between two subsequent kidneys will occur while the piston is moving. This will result in pre-compression or
decompression of the cylinder uid, with severe pressure peaks as a consequence. Besides noise and vibration, these pressure peaks will decrease
the total eciency considerably. Also driving shaft torque variations will
appear, which will aect the rotational movement by speed uctuations.
In order to minimise the pressure peaks during valving land passages,
small pistons between pairs of cylinders in the barrel are introduced.
This is referred to as shuttle technique. Using these shuttles, excess of
cylinder uid during commutation can be transferred to adjacent cylinders, and thus prevent cylinder pressure peaks from appearing.
It is very dicult to measure the internal states of the shuttle in an operating transformer. By using computer simulation techniques, detailed
analyses of the internal workings of the shuttle can be performed. In this
work, a detailed description of the dynamic behaviour of the shuttle is
given. Advantages and disadvantages of the technique are discussed.
1 Innas
BV, Netherlands
9:7
page 168
Paper I
Introduction
Traditional load control using ordinary valves is subject to large power losses.
By using a hydraulic transformer, pressure to ow ratios can be modied,
ideally without power losses. The Dutch engineering company Innas BV has
presented a new type of hydraulic transformer, the so-called IHT [1]. The design of the transformer is based on a traditional axial piston motor using a
valve plate with three kidney-slots for supply (A-port), load (B-port) and tank
(T-port). The advantage of the Innas transformer concept is that building
volume and cost can be kept relatively low, compared with other existing hydraulic transformer concepts, which combine a pump and a motor [2]. The IHT
concept, however, suers from some drawbacks, mainly due to large cylinder
pressure shocks, which will cause noise and vibration, shorten fatigue life, and
increase leakage and power losses. The pressure peaks appear when the cylinder switch between two port kidneys (commutation). In the transformer, the
commutations betweens cylinder and pressure ports occur at locations other
than the piston top and bottom dead centres. Therefore, the pistons will have
considerable velocities during commutation, generating instantaneous cylinder
pressure peaks.
Concurrent (for example rectangular) port shapes [1] will speed up the commutation and thereby decrease the cylinder pressure built up. A more eective reduction is achieved using the so-called shuttle technique. The shuttles,
mounted between every pair of cylinders as shown in gure 1, were rst presented by Achten in [3], which experimentally shows great improvements regarding the behaviour of the transformer. As the cylinder pressures varies,
the shuttle will transport excessive uid to adjacent cylinders as needed, which
in turn will result in a lower cylinder pressure build-up and also in decreased
cavitation. From a manufacturing point of view, the shuttle technique is economically defensible compared to the concurrent port concept. The reason
is that the concurrent port design requires high manufacturing tolerances for
satisfactory results, which is not necessarily the case for the shuttle concept.
Figure 1 Shuttle between every pairs of cylinders.
168
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page 169
Dynamic analysis of shuttle . . .
It is highly dicult to measure the internal states of an operating transformer including the shuttles. Instead, simulation models are used to increase
the understanding of how the shuttles inuence the behaviour. From experience, the condence in simulation technique for predicting dynamics is very
high. For instance in [4] and [5], detailed experimental investigations of the
dynamics of a hydrostatic pump, which has a similar level of complexity as the
IHT, were carried out. Also these studies suered from problems obtaining the
internal states, for instance cylinder pressures. However, the agreement between measurements and simulations shown is generally very good. Therefore,
the internal states can also be assumed as to be fairly accurate, which justies
the applicability of simulation.
Modelling of transformer
In [6], a general technique for modelling displacement machines is presented.

The modelling strategy is based upon a modularisation of the internal workings of the machine, and facilitates fast and accurate modelling of any kind of
displacement machine, irrespective of type (axial piston machine, inner gear
machine etc.) or functionality (pump, motor or transformer). The modelling
strategy, which also enables implementation of highly complex design features
in a simple way, has been employed when modelling the transformer, using the
simulation tool hopsan [7]. hopsan, developed at Linkping University, has
proved to be a very accurate tool for describing the dynamic characteristics of
hydraulic systems.
The shuttle
The shuttles are mounted between every pair of cylinders, according to gure
1. An illustration of the shuttle is shown in gure 2. By designing the shuttle
slightly smaller than the shuttle chamber, leakage ow over the shuttle can
occur. However, as the shuttle is forced against the wall, the leakage passage
is cut o.
As will be seen in section 4, the shuttles perform two strokes each barrel
rotation. An initial observation may therefore be that shuttle wear originated
by end position knocking is a severe problem. However, the design of the
shuttle and its chamber makes end position damping possible, which allows
the shuttle to decelerate smoothly. Another obvious problem is to obtain the
extreme shuttle accelerations required to obtain sucient uid transfer which in
turn reduce the cylinder pressure peaks. However, by using ceramic materials,
the mass of the shuttle can be kept very low, which facilitates the accelerations
required. If the mass of the shuttle exceeds the mass of the accelerating uid,
the shuttle mass will be vital for the acceleration, and thus the ability to reduce
pressure peaks. If, on the other hand, the shuttle mass is kept lower than the
169
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page 170
Paper I
accelerating uid, the shuttle mass will no longer be a delimiting property.

Two shuttle models with dierent levels of detail are developed. With a detailed model, eects such as end position damping can be simulated. This
model is, however, time-consuming. By instead using a simplied shuttle
model, simulation time can be shortened signicantly without losing valuable
information.
3.1
Detailed shuttle model
Figure 2 illustrates the modelling strategy used. As can be seen, the chamber
is represented by two volumes (damping and port volume) and two orices
(damping and port orice). By calculating the damping volume and damping
orice as a function of the shuttle position, end position damping is obtained.

Chamber damping volume
Chamber damper restrictor
Aring
Chamber port restrictor

Chamber port volume
Acentre
Figure 2 The geometry that the detailed shuttle model is based upon.
The graphical representation of the detailed model in hopsan is shown in

gure 3(a). In region 1, the cylinder, which is symmetric, represents the ring
area of the shuttle. In the model, the ow generated by the centre area is
calculated as the product of the centre area and the shuttle velocity, which is
introduced to the port volumes as ow sources, indicated as region 2. Together,
they represent the total ow generated by the shuttle movement.
To apply a force corresponding to the pressure dierence acting on the centre
area of the shuttle, the port volume pressures are multiplied with the centre
areas, subtracted from each other and applied on the shuttle in the shape of
a force source, region 3. In region 4, the ow restriction coecient for the
damping restrictor is calculated as a function of the shuttle position. Figure
4(a) illustrates how end position damping is aected when the incline of the
end wall (denoted by in gure 2) is 25 and 45 respectively.
3.2
Simplied shuttle model
With an ordinary piston model and a mass, the shuttle model is simplied
considerably, see gure 3(b). However, the dynamic behaviour of the shuttle
will be almost identical to the results derived from the detailed model, except
170
4
3
1
3(a) Detailed model of shuttle.
3(b) Simplied model of shuttle.
3.9
11.6
3.8
11.4
3.7
11.2
3.6
3.5
0.1
0.2
0.3
Time [ms]
0.4
11.0
0.5
4(a) End position damping at two
dierent incline angles, = 25

(solid) and 45 (dotted) respectively.
15
14
13
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1
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0
0.2
0.4
0.6
Time [ms]
0.8
10
Cylinder pressures [MPa]
11.8
Shuttle positions [mm]
4.0
Shuttle damp. press. [MPa]
Shuttle positions [mm]
Figure 3 Shuttle models.
4(b) Comparison between detailed (solid) and simplied (dotted) shuttle model. The righthand axis shows the cylinder
pressures (dashed lines).
Figure 4 Simulated shuttle dynamics.
171
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Paper I
for the region inuenced by end position damping, that can not be simulated
on the same level of details with the simplied model, see gure 4(b). In this
simulation, the shuttle is actuated by a pressure transient on one side of the
shuttle, whereas the pressure on the other side is constant. The two pressures
are shown on the right-hand axis in gure 4(b).
Eects of shuttles in transformer
Unlike ordinary pumps, where openings and closings are made gradually with
for example pressure relief grooves and circular kidney slot ends in order to
prevent pressure peaks to appear, commutation in the transformer is with advantage made as fast as possible. One way to speed up the commutation is to
employ concurrent port shapes, see [3]. Still, pressure peaks are severe. The
shuttles prevents large cylinder pressure peaks to occur by transporting excessive uid to neighbouring cylinders. Figure 5(a) and 5(b) show results based on
simulations of two identical transformers at the same operational point, with
and without shuttles respectively. The transformer simulated is a 10 cc 7 piston
Bent-Axis machine where A-port is fed with pressure of 20 MPa, B-port with
11 MPa, the tank supply is 1 MPa and the valve plate is displaced 40 . The
shuttle mass is 0,175 g and the stroking volume of the shuttle is less than 0,1
ml. As can be seen, the extreme pressure peaks are reduced very eectively by
the shuttle movement.
60
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30
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10
0
20
40
60
Time [ms]
80
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5(a) Cylinder pressure without shuttles.
50
40
30
20
10
0
10
15
Time [ms]
20
25
5(b) Cylinder pressure with
shuttles.
Figure 5 Cylinder pressures.
The reduced cylinder pressure peaks will imply lower piston force variations
which in turn will reduce negative driving torque peaks. The excitation level
of mechanical structure vibrations will thereby be lowered and thus less noise
and vibration are emitted. Figure 6 shows the simulated pressures of two
neighbouring cylinders together with the shuttles position. The rapid shuttle
movement during commutation between the A-port and T-port, indicates that
cavitation, which also a contributes to emitted noise and reduced fatigue life,
is alleviated.
172
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page 173
25
20
15
2
10
1
5
0
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15
Time [ms]
20
Shuttle position [mm]
0
25
Figure 6 Pressures in two consecutive cylinders (dotted) and corresponding

shuttle position (solid).
The cylinder pressure is directly related to the driving shaft torque of the
transformer, gures 7(a) and 7(b). By using the shuttles, the negative torque
peaks are reduced, resulting in a higher average torque. The rotational speed
is thereby increased considerably, as shown in gure 7(c). Experimentally,
it has not been stated whether shuttles aect the friction loss model or not.
Therefore, a friction loss model for the transformer without the shuttles, based
upon measurements and calculations made by Innas BV, has been used for
simulations both with and without shuttles.
The comparison of driving shaft torque at two dierent speeds may appear
unfair. Therefore, the driving shaft torques at the same average speed, achieved
by adjusting the valve plate control angle, have also been simulated and compared. The results of the simulated torques with and without the shuttles are
shown in gures 8(a) and 8(b) respectively while gure 8(c) shows the rotational speed variations. The reduction of the negative torque peaks is obvious
also here.
4.1
Flow ripple
The shuttles will also aect the ow ripples generated in the supply lines.
When studying the eects from the shuttles in a transformer, the choice of
operational point for comparison is not obvious. In this work, a constant load
(constant B-port pressure), constant supply pressure (constant A-port pressure) and constant load velocity (constant B-port ow) were chosen. In this way,
the shuttles eect on a transformer in a plausible working condition can be
studied. In order to achieve constant B-port ow with or without the shuttles,
the valve plate has been displaced dierently. A consequence of this action
is that the A-port and T-port ow ratios are aected. The study has been
evaluated for B-port ows of 35 and 18 l/min, corresponding to 4000 and 2000
rpm respectively.
An interesting observation for both speeds is that even though the cylinder
pressure peaks are being reduced remarkably, the ow ripples are not improved,
173
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Paper I
10
Driving torque [Nm]
Driving torque [Nm]
10
5
0
-5
-10
8
12
Time [ms]
16
7(a)
20
5
0
-5
-10
2
3
Time [ms]
7(b)
Rotational speed [rpm]
3000.0
2500.0
2000.0
1500.0
1000.0
500.0
0.0
0.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
Time [ms]
80.0
100.0
7(c)
Figure 7 Driving torque without (a) and with shuttles (b) at same B-port pressure and control angle. Figure (c) shows rotational speed with (solid) and without
(dotted) shuttles. Notice that the time scale diers in (a) and (b) due to the
dierence in driving shaft speed.
which can be seen in gure 10(a), 10(c) and 10(e) at B-port ow of 35 l/min and
in 10(b), 10(d) and 10(f) at B-port ow of 18 l/min. However, the shape of the
ow will change. The reason for this is that the shuttle movement will convey
uid to neighbouring cylinders, generating substantial ow peaks, shown in the
diagram in gure 9. By studying the Fourier series coecients from the port
ows, obtained at the two dieren speeds, the general distortion is obvious, see
gure 11. With the shuttles, the ow ripple amplitudes in A-port and B-port
are increased, more or less at all harmonic frequencies. However, a signicant
improvement is achieved in the amplitudes of the T-port ow ripples with the
shuttles. Especially at 4000 rpm, the amplitude of the rst harmonic frequency
of the T-port ow ripples is reduced by approximately 6 l/min. For the same
frequency, the A-port ow ripple is increased by only 2.5 l/min and the B-port
ow ripple is almost unaected.
A closer look at gure 10 shows that the distortion in the A-port ow can be
understood by the sharp decrease in load ow at 1.5 ms in gure 10(a) and at
2.5 ms in gure 10(b). This increase coincides fully with a matching increase in
the B-port ows. Around these two times, the cylinder commutates from the
174
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page 175
10.0
Driving torque [Nm]
Driving torque [Nm]
10.0
5.0
0.0
-5.0
-10.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
Time [ms]
2.5
3.0
8(a)
5.0
0.0
-5.0
-10.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
Time [ms]
2.5
3.0
8(b)
Rotational speed [rpm]
3200
3150
3100
3050
3000
2950
2900
0.0
5.0
10.0
Time [ms]
15.0
20.0
8(c)
Figure 8 Driving torque without (a) and with (b) at same B-port pressure and
speed, dierent control angle. Figure (c) shows rotational speed with (solid) and
without (dotted) shuttles.
load port to supply port, i.e. from B-port to A-port. At 40 control angle, the
cylinder volume is pre-compressed and therefore ow pulse in A-port occurs
without shuttles. When using the shuttles, however, simulations show a net
ow from the A-port to B-port, which is referred to as backow.
As has been pointed out by Achten in [3], at the transition from the B-port
to A-port, at 40 control angle, both the leading and the lagging shuttles move,
starting with the lagging shuttle. When this shuttle has reached its seat, the
cylinder volume is further pressurised. As the cylinder pressure exceeds the Aport pressure, also the leading shuttle moves. The simulations show, however,
that the movement of the lagging cylinder is not completed before the cylinder
links up to the A-port. This causes ow from the A-port into the cylinder
volume which pushes the lagging shuttle into its seat. As a consequence, a
sudden positive B-port ow, and a corresponding sudden negative A-port ow
is obtained, which cause the increased high-frequency content of these ows.
The total mechanism of this backow is illustrated in gure 12.
At Innas, several experiments of valve plates with various non-zero lands
between the B-port and A-port have been carried out. The goal was to study
if this predicted backow could be prevented by prolonging the opening to
175
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page 176
25
15
20
10
5
15
0
10
-5
5
0
-10
0
10
15
Time [ms]
20
Shuttle flow [l/min]
Paper I
-15
25
Figure 9 Flow generated by shuttle movement (solid) and pressures in surrounding cylinders (dotted).
A-port. Simulations show that a 10 overlap of the land between B-port and
A-port would be ideal for this application, see gure 13 and compare with
gures 10(a) and 10(c). Experimentally, overlaps between 0 to 20 have been
tested. Comparisons of frequency content of simulated and measured port
pressures indicate that this backow mechanism does probably not occur in
reality. It is, therefore, dicult to foretell whether the totally emitted uid
borne noise will be increased or decreased by implementing the shuttles.
4.2
Eciency
Reduction of pressure peaks will increase the overall eciency of the transformer signicantly. Obviously, the compression-losses will be lowered considerably. Since the cylinder pressure is directly related to the piston forces, the
mechanical friction losses are also reduced. By decreasing cylinder pressures
and thus piston forces, internal tilting forces and torques are reduced, which
enables improved balancing of the cylinder barrel. The leakage passage between
cylinder barrel and valve plate can thereby be minimised without running the
risk of metallic contact. In all, an overall eciency improvement is obtained.
Figures 14(a) and 14(b) show the overall eciency of the transformer without
and with shuttles. The study concerns lifting of load only. Due to limitations
in the friction loss model used, only velocities between 800 and 8000 rpm have
been studied. The friction model used in the simulations has been veried
for one valve plate control angle. Therefore, simulation results for other angles are plausible but have not been experimentally veried. The investigation
provides a basis for qualitative comparison of the shuttle eect on eciency
performance.
4.3
Transformer controllability
In [8], the control aspects of the transformer are discussed. Especially in low
speed regions, the controllability is poor, mainly due to stick-slip eects. With
176
-20
-30
-40
-50
0.5
1
1.5
Time [ms]
-15
-20
2
Time [ms]
10(a) A-port ow at 35 l/min Bport ow.
10(b) A-port ow at 18 l/min Bport ow.
60
30
50
40
30
20
0.5
1
1.5
Time [ms]
20
15
2
Time [ms]
10(d) B-port ow at 18 l/min Bport ow.
port ow.
10
5
T-port flow [l/min]
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
25
10
2.5
10(c) B-port ow at 35 l/min B-
T-port flow [l/min]
-10
-25
2.5
B-port flow [l/min]
B-port flow [l/min]
-5
A-port flow [l/min]
A-port flow [l/min]
-10
0.5
1
1.5
Time [ms]
2.5
10(e) T-port ow at 35 l/min Bport ow.
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
2
Time [ms]
10(f ) T-port ow at 18 l/min Bport ow.
Figure 10 Port ow ripple with(solid) and without (dotted) shuttles.
177
Aport flow [l/min]
Aport flow [l/min]
Paper I
5
4
3
2
5
4
3
2
0
0
10
15
20
25
0
0
30
10
20
25
30
11(a) A-port ow at 35 l/min
11(b) A-port ow at 18 l/min
B-port ow.
B-port ow.
5
4
3
5
4
3
0
0
10
15
20
25
0
0
30
10
Harmonics []
15
20
25
30
Harmonics []
11(c) B-port ow at 35 l/min

B-port ow.
11(d) B-port ow at 18 l/min
15
15
10
0
0
B-port ow.
Tport flow [l/min]
Tport flow [l/min]
15
Harmonics []
Bport flow [l/min]
Bport flow [l/min]
Harmonics []
10
15
20
25
30
Harmonics []
11(e) T-port ow at 35 l/min
B-port ow.
10
0
0
10
15
20
25
30
Harmonics []
11(f ) T-port ow at 18 l/min

B-port ow.
Figure 11 Amplitude spectra of port ows with (circles) and without (stars)
shuttles.
178
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page 179
Figure 12 The backow caused by the shuttle motion.
60.0
-20.0
50.0
A-port flow [l/min]
B-port flow [l/min]
-10.0
40.0
-30.0
30.0
-40.0
-50.0
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
Time [ms]
2.00
2.50
20.0
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
Time [ms]
2.00
2.50
Figure 13 A and B-port ow with 10 overlap.
the shuttles, the behaviour, in low speed regions in particular, will be improved
thanks to the reduction of the negative driving shaft torque peaks.
4.4
High speed performance
At very high speeds, the commutation is slow in relation to the piston movement. Therefore, the pressure built up is particularly high, and can not be
avoided totally even when using the shuttles. Figure 15 shows cylinder pressure and port opening restrictions for circular and rectangular port openings
respectively, both with shuttles. The speed is 10 000 rpm and the valve plate
control angle is 70 . To simulate such high speed, the friction loss table has
been extrapolated. As can be seen, pressure peaks are reduced more eectively
179
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page 180
Paper I
80%
70%
60%
50%
80% 70% 60% 50%
14(a) Eciency without shuttles
14(b) Eciency with shuttles.
Figure 14 Simulated total eciency surface.
1.5x10-6
50
40
1x10-6
30
20
5x10-7
10
0
0
2
3.2
4.4
5.6
Time [ms]
6.8
Port opening restricrion coefficient [m3/sPa0.5]
as the shuttles are used together with rectangular port ends, which is a design
recommendation. Also, at such large valve plate control angles, cavitation at
commutation between the A-port and B-port can be observed. From a noise
point of view, cavitation at that location is particularly severe since the pressure level at pressure rebuilding is normally high. By using rectangular port
ends, this eect can be alleviated.
Figure 15 Cylinder pressures at high speed operation with shuttles. The solid
line is the cylinder pressure when traditional circular port ends are used. The
dashed line shows the restriction coecient for circular ports. The dotted line
is cylinder pressure when rectangular port ends are used. The dash-dotted line
shows the restriction coecient when using rectangular ports.
180
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page 181
Conclusions
The shuttle technique applied on the transformer shows a promising behaviour.

Disturbing pressure peaks are very eectively reduced, implying a reduction in
structure borne noise. The reduction of pressure peaks have several positive
consequences regarding increased rotational speed, reduced negative driving
shaft torque peaks, increased overall eciency and improved low speed behaviour. However, the interaction between the transformer and the system is still
an object for further investigation. The fact that the ow ripple is changed will
aect the pressure ripple in the system, which may aect the system dierently.
References
[1] Achten P.A.J., Fu Z. and Vael G.E.M., Transforming future hydraulics: a new design of a hydraulic transfomer, in The Fifth Scandinavian
International Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP97, Linkping, Sweden,
May 1997.
[2] Dluzik K., Energiesparende schaltungskonzepte fr hydro-zylinder am
drucknetz, lhydraulik und Pneumatik, 5:444450, 1989.
[3] Achten P.A.J., Vael G.E.M., van den Oever J. and Fu Z., Shuttle
technology for noise reduction and eeiciency improvement of hydrostatic
machines, in The Seventh Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid
Power, SICFP01, pp. 269298, Linkping, Sweden, May 2001.
[4] Pettersson M., Weddfelt K. and Palmberg J.O., Methods of reducing ow ripple from uid power piston pumps - a theoretical approach, in
SAE International O-Highway & Powerplant Congress, Milwaukee, USA,
September 1991.
[5] Weddfelt K., Pettersson M. and Palmberg J.O., Methods of reducing ow ripple from uid power piston pumps - an experimental approach, in SAE International O-Highway & Powerplant Congress, Milwaukee, USA, September 1991.
[6] Werndin R., Johansson A. and Palmberg J.O., A general model of
a multi-displacement machine - using TLM, in The Seventh Scandinavian
International Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP01, vol. 2, pp. 115130,
Linkping, Sweden, May - June 2001.
[7] HOPSAN, HOPSAN, a simulation package, users guide, Tech. Rep. LiTHIKP-R704, Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems,
Linkping University, Sweden, April 1998.
[8] Werndin R., Achten, J P.A., Sannelius, M and Palmberg J.O., Eciency performance and control aspects of a hydraulic transformer, in The
181
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page 182
Paper I
Sixth Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP99

(Eds. T. Koskinen and V. M), vol. 1, pp. 395407, Tampere University of
Technology, Tampere, Finland, May 1999.
182
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Paper II
The importance of suction port timing in

axial piston pumps
Andreas Johansson and Jan-Ove Palmberg
9:7
page 184

A. Johansson and J.-O. Palmberg, The importance of suction port timing
in axial piston pumps, in Proc. of The Ninth Scandinavian International
Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP05 (Ed. J.-O. Palmberg), June 1-3, 2005.
9:7
page 185
The importance of suction port timing in

axial piston pumps
Andreas Johansson and Jan-Ove Palmberg
Abstract
Hydraulic pumps give rise to ow ripples in both discharge and suction

lines. The ow pulsations transform into pressure ripples which in turn
create vibration and audible noise. With a careful design of the valve
plate timing, ow ripple can be minimised. Much research is dedicated
to the design of discharge port commutation, i.e. the pre-compression
dynamics. This work, however, focuses on the suction port timing.
Besides controlling ow ripple in the tank line, suction port timing
inuences uid air-release which in turn has substantial impact on the effective system bulk modulus. Increased air-release implies reduced cylinder lling performance, reduced volumetric eciency and increased ow
pulsations. In addition, the cylinder decompression at suction port commutation directly aects the resulting piston force prole and internal
bending moments which largely contributes to pump housing vibration
and noise emissions. Thus, the design of the suction port timing is crucial for ow ripples, air-release, pump housing vibrations and direct noise
emissions from the pump. Also, the risk for cavitation is controlled.
This paper also investigates the eciency of an Air Drain Groove,
ADG, as an alternative to conventional pressure relief grooves at suction
port commutation. Correctly designed, the ADG reduces the cylinder
pressure at piston top dead centre by bleeding o a very small amount
of cylinder uid to the housing drain. The air-release hereby obtained is
directed into the pump casing instead of into the suction port and should
thereby give rise to a higher system bulk modulus. Experiments reveal,
however, that the eciency of the ADG is not preferable to a conventional
pressure relief groove, neither regarding air-release, nor noise emissions.
185
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page 186
Paper II
1
Ap
Ji
Lij
N
P
Q
Zi
Zc
a
pd
s
z
e
Nomenclature
Piston area
Bessel function, order i
Pipe length between transducer i and j
Viscous friction factor
Dynamic pressure
Dynamic ow
Impedance at point i
Characteristic impedance
Speed of sound
Discharge pressure
Laplace operator
Number of pistons
Eective bulk modulus
Fluid density
Kinematic viscosity
[m2 ]
[-]
[m]
[-]
[Pa]
[m3 /s]
[m5 /Ns]
[m5 /Ns]
[m/s]
[Pa]
[rad/s]
[-]
[Pa]
[kg/m3 ]
[m2 /s]
Introduction
Noise reduction in hydraulic pumps often emphasises the discharge port commutation, i.e. minimisation of discharge port ow ripple. However, the commutation at suction port is also crucial for the noise generation. Early studies of
suction port ow ripple [1, 2] show that pressure ripple in the suction port can
reach at least the same magnitudes as in the discharge port. But a mismatch
in cylinder decompression (also known as after-expansion) not only causes ow
pulses into suction port but also inuences the air-release in the uid.
As soon as the pressure drops below current air saturation pressure level, air
bubbles will form. The saturation pressure level is the level at which air is dissolved in the uid. This pressure level is a uid parameter but is also dependent
upon the system conguration [3]. For most systems, however, the uid is saturated at atmospheric pressure, i.e. 0.1 MPa. In hydraulic pumps, air-release,
with possible cavitation, is obtained in two principally dierent ways. One way
is when the valve plate is designed with exaggerated decompression, whereby
the piston tries to suck uid before the cylinder has linked up to the suction
port kidney, which results in very low cylinder pressures. The other way is the
jet beam air-release, appearing as the valve plate is designed with insucient
decompression. Substantial ow pulses are hereby created from the cylinder
into the suction port. In such ow pulses, the uid velocity, and thereby also
the dynamic uid pressure, can locally become very large. As a consequence,
the static pressure drops and air bubbles form. The air bubbles formed in the
suction port is drawn directly into the cylinder when the piston is retracted
and pumped out to the discharge port. The increased air content in the uid
reduces cylinder lling performance as well as eective bulk modulus, which
186
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page 187
The importance of suction port timing . . .
in turn increases volumetric losses and compressible ow pulsations. In addition, a reduction in system bulk modulus inuences the controllability of the
hydraulic system in general.
The cylinder decompression is also crucial for the resulting piston force and
internal bending moments, which all largely contribute to pump housing vibration. Besides causing directly emitted pump noise, the vibration propagates to
the external mechanical circuit.
Valve plate design for smooth cylinder decompression
In pumps with odd numbers of pistons, the resulting piston force alternates
p A (z+1)
p A (z1)
and d p2
which cannot be
between the two distinctive values d p2
modied. The valve plate pre-compression and decompression designs, however, directly aect how rapidly the resulting piston force jumps between these
two distinctive values. Insucient pre-compression and decompression cause
rapid jumps in the pump forces, and in turn also in the bending moments.
This implies that piston force and the bending moments are rich in frequencies. Normally, the transformation from piston forces and internal bending
moments into emitted noise level is vastly higher in high-frequency regions
than at low frequencies [4]. Therefore, the valve plate should be designed so
that the cylinders pre-compression and decompression are as smooth as possible, i.e. produces a minimum of high-frequency content. In [5], the authors
claim that the peak-to-peak value of the cylinder pressure rate (dpc /dt ) should
be minimised in order to obtain smooth variation in the resulting piston force.
The peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate is obviously minimised when the precompression angle is as large as possible without causing cylinder pressure
overshoots. Analogously, the peak-to-peak cylinder pressure rate is minimised
when the decompression angle is as large as possible without causing pressure
drops below atmospheric pressure. Implementation of pressure relief grooves
and pre-compression volumes would decrease the pre-compression and decompression times and thereby increase the cylinder pressure rate.
Following the discussion above, an optimal decompression angle simultaneously minimises suction port ow ripple, minimises air-release and the risk for
cavitation. It also generates the smoothest drop in resulting piston force possible, and gives the best eciency. It is fairly easy to design a valve plate
with optimal decompression angle for one operational condition. A problem
is, however, that the operational conditions (system pressure, displacement angle, and rotational speed) normally vary widely in modern axial piston pumps.
The designed decompression angle is hence no longer optimal. Low discharge
pressure levels require, for instance, shorter decompression angles than high
discharge pressures. To avoid the piston sucking uid before the cylinder has
linked up to the suction port kidney, the decompression angle should not be
187
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page 188
Paper II
designed for maximum discharge port pressure but rather for a moderate pressure level. Such a decompression, however, implies that severe suction port ow
ripples are generated at high discharge pressure levels, for which the decompression angle is insucient. To reduce these pulsations, a compromise design
using a pressure relief groove at suction port commutation is often used. The
decompression zone hereby becomes somewhat shorter, thus reducing the risk
for obtaining exaggerated decompression. However, excessive uid velocities,
and hence jet beam air-release, may nonetheless appear in the pressure relief
groove.
Air Drain Groove, ADG
An alternative concept to conventional pressure relief grooves is the Air Drain

Groove, ADG, which is a narrow milled channel, enabling the cylinder to connect to the pump casing, see gure 1. Whereas a conventional pressure relief
groove bleeds o uid to the suction port, the ADG reduces the cylinder pressure by bleeding o a small amount of uid directly to the pump casing, i.e. to
the drain port. The air-release that occurs as a consequence of the uid jet
from the cylinder port is thus directed to drain port. The uid circulation time
in the drain port is normally much larger than in the main circuit (obviously
depending upon the size of the tank), which enables the released air to dissolve
or leave the uid. The ADG design is hereby expected to reduce the air-release
in the suction port. Concerning the reduced motoring eect at the decom-
Figure 1 The Air Drain Groove is a narrow milled channel connecting to the
pump casing, i.e. to the drain port.
pression zone, the ADG is comparable to an ordinary pressure relief groove at

the suction port entrance since the decompression is aected similarly. It is
important not to use the ADG in a system with boosted suction port pressure
since this would cause a leakage from the tank port, via the ADG, to the pump
casing.
188
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page 189
The ADG can be designed in two principally dierent ways. One way is to
locate the ADG so that the cylinder reaches the ADG directly after piston Top
Dead Centre (TDC). The uid hereby starts to spool out to housing relatively
early. To give a just enough cylinder pressure drop, the cross-sectional area of
the ADG must be very small so that the cylinder pressure is perfectly matched
to the suction port pressure at the moment when the cylinder links up to the
kidney. If the cross-sectional area is too large, the cylinder pressure will drop
too fast, implying that the piston motion will further decrease the cylinder
pressure below atmospheric pressure which hence gives rise to air-release. To
small cross-sectional area, on the other hand, gives too slow decompression.
Thus, the cylinder pressure has not yet been reduced to atmospheric pressure
as the cylinder links up to the suction port, which causes ow pulses into the
suction port and thereby jet beam air-release. By designing the ADG according
to this principle, high sensitivity to operational conditions is thus obtained.
The other design principle is to locate the ADG as close as possible to the
suction port opening. The piston movement hereby reduces the cylinder pressure over a relatively long period. The cylinder pressure mismatch that remains
at the suction port opening is rapidly shunted away via the ADG. Since the
cylinder directly afterwards opens up to the suction port kidney, the piston
movement will cause no further pressure drop. The latter principle has been
used for the ADG designed in this study.
Test procedure
Five dierent valve plate designs, illustrated in gure 2, were studied. The
rst four valve plates have identical discharge port commutations, with a precompression volume and pressure relief grooves, resulting in a very smooth
pre-compression. These four valve plates, however, have signicantly dierent
decompression. Valve plate no. 1 has a 17 decompression angle and a 17.4
long pressure relief groove with triangular cross-sectional area. The nal cross
sectional area at the suction port opening is 1.79106 m2 . Valve plate no. 2
also has a triangular pressure relief groove, with the same nal cross-sectional
area as valve plate no. 1, but with a shorter decompression angle (13 ) and
accordingly also a shorter pressure relief groove (13.4 ). Comparisons of valve
plates 1 and 2 will reveal how important the length of the decompression zone
is for air-release and emitted sound level.
Valve plate no. 3 has an ADG. The cylinder opens up to the ADG 13 after
piston TDC, and at 17 after piston TDC the cylinder opens up to the suction
port. The cross-sectional area of the ADG is 1106 m2 .
Valve plate no. 4 is zero-lapped at suction port commutation, whereas valve
plate no. 5 is zero-lapped also at discharge port commutation. Thus, for valve
plate no. 5 both discharge and suction port ow ripple as well as the resulting
piston force prole are as poor as possible and should hence result in the noisiest
design possible. By comparing the measured sound levels from valve plate no.
189
Paper II
2(a) Valve plate no. 1
2(c) Valve plate no. 3
2(b) Valve plate no. 2
2(d) Valve plate no. 4
2(e) Valve plate no. 5
Figure 2 The rst four valve plates are identical at discharge port commutation,
all producing a very smooth pre-compression. They have, however, signicantly
dierent suction port commutation. Valve plate no. 1 has a decompression angle
with a suction port pressure relief groove. Valve plate no. 2 is similar to valve
plate no. 1 but has a shorter decompression angle and pressure relief groove.
The third valve plate has an Air Drain Groove, ADG. Valve plate no. 4 is zerolapped at suction port commutation, whereas valve plate no. 5 is zero-lapped at
both discharge and suction port commutation.
190
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page 191
4 with valve plate no. 5, the relative importance of adequate pre-compression

versus decompression regarding emitted noise level can be compared.
5.1
Test system
Figure 3(a) shows a picture of the complete experimental system setup. The
main circuit can be illustrated graphically as shown in gure 3(b). The test
pump is a 60 cm3 /rev in-line axial piston pump with seven pistons. The tank
size is about 1.5 m3 . At a pump speed of 1000 rpm, the uid circulation time
is theoretically about 25 minutes which is sucient for the air bubbles formed
at any place in the main circuit to dissolve or leave the uid before it enters
the suction port again. The measured bulk modulus in the discharge pipe is
hence only only inuenced by the air bubbles formed at suction port. Since the
rst four valve plates are identical at discharge commutation, the variations in
measured eective bulk modulus for these valve plates can be assigned to the
air-release at suction port commutation alone.
The suction line diameter is relatively small, which would reduce the suction
port pressure at high rotational speed. However, since the tank is located
approximately 2 m above the test pump, the suction port pressure is close to
1 bar at 1000 rpm.
The dynamic pressures P1 , P2 and P3 are measured at three locations along
the rigid measurement pipe, which enables the eective bulk modulus to be
determined as shown in section 5.2. In order to show how important the suction port commutation is for the directly emitted sound level in this particular system, sound level measurements were also carried out. To investigate
the temperatures inuence on the eective bulk modulus and noise emission,
measurements were conducted both at 40 and at 50 C.
5.2
Measurement of eective bulk modulus
The eective bulk modulus can be measured in several ways, see [6]. The
method used in this study, the three transducer method [7], measures the effective bulk modulus indirectly through the speed of sound in the uid. The
method involves measurement of dynamic pressures P1 , P2 and P3 at three
locations along a rigid measurement pipe.
From pressure measurements at locations i and o along a rigid measurement
pipe, it is possible to determine the point impedances at these locations using
equations 1 and 2, where Po is downstream of Pi and so forth.

Zi
Zo
Pi
Qi
Po
Qo
Zc
N sinh
cosh
Zc
Ls N
a
Ls N
a
N sinh
cosh
Ls N
a
o
P
P
i
Ls N
a
(1)

(2)
Poi
191
Paper II
Tank
Driving
engine
Delivery
line
Test pump
3(a)
pt
Tt
P1
P2
135 mm
P3
215 mm
3(b)
Figure 3 Picture (a) and illustration (b) of test system. Besides the three dynamic pressures, P1 , P2 and P3 along the rigid measurement pipe, the stationary
suction port pressure pt and the uid temperature Tt are measured.
Qi
Pi
Measurement pipe
Qo
Po
Figure 4 Model representation of ow and pressure on two sides of a rigid pipe.
192
9:7
page 193
where
Zc =
a
r2
"

J0 ir s/
N = "

J2 ir s/
s = i
The term N accounts for the frequency-dependent viscous friction, determined

as the quotient between two Bessel functions, J0 and J2 . A numerical solution
to this expression can be found in [8]. It is possible to determine, for instance,
the point impedance at the second transducer, Z2 , using the pressures P2 (i=2)
and P3 (o=3) in equation 1. But Z2 can also be determined using the pressures P1 (i=1) and P2 (o=2) in equation 2. By eliminating Z2 from these two
expressions and by using the angle-sum rule for hyperbolic equations, equation
4 is obtained. A similar technique is also used for pressure transducer location
1 and 3, which results in equations 3 and 5 respectively.
L sN
L sN P
L sN
P3
12
2
13
23
+
sinh
(3)
sinh
sinh
P1
a
P1
a
a
L s N P
L s N
L s N
P3
12
13
1
23
sinh
+ sinh
(4)
sinh
P2
a
a
P2
a
L s N P
L s N P
L s N
12
2
13
1
23
+
(5)
sinh
sinh
sinh
a
P3
a
P3
a
Multiplication of equation 3 by P1 , equation 4 by P2 and equation 5 by P3
reveals that all three equations are identical and can hence be rewritten as:
L sN
L sN
L sN
12
13
23
+ P2 sinh
P1 sinh
(6)
P3 sinh
a
a
a
Measurement noise makes it impossible to nd an analytical solution to equation 6. Instead, a numerical optimisation algorithm is used to nd the speed of
sound a that minimises the left hand expression for each harmonic frequency.
The objective function in this work is formulated as a least square sum:

E=
|n |2
(7)
n
where n represents the numerical value of the left side expression in equation
6 at harmonic n. Minimisation of the sum E is obtained using the Complex
optimisation algorithm [9]. Finally, the eective bulk modulus is determined
as:
(8)
a = e2
5.3
Measurement of sound level
The A-weighted sound level is measured at the distance of 1 m in front of the

test pump using a portable Brel & Kjaer sound level measurement instrument
193
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Paper II
(type 2218). The measurements do include background noise, mainly from the
driving source and from vibrations of suction hose, but also to some extent from
vibration of the rigid discharge pipe, even if the latter contribution is expected
to be very moderate. The measured sound level should thus be treated as a
gure of merit for comparative purposes rather than as the true noise emission
from the pump alone.
Measurement results
6.1
Bulk modulus
The average speed of sound is determined from ve consecutive measurements

of the bulk modulus for each operational condition, see appendix A for measurement data. With a divergence of approximately 1% in peak-to-peak value,
the speed of sound measurements are very repeatable. To determine the dierence in measured speed of sound with statistical signicance, a larger number
of measurements are required for each operational condition. The measurement
results, however, show obvious trends that can be used for conclusions.
1.8
1.7
1.6
15
20
25
5(a)
2.0
Bulk modulus e [GPa]
1.9
Bulk modulus [GPa]
2.0
1.9
1.8
1.7
1.6
15
20
25
5(b)
Figure 5 Average eective bulk modulus e as function of discharge pressure

for dierent valve plate designs for 40 (a) and 50 (b) uid temperatures. Valve
plate no. 1 (cross), no. 2 (circles), no. 3 (squares) and no. 4 (triangles).
A rst observation from the measurements shown in gures 5(a) and 5(b) is
that the bulk modulus seems to decrease with increased temperature and to
increase with increased discharge pressure, as expected.
The second observation is that for both uid temperatures, the trends clearly
show that the zero-lapped valve plate (no. 4) produces more air-release than
the other valve plate designs. It is not however possible to mutually rate other
decompression designs (valve plate 1-3) regarding air-release. In general, all
these give an approximately 3% higher bulk modulus than the valve plate that
is zero-lapped at suction port commutation (no. 4).
194
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6.2
Sound level
For all valve plates, the inuence of temperature on the sound level measurements is very moderate. It would appear that the measurements carried out at
50 C generate slightly higher (about 0.5 dB) sound level values than measurements at 40 C, but measurement uncertainties due to instrument resolution
make it dicult to conrm this dierence. However, the sound level steadily
increases with increased discharge pressure.
Importance of decompression design regarding noise emission
A-weighted sound level [dbA]
For a valve plate that is zero-lapped at both discharge and suction port commutation (valve plate no. 5), the noise level starts out at about 88 dBA for
15 MPa discharge pressure and increases by the discharge pressure to about
93 dBA for 25 MPa, see gure 6. If the pre-compression region is designed as
good as possible, involving a pre-compression lter volume, but still zero-lap
at suction port commutation (valve plate no. 4), the noise level is reduced by
about 3 dBA compared to valve plate no. 5. When also designing the decompression region accurately (valve plate no. 1), the total noise level is further
reduced by up to 7-8 dBA, which is substantial.
95
90
85
80
75
70
15
20
25
Figure 6 Measured sound level using dierent valve plates at 40 and 50 . Valve
plate no. 1 (cross), no. 2 (circles), no. 3 (squares), no. 4 (upward triangles) and
no. 5 (downward triangles).
The lowest noise emissions are obtained using valve plate no. 1, which is the
long decompression zone and matching pressure relief groove. Valve plate no.
2 is designed with 4 less decompression angle and 4 shorter pressure relief
groove than valve plate no. 1. This is a rather small geometrical dierence,
but causes about 2 dBA higher noise level.
With ADG (valve plate no. 3), the noise emission is about the same as for
valve plate no. 2 for discharge pressures up to 20 MPa. For 25 MPa however,
195
9:7
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Paper II
the sound level increases drastically, almost to the same level as with valve plate
no. 4. This is probably due to the sudden cylinder pressure drop that occurs at
high discharge pressure levels when the ADG rapidly bleeds o decompression
uid to the drain port. Interestingly enough, even for this rapid pressure drop,
the bulk modulus is high compared to valve plate no. 4 (zero-lapped at suction
port) which generally gives lower bulk modulus. This may indicate that the
ADG bleeds o air into the pump casing as predicted.
It would be interesting to be able to determine how much of the totally
emitted noise that originates from the discharge port commutation and from
suction port commutation respectively. For uncorrelated noise sources, the
noise from each source can be determined mathematically. The noises generated
from discharge and suction port commutation are however highly correlated to
each other. In addition, the measured sound level is inuenced by background
noise, which is also correlated. Therefore it is impossible to rate the relative
importance of these two sources. This study shows, however, that the suction
port timing is crucial for the emitted sound level.
The three transducer method produces very repeatable measurements of speed

of sound, and in turn bulk modulus. More consecutive measurements are required for each operational condition to obtain statistical signicance in the
measurements. The obtained results are, however, sucient to reveal trends
for comparative purposes.
This study shows that the design of suction port commutation is crucial for
the over-all noise level as well as for air-release in the uid. A valve plate with
poorly designed suction port commutation produces about 7-8 dB more noise
than a valve plate with a smooth decompression zone in the particular circuit
studied. The valve plate with poorly designed decompression also reduces the
eective bulk modulus by approximately 3% due to increased air-content in the
uid. This directly aects cylinder lling performance, volumetric eciency
and compressible ow ripple.
Furthermore it is shown that small modications to the decompression angle
directly inuence the noise emissions. It has not however been possible to
conrm that such small modications have any inuence on the eective bulk
modulus. Implementation of an Air Drain Groove, ADG, gives about the same
eective bulk modulus as a conventional pressure relief groove. At moderate
pressure levels, the measured sound level is also comparable with a conventional
pressure relief groove. However, at high discharge pressures, the ADG causes
instantaneous cylinder pressure drop by bleeding o excess uid to the drain
port, which gives rise to severe noise. Hence, no benets from ADG compared
to conventional pressure relief grooves were found in this study. It should be
pointed out, however, that only one ADG design is considered in this study,
which is not sucient to make a general statement regarding the performance
of the concept.
196
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page 197
Future work
This study investigates the sound level in a complete system. It would however
be interesting to study how the dierent valve plate designs aect noise emission from the pump alone. Such measurement could for instance be carried out
in an anechoic sound cell, where the noise contributions from suction and discharge lines are screened. Along with the sound measurements, measurements
of pump housing vibration, using accelerometers attached to the housing, would
quantitatively reveal how much vibration energy is transported into the external mechanical circuit.
It would be highly interesting also to investigate how exaggerated decompression aects air-release and emitted sound level. Such valve plate designs
could, however, lead to hazardous conditions for the pump and were therefore
excluded from this study.
References
[1] Pettersson M W.K. and Palmberg J.O., Modelling and measurement
of cavitation and air release in a uid power piston pump, in The 3rd Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP93, Linkping,
Sweden, May 1993.
[2] Edge K.A. and Freitas F.J.T., Fluid borne pressure ripple in positive
displacement pump suction lines, in Sixth International Fluid Power Symposium, pp. 205217, Cambridge, UK, 1981.
[3] Edge K.A. and Freitas F.J.T., A study of pressure uctuation in the
suction lines of positive displacement pumps, Proc. of the Institution of
Mechanical Engineers, 199:211217, 1985.
[4] Pettersson M., Weddfelt K. and Palmberg J.O., Prediction of
structural and audible noise from axial piston pumps using transfer functions, in 8th Bath International Power Workshop, University of Bath, UK,
September 1995.
[5] Helgestad B.O., Foster K. and Bannister F.K., Pressure transients
in an axial piston hydraulic pump, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 188(17/74):189199, 1974.
[6] Jinghong Y. and Kojima E., Methods for measuring the speed of sound
in the uid in uid transmission pipes, in Proceeding at SAE International
O-Highway & Powerplant Congress, Milwaukee, USA, September 2000.
and bulk modulus in hydraulic lines, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 205:191197, 1991.
197
9:7
page 198
Paper II
[8] Burgoyne F.D., Approximation of Kelvin functions, Mathematics of

computation, 17:295298, 1963.
198
9:7
page 199
Valve plate no:1
Appendix A
Temp
40C
Valve plate no:2
50C
Temp
40C
Valve plate no:3
50C
Temp
40C
Valve plate no:4
50C
Temp
40C
50C
pdis
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
pdis
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
pdis
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
pdis
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
15 MPa
20 MPa
25 MPa
a1
a2
a3
a4
a5
aaver
div
e [MPa]
1442
1436
1432
1426
1432
1434
1,12%
1788
1457
1450
1444
1436
1434
1444
1,59%
1815
1476
1483
1469
1464
1463
1471
1,36%
1883
1419
1412
1408
1409
1405
1411
0,99%
1731
1431
1428
1427
1422
1421
1426
0,70%
1769
1459
1449
1450
1453
1444
1451
1,03%
1832
a1
a2
a3
a4
a5
aaver
div(a)
e [MPa]
1441
1437
1434
1429
1431
1434
0,84%
1790
1459
1454
1449
1440
1445
1449
1,31%
1827
1491
1483
1479
1471
1471
1479
1,35%
1903
1423
1424
1415
1414
1408
1417
1,13%
1746
1432
1427
1433
1433
1427
1430
0,42%
1780
1460
1456
1450
1448
1446
1452
0,96%
1834
a1
a2
a3
a4
a5
aaver
div
e [MPa]
1437
1430
1426
1424
1422
1428
1,05%
1774
1453
1450
1451
1447
1442
1449
0,76%
1826
1489
1482
1474
1469
1462
1475
1,83%
1893
1423
1421
1414
1427
1418
1421
0,92%
1756
1433
1433
1424
1425
1420
1427
0,91%
1772
1457
1454
1457
1451
1451
1454
0,41%
1839
a1
a2
a3
a4
a5
aaver
div
e [MPa]
1428
1421
1410
1417
1412
1418
1,27%
1748
1439
1425
1432
1421
1423
1428
1,26%
1774
1450
1460
1448
1438
1437
1447
1,59%
1821
1394
1380
1378
1375
1371
1380
1,67%
1656
1418
1413
1412
1410
1401
1411
1,20%
1732
1423
1425
1430
1428
1428
1427
0,49%
1771
Figure 7 Sound speed measurements (ai [m/s]) for all valve plates studied at
dierent discharge pressure levels and dierent temperatures. All measurements
were carried out at 1000 rpm.
Average speed of sound is determined as:

#!
aaver =
a2n
(9)
The divergence of the speed of sound is determined as:

div(a) =
max(ai ) min(ai )
aaver
(10)
199
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9:7
page 201
Paper III
Optimal design of the cross-angle for

pulsation reduction in variable
displacement machines
Andreas Johansson, Johan Andersson and Jan-Ove Palmberg
9:7
page 202

A. Johansson, J. Andersson and J.-O. Palmberg Optimal design of the
cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable displacement machines, in Proc.
of Power Transmission and Motion Control (PTMC2002) (Eds. C. R. Burrows
and K. A. Edge), University of Bath, Bath, UK, September 2002. (Best paper
award.)
9:7
page 203
Optimal Design of the Cross-Angle for

Pulsation Reduction in Variable
Displacement Pumps
Abstract
The cross-angle, illustrated in this paper, is a xed displacement angle
around the axis perpendicular to the normal trunnion axis. With the
cross-angle, the traditional piston dead centres will change as the normal
displacement angle is varied. The result is a behaviour similar to that
of the revolving valve plate technique, but without any movable parts.
When the cross-angle is used in a constant pressure system with a variable
pump, the desired dead centre for optimal pre-compression coincides with
the obtained dead centre for a wide range of displacement angles. This
implies that when the cross-angle is used, the ow ripple becomes less
sensitive to changes in displacement angles. The cross-angle does not
constitute an alternative to the dierent design features developed, but
rather as complement for preserved eective ow ripple reduction over a
wide range of displacement angles.
In this study, simulation-based optimisations, employing non-gradient
optimisation techniques such as genetic algorithms and the Complex
method, are used in order to nd the optimal cross-angle for a variable
displacement pump. Furthermore, with the help of optimisation, the
trade-os between attributes such as low ow ripples, avoidance of large
cylinder pressure-peaks, and cavitation have been studied. Increased
insight is thereby gained into what possibilities the cross-angle oers regarding reduction of pump ripple for a variable displacement pump.
203
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Paper III
Introduction
One of the most important origins of noise and vibrations in hydraulic systems
is the system pressure ripple, see for instance [1]. The system pressure ripple is a
hydraulic response to introduced ow pulsations, of which the hydrostatic pump
is a major source. Consequently, in order to lower the noise from hydraulic
systems, the ow transients created by the pump must be reduced. The pump
ow ripples are made up by two principally dierent parts; the kinematic ow
ripple, due to the limited number of pumping elements, and the compressible
ow ripple, due to the compressibility of the uid. At high pressure levels,
the compressible ow ripple is normally clearly predominant. However, with
very small design modications, the compressible ow ripple can be changed
considerably, both regarding to pulsation peak-to-peak value and frequency
content. Perhaps the most obvious measure to equalise the cylinder pressure
to the supply port pressure level, and thus minimise the compressible ow
transient obtained, is to delay the opening to the discharge port kidney. This
is called pre-compression, and produces a satisfactory reduction of ow ripples
if designed correctly. There are more rened ways of achieving this pressure
equalisation, for example the pressure relief groove explained in [2] and the
pre-compression lter volume (pcfv), see [3] and [4]. The exact design of
these features can fairly easily be tuned to minimise ow ripple at a specic
operational condition, i.e. a certain displacement angle, rotational speed, and
discharge and inlet pressure levels. However, as the conditions change, the
optimum drifts away, implying that a pump optimised for a certain condition
may give severe ow ripple for other conditions.
This paper analyses a design feature called cross-angle, which reduces the
pumps sensitivity to variations in displacement angles considerably. With the
cross-angle implemented, the piston bottom and top dead centre locations (referred to as bdc and tdc respectively) will move with the displacement, i.e.
giving a pre-compression that varies with the displacement. Especially in a
constant pressure system with a variable displacement pump, the cross-angle
can be tuned to minimise ow ripple at every displacement setting. Furthermore, the study presented in this paper emphasises the use of optimisation to
determine the magnitude of the cross-angle and the valve plate overlap angles,
in order to minimise ow ripple over the whole range of displacement angles.
Operational point sensitivity
The magnitude of the ow ripple varies widely as operational conditions change.

The sensitivity to changes in operational conditions varies for dierent design
features, see [5]. Thus, to choose the most appropriate design feature for a
pump, which will render high ow ripple reduction in relation to implementation cost, it is important to be aware of the actual operational conditions the
pump will be exposed to.
204
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page 205
Optimal design of the cross-angle . . .
Sensitivity to changes in displacement angle
Discharge flow amplitude [l/min]
2.1
20
15
10
10
20
Normal displacement angle, [deg]
Figure 1 The ow ripple peak-to-peak, optimised for maximum displacement

(20 ) varies as the displacement angle changes. The solid curve shows the sensitivity for ordinary pre-compression, the dashed curve for pressure relief groove,
and the dotted curve for PCFV.
Figure 1 shows how the simulated discharge ow ripple peak-to-peak varies as

the displacement angle changes. The study considers ordinary pre-compression,
pressure relief groove and pcfv, all designed for minimisation of ow ripple
peak-to-peak at 1500 rpm, at full displacement (20 ), at 25 MPa discharge
pressure and at 0.2 MPa inlet pressure. The pump simulated is a seven-piston,
40 cm3 , in-line axial piston pump. The results shown in gure 1 show that
ordinary pre-compression is highly sensitive to displacement angle variations,
while sensitivity for the pressure relief groove appears to be considerably less.
Obviously, the pcfv is superior among the features analysed, but is quite costly
and space-demanding to implement.
The reason for the sensitivity to changes in displacement angle is that the
cylinder volume to be compressed before entering the discharge line varies with
the displacement. So does also the piston motion. Altogether, the piston
movement creates insucient pre-compression at low displacement settings.
Thus, low displacement angles would require a longer pre-compression region
than high displacement angles. The pre-compression can be modied during
operation in two dierent ways: either by revolving the valve plate or by moving
the piston bdc. The rst-mentioned is dicult and expensive to realise, and
requires external control units. The second alternative, however, is feasible in
a fairly simple manner by implementing a cross-angle.
205
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page 206
Paper III
Cross-angle
Cross-angle is a small (1-4 ) xed displacement angle around the axis perpendicular to the trunnion axis, see gure 1. By implementing the cross-angle, the
resulting dead centre axis is obtained as a combination of the normal displacement angle, , and the cross-angle, , see gure 3. This results in a change of
phase, and to some extent also amplitude, of the piston movement sine curve as
the displacement angle varies. Practically, this implies that the additional pre-
Swash axis
Cross-angle
Figure 2 In-line pump with cross-angle.
compression required for achieving optimal pressure equalisation is obtained

when the piston dead centre axis moves.
y
Figure 3 As the swash-plate is displaced in the normal displacement direction,

i.e. around the x-axis, the dead centre axis is directed along the y-axis (left
gure). By displacing the pump also in the cross-angle direction, i.e. around
both the x and y-axis, the dead centre axis is obtained as a combination of
the two displacement angles (right gure). Consequently, the angle to the dead
centre axis, , varies with the displacement when using the cross-angle.
The principle reminds very much of the revolving valve plate technique, but
without any movable parts. Since the dead centres are unambiguously determined by the relationship between the normal displacement angle and the
206
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page 207
cross-angle, the principle is self-tuned and requires no additional control devices.

The cross-angle aects only sensitivity to changes in displacement angle.
Sensitivities to variations in rotational speed and pressure levels are not inuenced by implementing the cross-angle. Hence, in a xed displacement pump,
the cross-angle does not have any eect on the behaviour.
The principle is valid for both in-line and bent-axis pumps and also for both
discharge and inlet dynamics. To start with, only the discharge dynamics of
an in-line pump with the cross-angle is investigated.
3.1
Mathematical relations
The upper leftmost illustration in gure 4 shows a non-displaced swash-plate.

In the upper rightmost gure, the swash-plate is inuenced by the normal
displacement angle, , only, viewed from the positive x-direction. A vector
a is directed along the surface of the displaced swash-plate, in the y-z-plane.
Similarly, the lowermost gure shows the swash-plate under the inuence of the
cross-angle, , only, viewed from the negative y-direction. Vector b is located
along the surface of the displaced swash-plate, in the x-z-plane. A vector c,
yy
y
x
b
x
a
Figure 4 Vectors a and b along the surface of the swash plate, displaced in both
normal displacement direction and in the cross-angle direction.
perpendicular to both a and b, i.e. orthogonal to the swash-plate displaced in

both and -direction, can be determined from the vector product between a
and b as:
c
= a b = Rb (1, 0, tan) Rb (0, 1, tan)

= Rb2 (tan, tan, 1)
(1)
207
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Paper III
where Rb is the barrel radius. The angle to the resulting dead centre axis is
now obtained using the x- and y-components of the c vector as:
= arctan
cy
tan
= arctan
cx
tan
(2)
Scalar multiplication between c and a unit vector d along the z-axis gives the
resulting displacement angle as:
= arccos
cd
1
= arccos
|c||d|
(tan2 + tan2 + 1)
(3)
Accordingly, the new piston movement, inuenced by both the normal displacement angle and the cross-angle can be calculated as:

(4)
xp = Rb tan cos t
with t = 0 at piston bottom dead centre.
For a certain pump geometry, with barrel radius of 28 mm and a 2 crossangle, the dead centre angle shown in gure 5 is obtained as the normal
displacement angle varies between 0 - 20 .
90
Obtained BDC [deg]
Dead centre axis at =20 deg

60
Discharge
Inlet
30
10
20
5(a) Obtained BDC as a function

of displacement angles.
5(b) Examples of obtained BDC

locations for dierent displacement angles.
Figure 5 Obtained dead centre locations.
Simulation models
Two dierent simulation models are used to study the eect from the crossangle. The rst model originates from the geometry equations of the pump
and the continuity equation, comparing the obtained and the desired piston
dead centres. The second is a full-scale hydraulic simulation model, developed
208
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page 209
in the simulation program hopsan. The condence in the accuracy of the fullscale model is higher than in the simple model, since it considers all hydraulic
properties. However, with the simple model, the function of the cross-angle
in a variable displacement pump becomes clear. Using only a few equations,
the model gives a fairly good approximation of the desired and obtained dead
centres.
4.1
Simple model
The discussion below considers calculations of the desired piston bdc, i.e. to
achieve optimal cylinder pre-compression. However, the desired piston tdc,
for optimal cylinder decompression, can be calculated in a similar manner.
When compressing the cylinder volume V1 , which is the cylinder volume at
bdc, to volume V2 , the cylinder pressure increase from low pressure, pl , to high
pressure, ph , can be calculated using the continuity equation:
t2
V2
qin dt
V1
dV +
e
ph
dp
t1
V1
Vback
V1
V2 V1 + (ph pl )
e
pl
(5)
t1 and t2 refer to the cylinder volumes V1 and V2 respectively. The term Vback ,
referred to as the back-ow, represents the small amount of uid that may leave
the cylinder back to the inlet line if the cylinder port has not left the inlet port
as piston bdc is reached, i.e. if des < 2 1 according to gure 6(a). The
back-ow will decrease the average pump ow, but not the eciency since it
is not a leakage. It can be compensated for by chosing a higher displacement
angle. This term can be expressed as:
Vback = Rp2 Rb tan (1 cos(
1 des ))
2
(6)
By rearranging equation 5, the volume to be compressed, V = V1 V2 , can

be calculated as:
V1
V =
(ph pl ) + Vback
(7)
e
Consequently, if the piston movement compresses the cylinder volume from V1
to V2 , the correct cylinder pre-compression is achieved. This is achieved with
a piston movement according to equation 8 where x1 is the piston position at
bdc and x2 is the piston position corresponding to the cylinder volume V2 .
V = Rp2 x = Rp2 (x2 x1 )
(8)
209
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Paper III
Using equation 4, this can be rearranged as:

V = Rp 2 Rb tan cos t (1)
$
%
V
t = arccos 1
Rp 2 Rb tan
(9)
(10)
The term t is the angle from the bdc to the position where the cylinder
pressure ph is reached, i.e. the angle where pre-compression occurs, see gure
6(b). The largest piston movement, and thus also the largest pre-compression
obtainable is when t = 2 . Consequently, if the following holds:
1
V
Rp 2 Rb tan
(11)
the term t will exceed 2 , indicating that V is too large for the piston
movement to pre-compress. Under such circumstances, the best solution is to
set t = 2 . According to the illustration in gure 6(b), the desired dead
centre, des , can then be calculated as:
des = 90 + 2 t
(12)
However, since the term des is included in both equations 6 and 12, it cannot
be determined analytically in a simple manner (if at all). Instead, an iterative
numerical algorithm is used to determine des .
t*
Discharge
Inlet
Discharge
Inlet
6(a) Overlap angles 1
t is the angle during which precompression occurs.

6(b)
Figure 6 Valve plate denitions.
One simplication of the model is that the opening occurs instantaneously,

i.e. no gradual opening takes place. When calculating the desired bdc, the
cylinder volume is relatively large and therefore the additional pre-compression
that takes place in reality due to the gradual opening does not aect the cylinder pressure very much. Thus, the simplication made is reasonable. However,
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Obtained and desired BDC [deg]
when calculating the desired tdc, the cylinder volume is relatively low. A
gradual opening of the cylinder port to the kidney may therefore have a signicant impact on the cylinder pressure. Therefore, the simplication may be
somewhat insucient regarding calculations of the desired tdc.
With a cross-angle of 2 , a barrel radius of 28 mm and certain overlap angles
1 and 2 , the desired dead centre angle des can be calculated for dierent
displacement angles, , see gure 7. The gure also includes the dead centre
angle obtained for a certain pump geometry, calculated in section 3.1 (the same
as in gure 5). As can be seen, the two curves are very similar. By optimising
the cross-angle and the overlap angles, the curves can be even better matched,
giving optimal pre-compression for all displacement angles.
Figure 7 Obtained (solid) and desired (dashed) dead centre angle, , for dierent displacment angles, .
4.2
Full-scale multi-piston model
The fullscale model, created in the simulation program hopsan [6], is a highly
detailed model for hydraulic simulations. The accuracy of the model has been
experimentally veried, for example in the work performed by Pettersson in [4].
In the model, a number of dierent states are available, for instance cylinder
pressures, ow from every cylinder, piston forces etc. In addition, the model
includes a number of dierent design features, such as pressure relief groove
and pcfv, that can be utilised.
Optimisation
When using optimisation to support engineering design there are some issues
that are particularly important. The rst is to formalise the optimisation
problem, i.e. to dene the search space and to formulate the objective function.
For real design problems, this is a very demanding and crucial task, as the
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result is highly dependent upon the objective function. In general, there are
many conicting objectives that have to be reected in the objective function.
The second issue is to choose an optimisation strategy that is suitable for
the problem. Since the optimisations performed in this paper use simulation
models to evaluate dierent designs, there are no analytical derivatives of the
objective functions available. Therefore, non-gradient methods such as the
Complex algorithm [7] and genetic algorithms [8] are used. Finally, the obtained
result has to be assessed in order to ensure that a global optimum has truly
been found, and that the objective function really reected the demands on the
product. Furthermore, the robustness of the nal design has to be guaranteed.
5.1
Formulation of the optimisation problem
The general problem formulation is to nd the design parameters in the solution

space that minimise the objective function, see equation 13. The solution space
is made up by the design parameter limits as well as other design constraints.
s.t.
minf (x)
x1i xi xhi
i = 1, 2, ..., n
gj (x) 0
j = 1, 2, ..., J
(13)
However, in many cases there is more than one objective to consider. One way
is then to aggregate them into one overall objective function. Another way is
to use the concept of Pareto optimality. In a Pareto optimisation, the search is
not for one optimal solution, but for the set of solutions for which there exist
no solutions that are better in all objectives. This implies that if a solution is
Pareto optimal, an improvement in one objective always leads to a deterioration
in another objective. For the case with two objectives, the resulting Pareto
optimal front is a curve that visualises the trade-o between the competing
objectives. Such a curve is shown in gure 9. The multi-objective optimisation
problem can be described as:

minf (x) = f1 (x),
T
f2 (x), ..., fk (x)
x1i xi xhi
i = 1, 2, ..., n
gj (x) 0
j = 1, 2, ..., J
s.t.
(14)
In this paper, the Complex method is used for solving single objective problems, whereas a multi-objective genetic algorithm is used to solve the Pareto
optimisation problem.
5.2
The Complex method
The Complex method was rst presented by Box [7] in the mid-60s. The
method starts by randomly generating k feasible points in the solution space.
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The geometrical gure with k vertices/points in Rn is called a complex. The

number of points in the complex has to be greater than the number of optimisation parameters. Box recommended the complex to consist of twice as
many points as optimisation parameters. The value of the objective function
is calculated for each point and the basic idea of the algorithm is to replace
the worst point by a new and better point. The new point is calculated as the
reection of the worst point through the centroid of the remaining points in
the complex. The reection distance is varied so that the complex expands to
search in new regions and contracts if the new point repeats being the worst. In
the next iteration a new point has become the worst, which in turn is reected
through the centroid of the new complex. This procedure is continued until the
whole complex has converged to the optimum. For a more detailed description,
see [9].
5.3
Genetic algorithms
Genetic algorithms are modelled according to the mechanisms of natural selection. Each optimisation parameter, xn , is encoded by a gene, using an
appropriate representation, such as a real number or a string of bits. The corresponding genes for all parameters, x = x1 , ..., xn , form a chromosome capable
of describing an individual design solution. A set of chromosomes representing
several individual design solutions comprises a population where the ttest are
selected to reproduce. Mating is performed using crossover to combine genes
from dierent parents to produce children. The children are inserted into the
population and the procedure starts again, thus creating an articial Darwinian
environment. When the population of an ordinary genetic algorithm evolves, it
usually converges to one optimal point. It is, however, tempting to adjust the
algorithm so that it spreads the population over the entire Pareto optimal front
instead. As this idea is quite natural, there are many dierent types of multiobjective genetic algorithm, see [10]. In this paper, the multi-objective struggle
genetic algorithm [11] is employed in order to perform Pareto optimisation.
Optimisation procedure
The natural way of approaching the problem is to start with the simple model.
A simple model usually implies short computation time and the formulation of
the optimisation problem is relatively straightforward. However, as the complexity of the model grows, so does the diculty of formulating the optimisation
problem, since more and more aspects have to be taken into account.
The results presented originate from optimisation of the same pump that was
presented in section 2.1 at 1500 rpm and discharge and inlet pressure levels of
25 and 0.2 MPa respectively. Naturally, the optimisation can be performed for
any operational point.
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6.1
Optimisation using the simple model
By optimising the cross-angle , and the overlap angles 1 4 , the deviation

between the desired and obtained dead centre locations, shown in gure 7, can
be minimised. The goal can be formulated as minimising the surface between
the two curves. The desired and obtained dead centres are calculated for m
discrete dierent displacement angles. The surface can thus be formulated as
the following sum:
f (x) =
m
|des obt |
(15)
i=1
By initially studying the pre-compression, i.e. the desired and the obtained
piston bdc, the Complex algorithm yields a cross-angle of 1.6 , with an almost
perfect match between the two curves. However, with that cross-angle, the
desired and obtained piston tdc dier somewhat. If the optimisation procedure
is repeated for the decompression, i.e. the desired and obtained piston tdc,
the result from the Complex optimisation is a cross-angle of 2.7 . Again, the
desired and obtained tdc-curves almost overlap each other. But with a crossangle of 2.7 , the pre-compression deteriorates instead. Thus, it should be noted
that optimal pre-compression and decompression require dierent cross-angle
values, and consequently, there exists a trade-o between inlet and discharge
performance. If the cross-angle is preset to values between the two optima
and the overlap angles are optimised for each choice of cross-angle, a set of
approximate trade-o optima are obtained. These trade-o optima can be
looked upon as a Pareto optimal front, i.e. for this set of solutions, there exist
no solutions that are better in both objectives. Figure 8 shows the discharge
and inlet properties of a compromise point with a cross-angle of 2.2 . As can
be seen, the obtained and desired bdc and tdc almost overlap each other
completely, and thus the trade-o does not imply signicanat deterioration.
6.2
Optimisation using the full-scale model
In order to analyse the detailed behaviour of the cross-angle feature, the fullscale model is optimised as well. There are several objectives that need to be
considered regarding the minimisation of pump related noise. Traditionally, the
ow ripple peak-to-peak value has been the obvious objective, which is justied
since it correlates well to the system pressure ripple. However, when running
an optimisation, focusing solely on the ow ripple, unreasonable cylinder pressure peaks may occur. Since the cylinder pressure is directly proportional to
the piston forces, this will have a direct impact on the excitation of the pump
casting vibrations and thus noise. In addition, it is important to avoid cavitation in order to obtain a low noise level and a long life of the pump. Thus, the
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Obtained and desired TDC [deg]
Obtained and desired BDC [deg]
90
60
30
10
20
8(a) Obtained (solid) and desired
(dashed) BDC.
270
240
210
180
0
10
20
8(b) Obtained (solid) and desired

(dashed) TDC.
Figure 8 Obtained and desired dead centre locations for a compromise crossangle, i.e. considering both discharge and inlet performance.
optimisation problem is dened as:
s.t.
min f lowripple(x)
cavitation constraints
pressure-peak contraints
design parameter limits
(16)
For this application, the constraints are added to the objective function with the
help of penalty functions. In order to assure a low noise level for a wide range of
displacement angles, the simulation model is executed at dierent displacement
angles between zero and maximum displacement for each optimisation iteration.
The peak-to-peak values of the ow ripple for each displacement angle are
summed to a total ow pulsation measure. To minimise the ow pulsation for
the inlet and discharge ow separately, the Complex method is used. As for the
simple model, inlet performance requires a higher cross-angle than discharge
performance. For optimal discharge performance, the cross-angle obtained is
1.7 , whereas a cross-angle of 2.5 gives an optimal inlet performance. These
cross-angles correspond well with the values obtained using the simple model.
In order to study the trade-o between inlet and discharge performance, a
multi-objective genetic algorithm was coupled to the simulation model. This
optimisation strategy identies the Pareto optimal front which visualises the
trade-o between the two objectives, see gure 9. Along the x-axis, the mean
peak-to-peak value of the simulated discharge ow ripple at three dierent
displacements ( = 1, = 0.5 and = 0) is displayed. In the same way, the
mean inlet ow ripple is displayed along the y-axis. With a cross-angle of 1.7 ,
optimal discharge performance is obtained with mean discharge ow ripple of
approximately 7.1 l/min peak-to-peak, while the inlet performance is rather
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Paper III
Mean inlet flow ripple [l/min]
14
=1.7
13
=2.1
12
11
=2.5
7.5
8
8.5
9
Mean discharge flow ripple [l/min]
Figure 9 For all solutions along the Pareto front, no solutions exist that are
better in both discharge and inlet performance, i.e. along the curve, all points
are optimal.
poor with a mean ow ripple of 13.7 l/min peak-to-peak. A cross-angle of 2.5 ,

on the other hand, implies optimal inlet performance with a mean ow ripple
of 11.2 l/min peak-to-peak, while the discharge mean ow ripple is 8.8 l/min
peak-to-peak. By selecting a point in the middle of the curve, a fair compromise
point where = 2.1 is obtained. By choosing this point instead of = 1.7 ,
the mean inlet ow ripple is improved by 1.9 l/min (approximately 14% better),
while the discharge ow ripple deteriorates by only 0.5 l/min (7.0%). If the
compromise point is chosen instead of = 2.5 , the gain in discharge ow ripple
is 1.2 l/min (approximately 14% better) while the inlet ow ripple deteriorates
by only 0.5 l/min (4.4%). All in all, it can be seen that the total gain from
choosing the compromise point instead of the end-points is consequently higher
than the loss. Figures 10(a) and 10(b) show the discharge and inlet ow ripple
peak-to-peak values for dierent displacement angles, for maximum discharge
performance, maximum inlet performance and the compromise point.
The paper presents a method where dierent optimisation techniques are used
together with simulation models of dierent complexity. The dierent models
with their respective objective function formulation should naturally represent
the same problem. Therefore, it is encouraging that both models give approximately the same cross-angles. Thus, it could be concluded that the models and
their respective objective functions really reect what is required in order to
achieve low pump pulsation. Furthermore, as both the Complex method and
the genetic algorithm yield the same result in the full scale model, it could be
conrmed that the optimum is truly found.
Even though the cross-angle is the same for the dierent models, the port
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Inlet flow amplitude [l/min]
Discharge flow amplitude [l/min]
10(a) Discharge ow ripple varia-
10(b) Inlet ow ripple variations.
tions.
Figure 10 Flow ripple sensitivity to changes in displacement angle. Ordinary
pre-compression without any cross-angle is shown as a dashed line. Optimal
discharge performance ( = 1.7 ) is obtained as the dotted line, while optimal
inlet performance ( = 2.5 ) is shown by the dash-dotted line. The solid line
represents the compromise solution ( = 2.1 ).
openings dier. Therefore, data from the simple model will not perform so well
in the full-scale model. This is due to the simplications made in the simple
model, see section 4.1. It is therefore not enough to study just the simple
model as it neglects pressure peaks and cavitation, which is accounted for in
the full-scale model. However, by starting out studying the simple model, the
knowledge acquisition is enhanced as the cause and eect are clearer.
The optimisation results show that optimal inlet performance requires a
higher cross-angle than optimal discharge performance. Even though there
is a trade-o between good inlet and discharge performance, it can be seen
that there are compromise points where both characteristics are satisfactory.
Before optimising the pump, this trade-o was not evident. Thus, the method
presented has led to greater knowledge of the behaviour and properties of the
cross-angle feature as well as a better pump design.
By comparing the graphs in gures 1 and 10(a) it can be seen that the sensitivity to changes in displacement angle is reduced drastically for a constant
pressure pump with a cross-angle together with ordinary pre-compression. By
using ordinary pre-compression with a cross-angle, sensitivity is lower than
when using pressure relief grooves without any cross-angle. But even more interesting is that ordinary pre-compression with a cross-angle implies sensitivity
comparable to using a pcfv without any cross-angle. This is a very interesting
aspect since the cross-angle does not add any signicant cost to the pump, while
the pcfv is rather expensive to implement. Furthermore, it can be seen that
at zero displacement, the total pulsation level is lower for pre-compression with
cross-angle than for pcfv without a cross-angle. This is favourable since zero
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Paper III
displacement is a quite common situation in a pressure controlled pump. However, the cross-angle should not be seen as a replacement for these techniques
but rather as a complement. By using, for example, pressure relief grooves and
pcfv together with a cross-angle, both the pulsation level and sensitivity to
changes in displacement angle will very likely be further reduced.
With such low inlet pressure as 0.2 MPa, the cavitation constraint will have
a substantial impact on the choice of optimal cross-angle and overlap angles.
By increasing the inlet pressure, the inlet cavitation tendency is reduced, and
it is possible to obtain a lower ow ripple in the inlet line.
Optimisation of the full-scale model at dierent discharge pressure levels
shows that the value of the optimal cross-angle is not aected to any great
extent by reasonable variations in discharge pressure. However, the overlap
angles are aected. In present study, it has been observed that the same crossangle is very good for pressures between 10 and 30 MPa. Dierent pressure
levels, however, require dierent valve plate designs for optimal performance.
Since the cross-angle is very small, the force balance of the pump will probably not be aected signicantly. For very large cross-angles, however, this may
be a subject of importance.
In conclusion, it has been shown that the cross-angle is an easy and aordable
design feature which oers minimisation of ow pulsation in both inlet and
discharge lines, without causing pressure-peaks and cavitation.
References
[1] Longmore D.K. and Schlesinger A., Relative importance of the various vibration transmitting mechanisms in hoses in typical hydraulic systems, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part I: Journal of
systems and control engineering, 205:105111, 1991.
[2] Palmberg J.O., Modelling of ow ripple from uid power piston pumps,
in 2nd Bath International Power Workshop, University of Bath, UK, September 1989.
[3] Palmberg J.O., Pettersson M. and Bratt S., Method and a Device
for Damping Flow Pulsations in Hydrostatic Hydraulic Machines of Displacement Type, United States patent 5,247,869, Sept. 28 1993.
[5] Johansson A., Noise reduction of hydraulic systems - design considerations and methods, Licentiate thesis no. 953, Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems, Linkping University, Sweden, 2002.
218
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[8] Goldberg D., Genetic Algorithms in Search and Machine Learning, Addison Wesley, 1989.
[9] Krus P., Janson A. and Palmberg J.O., Optimization for component
selection in hydraulic systems, in Fourth Bath International Fluid Power
Workshop, University of Bath, UK, 1991.
[10] Deb K., Multi-objective optimization using evolutionary algorithms, Wiley
and Sons Ltd., 2001.
[11] Andersson J., Multiobjective Optimization in Engineering Design Application to Fluid Power Systems, Ph.D. thesis, Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems, Linkping University, Linkping, Sweden,
April 2001.
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Paper IV
Influence from the cross-angle on piston

forces and bending moments in variable
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A. Johansson, J. Andersson and J.-O. Palmberg1 , Inuence from the
cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments in variable hydraulic piston
pumps, , LiTH-IKP-R-1391 , Linkping University, Sweden, 2003.
1 This paper is based upon: Johansson, A., Andersson, J. and Palmberg, J.-O., Eects
of cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments in axial piston pumps, in The 7th
International Symposium on Fluid Control, Measurement and visualization (FLUCOME03),
Sorrento, Italy, 2001
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Influence from the cross-angle on piston

forces and bending moments in variable
Abstract
By implementing an additional incline (cross-angle) of the swash plate of
an axial piston pump, in the direction perpendicular to the traditional
displacement direction, the piston dead-centre points will move as the
displacement angle varies. The cross-angle is xed and normally very
small (1-4 ). If designed correctly, the movement of the dead-centre
points achieved by using a cross-angle coincides with the dead centres
desired for optimal cylinder pre-compression and decompression for all
displacement angles. It has in earlier works been described how the
cross-angle enables minimisation of discharge and inlet peak-to-peak ow
ripple for all displacement angles simultaneously. In this paper, it is
also investigated how the piston forces and the bending moments are
inuenced.
The cross-angle is designed using simulation-based multi-objective optimisation. It is investigated how objective functions can be made up
from peak-to-peak values as well as from frequency spectrum of signals.
The trade-os between the conicting objectives considered are elucidated by using the concept of Pareto optimality. The result from such
a Pareto optimisation is not one optimal solution, but a set of optimal
solutions. With the technique presented, it is thus possible to investigate
an optimal value for the cross-angle that the most benecial impact on
all factors that inuence the noise level of the pump.
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Paper IV
1
1.1
Introduction
Noise origins
Most of the noise in hydraulic circuits can be directly related to the hydrostatic pump and motor, which by their design introduce signicant amounts of
pulsating ows, forces and moments. Besides a high noise level, the pulsation
also contributes to vibration and reduced fatigue life of system components.
The ever-increasing power compactness of hydraulic circuits, and the environmental requirements regarding acceptable working conditions, accentuate the
importance of nding a mean of reducing these pulsations.
The ow pulsations comprise a kinematic part due to the geometrically dened motions of the limited number of pistons, and a compressible part caused
by the compliance of the uid. The piston forces arise as the cylinder pressures act on the piston areas. In turn, the product between the resulting piston
force and its distance from the swash plate pivot axis also gives rise to a swash
plate moment. Obviously, there are several more sourses of noise in hydraulic
systems, but ow ripple, piston forces and swash plate moments are considered
to be the most important objectives to minimise in this study.
For an objective function comprising several individual objectives, it is very
dicult to rate their relative importance. Especially at the pump design stage,
there are several parameters decisive for the interaction between the individual
objectives and the external system, that are not known. Dierent techniques
for visualising trade-os between competing objectives is presented.
For pulsation reduction, several dierent, more or less eective, design features have been developed over the years. For a comprehensive review of different noise reducing design features, see [1]. Many design features are well
suited to reduce pulsations at one operational condition, but it has shown to
be dicult to nd design features that can perform well when pressure levels,
speed and displacement angle vary, see [2] and [3]. There is thus a need for
design features that can handle variations in operational condition. This paper
concerns the design feature cross-angle, which is developed especially to reduce
pumps sensitivity to variations in displacement angles.
1.2
The cross-angle
The pre-compression zone required for optimal matching between cylinder and
discharge kidney pressures becomes larger as the displacement angle decreases.
The same holds for the decompression zone. Practically, the variable timing
required can be achieved using a revolvable valve plate. Another way to achieve
similar eect is by implementing a cross-angle in the swash plate design.
The cross-angle, denoted by , is a small (1-4 ), xed, additional inclination
of the swash plate, in the direction perpendicular to the traditional displacement direction, as shown in gure 1(a). The cross-angle has a relatively simple
implementation that requires no external control devices. The eect from using
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Influence from the cross-angle . . .
Swash axis


Discharge
Inlet
Cross-angle
1(a)
1(b)
Figure 1 The cross-angle is implemented as an additional incline of the swashplate, perpendicularly to the traditional displacement angle, see gure (a).
The cross-angle implies that the dead-centre angle, , varies as a function of the
displacement angle (b).
the cross-angle resembles that of a revolving valve plate, but instead of revolving the valve plate, the piston dead centres are varied. For an in-line pump,
the angle from the x-axis to the piston dead centre axis (see gure 1(b)) can be
expressed as shown in equation 1, where denotes the angle in the traditional
displacement direction.
tan
(1)
= tan1
tan
The expression is obtained from mathematical descriptions of the pump geometry, further illustrated in [4]. With the cross-angle, the additional precompression and decompression needed as the displacement angle is decreased
is obtained simply because the piston dead centres are moved. If the crossangle is designed correctly it is possible to maintain optimal pre-compression
and decompression throughout the whole range of displacement angles. The
cross-angle can be implemented in any type of variable axial piston pump or
motor with identical eects. In this study, a seven-piston, 40 cm3 /rev, in-line
axial piston pump operating at 1500 rpm at a discharge pressure of 25 MPa and
an inlet pressure of 0.2 MPa is considered. Patented in 1963 [5], the cross-angle
appeared for the rst time in a scientic publication in 1974, [6], where the effect of the cross-angle on the swash plate moment was studied. Optimisation
of the cross-angle and valve plate angles to simultaneously minimise discharge
and inlet ow ripple for all displacement angles in a constant pressure pump is
carried out in [4]. This was performed using Pareto optimality, which searches
for a set of optimal solutions. The result of this optimisation is shown in gure 2, where x and y axis show the average peak-to-peak values of discharge
and inlet ow at three dierent displacements (=1, =0.5 and =0). Along
the curve, all solutions are optimal, and the trade-os between the individual
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Paper IV
objectives are visualised graphically. As can be seen, optimal decompression

requires a larger cross-angle (=2.5 ) than optimal pre-compression (=1.7).
By choosing a fair trade-o value (=2.1 ), both discharge and inlet ow ripple
will behave satisfactorily.
Mean inlet flow ripple [l/min]
14
=1.7
13
=2.1
12
11
=2.5
7.5
8
8.5
9
Mean discharge flow ripple [l/min]
Figure 2 Optimisation of cross-angle and valve plate angles for simultaneous

minimisation of discharge and inlet ow ripple.
1.3
Aims
One of the aims of this study is to extend the design problem to also survey how the internal piston forces and swash plate moment are aected by
implementation of the cross-angle. Again, simulation-based optimisation is
used, and Pareto-optimality is used to visualise trade-o relationships. Another aim is to investigate a dierent technique to formulate objective functions based upon frequency content rather than pulsation peak-to-peak value.
Correctly designed objective functions enable both pulsation peak-to-peak and
high-frequency noise to be minimised simultaneously.
Problem description
The general design problem in this study is to investigate how the cross-angle
should be implemented to minimise the overall noise level. In order to solve this
problem using optimisation, a general multi-objective optimisation problem can
be formulated according to equation (2).
min(F (x) =
x
x =
226
(f1 (x) + f2 (x) + f3 (x) + f4 (x))

S
(x1 , ..., xn )
(2)
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The term F (x) is the optimisation objective function, which expresses the
goal of the optimisation. In this particular case, the objective function comprises several individual objectives: discharge ow ripple (f1 ), inlet ow ripple
(f2 ), swash plate moment (f3 ) and resulting piston force (f4 ).
The vector x represents the design parameters, i.e. the parameters allowed
to vary in order to minimise the objective function. In order to avoid undesired behaviour, e.g. cavitation, optimisation constraints must be implemented.
Hence, the allowed solution space is expressed by S.
2.1
Objective functions
The translation of noise into simulated or measured engineering quantities is

crucial. A natural and frequently used gure of merit to quantify the pulsation
level is the pulsation peak-to-peak value. However, the frequency contents
of the noise signals also have signicant impact, not only for how the noise
energy propagates into, and interacts with, the external system and mounting
structure, but also for how the human ear interprets the noise. For instance,
the human ear is normally more sensitive to high-frequency noise [7]. Objective
functions in frequency domain are normally formulated using weighted sums
of the signals Fourier series coecients. In this paper, objective functions are
formulated in both the time and in the frequency domain. In order to ensure
a satisfactory behaviour throughout the whole range of displacement angles,
the objective functions are evaluated at three dierent displacement settings,
1 =1, 2 =0.5 and 3 =0.
Hence, the objective functions for discharge ow ripple in the time and frequency domains are constructed in accordance with equations 3 and 4 respectively. The signal qdis (t, x, i ) represents the discharge ow as a function of
time with design parameters x and at displacement setting i . In the same
way, Qdis (n, x, i ) represents the nth Fourier series coecients of the same
design x at displacement setting i .
The frequency weighting is controlled by the exponent . If =0 in equation
4, no mutual weighting between high- and low-frequency content is considered. This implies that the low-frequency noise, which has normally the largest
amplitudes, will completely dominate the objective function value. A larger
exponent will cause a higher penalty on high-frequency content. The other
objective functions are calculated in the same way.
f1,time (x) =

max(qdis (t, x, i ) min(qdis (t, x, i ))
(3)
f1,f req (x) =

i

(n Qdis (n, x, i ))
(4)
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Paper IV
2.2
Design variables and constraints
The design parameters, x1 xn , are specied along with the interval within
which they are allowed to vary. In this study, only the cross-angle and the
four valve plate kidney angles are optimised, thus giving a total of ve design
parameters, unless stated otherwise. To reduce the complexity of the design
problem, no pressure relief grooves are used, even though such implementation
is expected to further improve the pump behaviour. Section 4 includes a study
that considers the impact of pressure relief grooves as a complement to crossangle.
To avoid undesired behaviour, design constraints must be considered during the optimisation. The implementation of constraints may be as crucial as
the objective function formulation, and should thus be paid careful attention.
This study considers extreme cylinder pressures and cavitation as essential constraints. They are both added to the objective functions as penalty functions,
depending upon how severely the constraints are violated, see gure 3.
Pressure
constraint
penalty
Cavitation
constraint
penalty
p*
pcav*
Cylinder
pressure
3(a)
Cylinder
pressure
3(b)
Figure 3 Implementation of penalty functions. If the cylinder pressure exceeds

the constraint of p =27 MPa, a quadratic penalty applies to avoid large cylinder
pressure peaks. To avoid cavitation, a quadratic penalty applies as the cylinder
pressure drops below pcav =0.05 MPa.
2.3
Pump simulation model
For the optimisation problems considered in the present paper, a highly detailed
pump simulation model, developed in the HOPSAN simulation environment [8],
was used. A comprehensive description of the modelling technique can be found
in [9]. The modelling approach is modular and modications to the pump
geometry can thus easily be evaluated. Since the studies performed in [4], the
pump model has been extended to include a pressure-dependent bulk modulus.
This new model also takes into account how free air bubbles in the uid aects
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the resulting bulk modulus, e , according to equation 5.

t
e =
1+
x0 t
np 1x0
p0
p
n1
(5)
t is the tangential bulk modulus of the air-free uid, x0 is the volume fraction
of free air bubbles at pressure p0 (in this study 0.1 MPa), n the polytropic
exponent and p the absolute pressure. With this model, the behaviour in the
low-pressure regions in particular is aected. According to [10], a value of 2%
dissolved air gives satisfactory accuracy between simulations and experiments.
This value has therefore been used also for the simulations performed in this
study.
2.4
Optimisation strategy
As the objective functions are calculated based upon the outcome of a simulation program (HOPSAN), there are no analytical derivatives of the objective
functions available. Therefore, non-derivative methods are well-suited optimisation methods for this type of problem. In this study, multi-objective genetic
algorithms [11] are used to solve the optimisation problems.
Genetic algorithms
Genetic algorithms are modelled according to the mechanisms of natural selection. Each optimisation parameter is encoded by a gene and genes for all
parameters form a chromosome capable of describing an individual design. A
set of chromosomes representing several individual designs comprises a population, where the ttest are selected to reproduce. Mating is performed using
crossover to combine genes from dierent parents to produce children. The
children are inserted into the population and replace older or less t individuals, after which the iterative process starts again, thus creating an articial
Darwinian environment. Goldbergs book [11] constitutes a good introduction
to the eld of genetic algorithms. When the population of an ordinary genetic
algorithm evolves, it usually converges to one optimal point. It is, however,
tempting to adjust the algorithm so that it spreads the population over the
entire Pareto optimal front instead. As this idea is quite natural, there are
many dierent types of multiple-objective genetic algorithm, see [12]. In this
paper, Non-dominating Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II) developed by
Deb et al. [13] is used in order to perform the multi-objective optimisation.
The optimisation algorithm suggests an individual, i.e. a pump design, composed of a set of parameters. The tness of this individual is evaluated by the
simulation program, which in turn feeds the results back to the optimisations.
Based on the values of the objective functions, the individual is given a tness describing its probability to reproduce. This iterative interaction between
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Paper IV
the optimisation algorithm and the simulation program proceeds until that the
optimisation converges.
3
3.1
Optimisation results
Without the cross-angle
A rst study considers the optimal design of a pump without the presence of
a cross-angle. This will yield data that are comparable with the succeeding
optimisation in order to show the benets of using the cross-angle. The design
parameters are thus the four opening and closing kidney angles. The optimisation is performed in the time domain only, i.e. the objective functions are
expressed as the peak-to-peak values of the individual objectives: discharge
ow ripple, inlet ow ripple and swash plate moment, according to equation 3.
For a pump with odd piston numbers, the resulting piston force alternates between two distinctive values, which means that the peak-to-peak value remains
more or less constant for any reasonable pump design (=pdis d2 /4, where d is
the piston diameter). Therefore, piston forces are not considered in this time
domain optimisation.
This optimisation mainly results in two dierent valve plate designs. The
rst minimises the mean ow ripple for the three dierent displacement angles
in both inlet and discharge lines. The second optimum minimises the swash
plate bending moment. Figures 4(a), 4(b) and 4(c) show how the peak-to-peak
values of ow ripples and bending moments as functions of the displacement
angles for the two optimal designs. Both solutions yield the same inlet kidney
geometry, which is the reason why the dotted and solid lines in gure 4 (b)
overlap each other. As can be seen the pulsations are all sensitive to variations
in displacement angle for both solutions.
3.2
With the cross-angle
Optimisation in time domain

To study how the cross-angle aects the objectives, the previous optimisation is
repeated, this time also including the cross-angle as an optimisation parameter.
The objective functions are specied as peak-to-peak values of discharge ow
ripple, inlet ow ripple and swash plate moment, according to equation 3.
The optimisation results in a number of cross-angle values between 1.9 , at
which the discharge ow ripple is minimised (f1,t

), and 3.7 , where the inlet
ow ripple is minimised (f2,t ). The swash plate moment is minimised for a
). The index t indicates optimum from the time domain

cross-angle of 2.8 (f3,t
optimisations. It is important to notice that every cross-angle value corresponds
to dierent valve plate designs.
An interesting result is that a compromise cross-angle value of 3.3 , which
gives a fair trade-o between good discharge and inlet ow ripple, also gives a
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25
Inlet flow ripple [l/min]
40
35
30
25
20
0
10
Displacement angle, [deg]
4(a) Discharge ow ripple
20
20
15
10
5
0
0
10
20
4(b) Inlet ow ripple
Swash plate moment [Nm]
250
200
150
100
0
10
20
4(c) Bending moment
Figure 4 Pulsation peak-to-peak values as functions of displacement angles for

a pump without a cross-angle. The solid line represents a design optimised
for minimal ow pulsation, whereas the dotted line represents a solution that
minimises the pulsation of the swash plate moment.
low swash plate moment. Figures 5(a), 5(b) and 5(c) show the peak-to-peak
values of ow ripples and swash plate moment as functions of the displacement
), 3.7 (f2,t
) and 3.3 (fair trade-o between
angle for a cross-angle of 1.9 (f1,t
all competing objectives). As can be seen, discharge ow ripple is minimised
is chosen, whereas the two

for all displacement angles if the optimal design f1,t
other objectives yield rather large pulsations. If f2,t

is chosen, the inlet ow
ripple is minimised for all displacement angles, whereas again the two other
objectives give large pulsations. In the trade-o design, all objectives have
satisfactory pulsations throughout the whole range of displacement angles and
can thus be said to be a good compromise solution. A comparison between
gures 4 and 5 shows that discharge and inlet ow ripple peak-to-peak values
are considerably improved when a cross-angle is used. The swash plate moment
is slightly improved in some regions but slightly deteriorated in other regions
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Paper IV
25
25
20
20
Discharge fow ripple [l/min]
compared with not using any cross-angle. The deterioration, however, is not
considerable.
15
10
5
0
0
10
20
15
10
5
0
0
10
20
250
200
150
100
0
10
20
5(c) Bending moment

three dierent pump designs. Dotted lines represent simulations with a crossangle of 1.9 (f1,t ), solid lines 3.3 (trade-o), and dashed lines 3.7 (f2,t ). The
optimisation was carried out in the time domain.
Optimisation in frequency domain

To also reect the frequency content of the noise sources, the objective functions
are designed using the weighted sum of Fourier series coecients, according to
equation 4. A linear weighting lter (=1) has been used for all objective
function formulations in the frequency domain. All frequencies are hereby
assigned reasonable penalties, implying that peak-to-peak value and frequency
content are considered simultaneously.
As stated earlier, the peak-to-peak value of the resulting piston force is relatively insensitive to the pump design. However, its frequency content, i.e. its
smoothness, can be substantially modied. Thus, by considering the objectives
232
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in the frequency domain, the optimisation problem is extended to comprise all

four objectives: discharge ow ripple (f1 ), inlet ow ripple (f2 ), swash plate
moment (f3 ) and resulting piston force (f4 ), all expressed as weighted sums of
their Fourier series coecients. Again, the design parameters are made up from
the four kidney angles and the cross-angle and the same constraints regarding
cavitation and extreme cylinder pressures as in previous sections are used.
The optimisation results are illustrated in gure 6, showing individual objectives as functions of the cross-angle. Again, every cross-angle value corresponds
to a dierent valve plate design, and every solution belongs to the obtained
Pareto optimal set of solutions. Also here, it can be seen that a low inlet ow
ripple requires a higher cross-angle value than a low discharge ow ripple. An
and f4,f
require almost the
interesting result is that the optimal solutions f3,f
same cross-angle (3.7 ), which in turn also turns out to be a reasonable tradeo solution between good discharge and inlet ow ripple behavior. The index
f indicate optima obtained with the frequency domain optimisation.
Figure 6 The individual objective functions plotted against the cross-angle for
the obtained Pareto optimal designs. f1 (solid), f2 (dashed), f3 (dash-dotted)
and f4 (dotted).
To compare these optimal solutions with the ones obtained in the previous
section, the pulsation peak-to-peak values for these four dierent optimal solutions are studied as functions of the displacement angle. The studied cross
), 4.3 (corresponding to f2,f

) and a
angles are 2.0 (corresponding to f1,f
compromise point with a cross-angle of 3.5 (close to both f3,f and f4,f
), see
gure 7. The time domain optimisation is expected to give lower peak-to-peak
pulsation than the frequency optimisation throughout the whole range of dis
gives
placement angle. This is partly ture. The time domain optimum f1,t
overall a slightly lower peak-to-peak discharge ow than the frequency domain
but the dierence is small. In the same way f2,t

gives a slightly
optimum f1,f
lower pulsation amplitude of the inlet ow ripple than f2,f . But also the frequency domain optimisation generally yield low pulsation amplitudes which
233
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Paper IV
hence reveals that the frequency dependent objective function also considers
pulsation amplitude.
Apparently, both the discharge and the inlet ow ripples are fairly good
for any of the three cross-angle designs for the optimisation conducted in the
frequency domain. In the time domain optimisation, however, the cross-angle
that minimises discharge ow ripple gives large inlet ow ripples and vice versa.
Thus, the time domain optimisation gives rise to higher trade-o eects than
the frequency domain optimisation. The reason for this may be that the time
domain optimisation pays more attention to the bending moment, which is
hence generally lower in the time domain optimisations. In all, it can be stated
that the time domain and the frequency domain optimisation are not perfectly
comparable, even if they give very similar results.
An interesting result, illustrating the dierences between optimising in the
time domain and the frequency domain, can be observed in gure 7(c). The
, which minimises the frequency content of the swash plate moment,

design f3,f
gives a rather large peak-to-peak value of the moment. It is clear that considerably lower peak-to-peak values of the swash plate moment is obtained with
design. However, by studying the objective function values shown in

the f1,f
gure 6, it becomes clear that the frequency content of the swash plate moment
design than for the f1,f

design. Hence,
is approximately 15% lower for the f3,f
the design f3,f gives rise to higher peak-to-peak value than the f1,f
design but
a more favourable frequency content.
Discussion
The discussion section is divided into two parts. The rst contains insights
gained during this study and the second comprises a detailed discussion on the
implications of using a pressure relief groove together with the cross-angle.
4.1
Insights gained
By comparing gures 5(a) and 5(b) with gures 4(a) and 4(b)), the benets
from using the cross-angle becomes obvious. Both discharge and inlet port
ow ripples are eectively reduced throughout the whole range of displacement
angles.
To minimise individual objectives, dierent values of the cross-angle are required. It is thus not possible to design a pump that simultaneously minimises
all objectives. The most contradicting objectives, resulting in the highest tradeo eects, are the solutions corresponding to optimal discharge and inlet ow
ripple respectively. Not only do they require quite dierent values of the crossangle but are also the objectives that vary the most as functions of the crossangle, see gure 6. Therefore, the compromise point should be chosen so as
to make a fair trade-o between these objectives. Interestingly enough, when
234
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25
25
20
20
Dishcarge flow ripple [l/min]
15
10
5
0
0
10
10
20

8
250
10
0
0
20
200
150
100
0
15
10
Displacement angle, alpha [deg]
7(c) Bending moment
20
7.5
7
0
10
20
7(d) Resulting piston force

three dierent pump designs. Dotted lines represent simulations with a crossangle of 2.0 (f1,f ), solid lines 3.5 (trade-o), and dashed lines 4.3 (f2,f ). The
optimisation was carried out in the frequency domain.
compromising between optimal discharge and inlet ow ripple, optimal swash

plate moment and piston forces are obtained simultaneously.
An interesting observation is that the optimal solutions using objective functions made up of pulsation peak-to-peak values in the time domain and the
optimal solution using weighted sum of Fourier series coecients are very similar, which was not known beforehand. Consequently, it might be possible to
claim that the design suggested by the frequency domain optimisation emphasises both peak-to-peak values and high frequency content.
Since this study uses a variable bulk modulus, including air in the uid, the
optimisations carreid out in this work have generally resulted in higher crossangle values than in previous studies. Due to the varying bulk modulus, the
piston motion becomes even more insucient at low displacement angles, and
hence a larger cross-angle is required. Another interesting result is that cavita-
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Paper IV
tion is no longer such a severe problem as pointed out in the previous study [4].
This result is also directly related to the variable bulk modulus implemented,
and is expected also in real pumps where the bulk modulus decreases at low
pressure levels.
4.2
Cross-angle and pressure relief grooves
Studies performed have shown that a pressure relief groove at the entrance to
the inlet kidney will not reduce the risk of exaggerated decompression which
may lead to cavitation. The reason for this is that the pressure drop over the
groove is insucient for satisfactory uid exchange between inlet and cylinder
in order to alleviate cavitation. However, a pressure relief groove at the entrance
to the discharge kidney has proved to be benecial. It is thereby possible to use
the cross-angle that is optimal for the inlet ow ripples. The groove reduces
the discharge ow ripples almost to the same extent as when the cross-angle
for optimal discharge performance is used.
Figures 8(a) and 8(b) illustrate the discharge ow ripple and swash plate
moment peak-to-peak values respectively for dierent valve plate congurations
as functions of the displacement angle. The solid, dashed and dotted lines
are the same as in gures 5(a) and 5(c). The other two curves are obtained
when optimising the size of a pressure relief groove and the discharge kidney
opening angle, in order to minimise the discharge ow ripple peak-to-peak. The
values of the cross-angle in these time domain optimisations correspond to the
trade-o point (3.3 ) and the solution giving optimal inlet ow ripple (3.7 )
respectively. As can be seen, the cross-angle minimising inlet ow ripple can
be used since the pressure relief groove at the entrance to the discharge port
signicantly improves the discharge ow ripple (diamonds). Also when using
the trade-o cross-angle, the discharge ow ripple is improved by a pressure
relief groove (stars). Apparently, the pressure relief grooves suggested do not
aect the peak-to-peak value of the swash plate moment compared to not
using any groove. This is the reason why the inlet optimal cross-angle with
and without a pressure relief groove (diamonds and dashed respectively) and
the trade-o cross-angle with and without a pressure relief groove (star and
solid respectively) overlap each other.
Conclusions
The paper shows that implementation of a cross-angle clearly reduces the pulsation level of both discharge and inlet ow ripple, compared with a conventional
swash plate, i.e. without a cross-angle. The cross-angle that gives a fair tradeo between discharge and inlet ow ripple generally also produces good piston
forces and bending moments.
When optimising taking frequency content into account, optimal discharge
ow ripple requires a cross-angle of 2.0 whereas optimal inlet ow ripple re-
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250
25
20
15
10
5
0
0
10
20
200
150
100
0
10
20
Figure 8 Eects of using pressure relief groove together with cross angle. The
solid line is derived when using the cross-angle trade-o value (3.3 ) without
pressure relief groove. The dashed line is obtained with cross-angle optimal for
inlet ow ripple (3.7 ) without pressure relief groove. The dotted line is obtained
with cross-angle optimal for discharge ow ripple (1.9 ) and no pressure relief
groove. Diamonds represent the results using the inlet optimal cross-angle (3.7 )
and when minimising discharge ow ripple peak-to-peak using a pressure relief
groove at the discharge port entrance. Stars represent the result using the tradeo cross-angle (3.3 ) and when minimising discharge ow ripple peak-to-peak
using a pressure relief groove at the discharge port entrance.
quires a cross-angle of 4.3 . By choosing a trade-o cross-angle of 3.5 , a good

compromise between all competing objectives is obtained. This is very close to
the 3.7 cross-angle that minimises the frequency content of both swash plate
moments and piston forces.
The optimisations conducted in the paper are carried out in both the time
and the frequency domains, yielding approximately the same designs, which is
a very encouraging result.
A natural extension for future work is to conduct measurements on pumps
both with and without cross-angle in order to verify the results presented in
this paper.
References
[1] Edge K.A., Designing quieter hydraulic systems - some recent developments and contributions, in Fourth JHPS International Symposium,
Tokyo, Japan, November 1999.
[2] Johansson A., Noise reduction of hydraulic systems - design considerations and methods, Licentiate thesis no. 953, Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems, Linkping University, Sweden, 2002.
237
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Paper IV
[3] Johansson A. and Palmberg J.O., Quieter hydraulic systems - design

considerations, in Fifth JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power,
vol. 3, pp. 800804, Nara, Japan, November 2002.
[4] Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.O., Optimal design of
the cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable displacement pumps, in
The Bath Workshop on Power Transmission and Motion Control, PTMC
[5] Citroen, Improvements in or relating to swash plate pumps, Published at
the Patent Oce, 25, Southampton Buildings, London, W C 2. Index at
acceptance:- Class 102(1), AI B(8 B:9), A(3 G 4 A:455 A). International
classication: - F 05 b, Jan. 16 1963.
[6] Balkind L.V., Calculating the moments of the swash plate of a rotary
axial piston pump, Vestnik Mastinostroeniya, 4(54):1724, 1974.
[7] Bodn H., Carlsson U., Glav R., Wallin H.P. and bom M., Ljud
och vibrationer, no. ISBN 91-7170-434-5, Nordstedts Tryckeri AB, Stockholm, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, 2nd edn.,
June 1999.
[11] Goldberg D., Genetic Algorithms in Search and Machine Learning, Addison Wesley, 1989.
[13] Deb K., Agrawal S., Pratap A. and Meyarivan T., A fast and elitist
multi-objective genetic algorithm: NSGA II, IEEE Trans. on Evolutionary Computation, 6(2):182-197, 2002.
238
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Paper V
.
Experimental verification of cross-angle

for noise reduction in hydraulic piston
pumps
9:7
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This paper is submitted for publication as:

A. Johansson, J. Andersson and J.-O. Palmberg, Experimental verication of cross-angle for noise reduction in hydraulic piston pumps
9:7
page 241
Experimental verification of cross-angle

for noise reduction in hydraulic piston
pumps
Andreas Johansson, Johan lvander and Jan-Ove Palmberg
Abstract
Noise is considered to be one of the most important drawbacks with

hydraulic systems. Much research therefore emphasise the design of the
axial piston pump which is the major generator of noise and vibration.
The crucial component in the pump, controlling ow ripples as well as
internal forces, is the valve plate. By very small modications in the
valve plate design, it is possible to widely modify uid-borne as well
as structure-borne and air-borne noise. It is fairly easy to minimise, for
instance, ow ripples for one specic operational condition by postponing
the opening to the valve plate kidneys. The cylinder pressure is thereby
matched to the kidney pressure by the piston motion. Modern pumps,
however, normally work with widely varying operational conditions. To
reduce noise throughout the whole range of operational conditions, more
rened valve plate designs are required.
This paper concerns optimal design and experimental verication of
the cross-angle which is a design feature intended to reduce sensitivity
to varying displacement angle. The cross-angle is a small xed incline of
the swash plate in the direction that is perpendicular to the traditional
displacement direction. The piston dead-centres thereby vary as functions of the displacement angle which implies variable valve plate timing.
Correctly designed, the cross-angle minimises ow ripples in both discharge and suction port for all displacement angles simultaneously. The
cross-angle should be seen as a complement to existing valve plate design
features such as pressure relief grooves and pre-compression volumes.
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Paper V
Nomenclature
f objective function
i integer number
j integer number
p pressure
z number of cylinders
normal displacement angle
eective displacement angle
cross-angle
dead-centre angle
Indices:
cyl cylinder
dis discharge
i
cylinder number [-]
inl inlet
j
integer number
[-]
[-]
[-]
[Pa]
[-]
[deg]
[deg]
[deg]
[deg]
Introduction
In order to minimise noise emissions from hydraulic systems, pump generated

ow ripples and vibrations must be reduced. The key component that controls the dynamics of the pump is the valve plate. Small modications to the
valve plate kidney opening and closing angles, known as valve plate timing,
have substantial eects on ow ripples as well as internal forces and bending
moments. By postponing the opening to the discharge port kidney, referred
to as pre-compression angle, the piston motion increases the cylinder pressure.
Correctly designed, the cylinder pressure is perfectly matched to the discharge
pressure when the cylinder links up to the kidney and the compressible ow
pulses into or out from the cylinders are minimised. An analogous discussion
also covers the suction port commutation. One problem when using ordinary
pre-compression angle is high sensitivity to varying operational conditions, i.e.
discharge pressure level, displacement angle and rotational speed. If any of
these parameters change, the ow ripples are no longer optimal. One way to
tune the valve plate timing to varying operational conditions is by using a revolving valve plate, see for instance [1]. Drawbacks with this principle however
are high implementation cost and that on-line tuning is required using external
control devices.
This study concerns the design of a cross-angle. The cross-angle is a xed,
small (1-4 ) displacement angle of the swash plate in the direction perpendicular to the traditional displacement direction, see 1. This implies that the
piston top and bottom dead-centres, referred to as TDC and BDC respectively,
vary as functions of the displacement angle, which gives varying cylinder precompression and decompression. The eect is very similar to the revolving
valve plate but instead of displacing the valve plate, the piston dead-centres
vary.
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Experimental verification of the cross-angle . . .
Swash axis
Cross-angle
Figure 1 The cross-angle is a xed small (1-4 ) displacement angle of the swash
plate in the direction perpendicular to the traditional displacement directions.
The cross-angle was patented by Citroen in 1963 [2] and has hence been a
known design for many years. It is however rarely used in commercial pumps
of today. In [3], Helgestad et. al. write: By inclining the axis of rotation of
the swash plate it would also be possible to compensate partially for the eect
of swash plate angle. The incline referred to is the cross-angle and is proposed
to compensate for the sensitivity to varying displacement angles. In the same
year, Balkind et. al. also deal with some aspects of the cross-angle [4]. A
theoretical study on the eects of the cross-angle and its optimal design is
published in [5]. One interesting result from that work is that both discharge
and suction port ow ripples can be minimised for all displacement angles
simultaneously when using the cross-angle. The work was continued in [6],
where the inuence from cross-angle on internal piston forces and bending
moments was also investigated. It was found that the particular cross-angle
design that simultaneously minimises peak-to-peak value of discharge and inlet
ow ripples at all displacement angles also produces smooth piston forces and
bending moments. This indicates that the cross-angle may be useful not only
for minimising uid-borne noise, but also for reducing vibration in the pump
housing.
The cross-angle can to advantage be supplemented with dierent valve plate
design features, such as a pressure relief groove and pre-compression lter volume, PCFV [7], [8]. For illustrative purposes, however, this study concerns
the cross-angle together with ordinary pre-compression angle only. The pump
investigated is a 60 cm3 /rev, variable in-line axial piston pump with seven
pistons.
The aim of this study is to experimentally verify the theoretical improvements obtained with the cross-angle outlined in earlier papers [5, 6]. First,
this paper reviews the eects of the cross-angle and emphasises the importance
of smooth cylinder pressurisations and depressurisations. Two dierent valve
plate designs, both with ordinary pre-compression angles are determined using
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Paper V
simulation-based optimisation. One of these is designed to be used together

with a traditional swash plate, i.e. without any cross-angle, whereas the other
is intended to be used together with a cross-angle swash plate. The optimisation objectives concern minimisation of ow ripples in both the discharge and
the suction port. The two dierent valve plates and the cross-angle swash plate
are manufactured for experimental examination regarding ow ripples and direct noise emissions from the pump housing. The paper nally concludes with
a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of using the cross-angle.
Eects of the cross-angle
At low displacement angles, the piston motion is unable to provide sucient

pre-compression of the cylinder uid, as shown by gure 2(a). To compensate
for this, variable pre-compression is required. The same also holds for the decompression region. Insucient timing at low displacements causes not only
increased ow ripples but also cylinder pressure transients. The cylinder pressure transients give rise to transient piston forces and bending moments which
in turn causes vibration and directly emitted noise.
A quantity that reects the smoothness of the cylinder pressure matching
is the cylinder pressure rate, dened as the time derivative of the cylinder
pressure, dpcyl /dt, see [3]. Minimisation of cylinder pressure rate peak-topeak implies that the cylinder pressurisation, and hence also the piston forces,
are obtained as smooth as possible, i.e. high-frequency content is minimised.
Smooth piston forces are also benecial for the bending moments in the pump.
From a noise point of view, this is attractive since noise at high frequencies
is generally perceived as more disturbing by the human ear than noise at low
frequencies. In addition, the transformation from internal forces and bending
moments into pump housing vibration and into direct noise emissions is vastly
higher at high frequencies [9].
An interesting aspect of the cylinder pressure rate is that it reects not only
the smoothness of the cylinder pressurisation and depressurisation, but also
considers ow ripples. Inadequate timing gives rise to a sudden ow into or
out from the cylinder which in turn causes a transient pressure change. Thus,
the valve plate pre-compression angle that minimises cylinder pressure rate
peak-to-peak simultaneously minimises ow ripples and creates the smoothest
possible cylinder pressurisation. The same holds for a decompression angle.
Following the fair assumption that smooth piston forces and bending moments
are benecial for the emitted sound level, such a design is expected to minimise
not only the uid-borne noise but also vibration and noise directly emitted
from the pump housing. Figure 2(b) illustrates the high cylinder pressure rates
obtained for insucient pre-compression at lower displacement angles.
When the cross-angle is used in in-line piston pumps, the piston dead-centre
244
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page 245
20
15
10
5
0
3
4
Time [ms]
2(a)
25
20
15
10
5
0
2(c)
3
4
Time [ms]
Cylinder pressure rate [MPa/s]
25
1x105
8x104
6x104
4x104
2x104
0
-2x104
Cylinder pressure rate [MPa/s]
3
4
Time [ms]
3
4
Time [ms]
2(b)
1x105
8x104
6x104
4x104
2x104
0
-2x104
2(d)
Figure 2 Simulated cylinder pressures (a) and cylinder pressure rates (b) during pre-compression for a pump without cross-angle at =1 (solid line), =0.5
(dotted line) and =0 (dashed line). Figures (c) and (d) show the same thing
for a pump with the cross-angle. As can be seen, a good pre-compression, i.e.
low cylinder pressure rate, is retained as the displacement angle is reduced when
the cross-angle is used.
angle is determined as a function of the displacement angle as:

= arctan
tan
tan
(1)
A similar expression holds for bent-axis units. Thus, for =0, i.e. no crossangle, the dead-centre angle is always 90 . When a cross-angle is used, however,
the dead-centres will move with the displacement angle. The cylinder pressurisation as well as depressurisation thereby vary as functions of the displacement
angle, i.e. variable timing is obtained. Figure 2(c) illustrates the cylinder pressurisation for varying displacement angles when a swash plate with a cross-angle
is used. As can be seen, smooth pressurisation is obtained for all three displacement angles. This implies that good ow ripples at full displacement angle can
be preserved throughout the whole range of displacement angles. The cylinder
pressure rate is also low for all displacement angles, gure 2(d), which also implies that the direct noise emissions from the pump housing are expected to be
reduced for all displacement angles. Interestingly enough, the cross-angle has a
similar eect at the suction port commutation. Thus, smooth decompression is
245
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page 246
Paper V
also obtained throughout the whole range of displacement angles with the same
benets concerning ow ripples, piston forces and bending moments. However,
as shown in [8], smooth decompression is not only benecial for suction port
ow ripples and for smooth piston forces and bending moments. The suction
port timing is also crucial for uid air-release and cavitation. Thus, besides
reducing noise levels, the improved timing obtained with the cross-angle may
thus also improve eciency by reducing air-release and increase fatigue life
by reducing the risk of cavitation. For small displacement angles, the deadcentres will be located in the kidneys. This means that during the rst part
of the stroke, a small amount of uid is fed back to the tank line, referred to
as back-ow. The back ow will decrease the average pump ow but not the
eciency, since it is not a leakage. The back-ow is compensated for by choosing a higher displacement angle. The eective displacement, , is also slightly
aected by the cross-angle:

1
= arccos
tan2 + tan2 + 1
(2)
A more detailed description on how equations 1 and 2 are obtained is given

in [5].
Design of a cross-angle pump
In order to investigate the properties of the cross-angle, two dierent valve

plates with ordinary pre-compression angles were designed. The rst valve plate
is to be used together with a traditional swash plate, i.e. without the crossangle. At the suction port, this valve plate is identical to the standard valve
plate, including a pressure relief groove which gives a fairly good decompression.
The pre-compression angle of this valve plate is designed so that discharge ow
ripple peak-to-peak is minimised at full displacement (16 ), at 1700 rpm, at
20 MPa discharge pressure and 0.5 MPa suction port pressure. The boosted
suction port pressure reduces the uid air-release which implies more reliable
source ow measurements as well as simulations. This optimisation is carried
out easily using the pump simulation model described below.
The second valve plate also has a pure pre-compression angle but is used
together with a cross-angle swash plate. There is a very tight coupling between
the cross-angle and the valve plate kidney port angles; each cross-angle value
corresponds to a specic valve plate design. It is hence not possible to rst
optimise the valve plate and then the cross-angle. To nd the optimal design of
cross-angle and valve plate design, a more sophisticated optimisation procedure
is required.
246
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page 247
3.1
Optimal design of the cross-angle
In order to predict of the dynamic behaviour of the pump, a highly detailed

multi-piston simulation model [10] developed in the program HOPSAN [11]
was used. The modelling approach has been extensively veried by experimental work over the years; see for instance [8]. One feature of HOPSAN
is the ability to incorporate optimisation algorithms and thereby facilitating
simulation-based optimisation.
The rst step when carrying out simulation-based optimisation is to formulate the optimisation problem, i.e. dene the solution space and formulate
the objective function. This is a very demanding and crucial task since the
optimisation result is highly dependent upon the objective function. In the
second step, an optimisation algorithm suitable for the specic problem is chosen. When carrying out simulation-based optimisation, there are no analytical
derivatives of the objective function available. It is possible to obtain numerical derivatives, but these often become noisy and the search directions thus
become vague. Non-gradient methods are therefore often used in simulationbased optimisation. In this work, the Complex method [12] is mainly used.
In the third and nal step, the obtained result has to be assessed in order to
ensure that a global optimum has been found and that the objective function
employed has really reected the desired product demands. Often, a sensitivity
study is also carried out to investigate how sensitive the optimal solution is to
disturbances.
Formulation of the optimisation problem
The general problem formulation is to nd the design parameters in the solution space that minimise the objective function. The solution space is made
up of the design parameter and restricted by design parameter limits and optimisation constraints. When optimising the sound level from an axial piston
pump, several objectives must be considered simultaneously, see [5]. The goal
in this study is to nd the cross-angle value and matching valve plate that give
good ow ripples in both the discharge and suction port at all displacement
angles. It is important to point out that the same cross-angle does not simultaneously minimise discharge and suction port ow ripples at all displacement
angles. As shown in [5], optimal suction port ow ripples requires a slightly
larger cross-angle than optimal discharge port ow ripples. In order to nd a
good compromise design reecting both discharge and suction port ow ripples, the trade-o relation between these two competing objectives must be
investigated.
One way to obtain a compromise design between good discharge and inlet
ow ripples is to aggregate the two competing objectives into one overall objec-
247
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Paper V
tive function. This, however, requires a-priori information about the relative
importance of the two objectives. Another way is to make use of the concept of
Pareto optimality. In a Pareto optimisation, the search is not for one optimal
solution, but for the set of solutions for which there exist no solutions that are
better in all objectives. This implies that if a solution is Pareto optimal, an
improvement in one objective always leads to deterioration in another objective. For the case with two objectives, the resulting Pareto optimal front is a
curve that visualises the trade-o between the competing objectives.
The optimisation carried out in this paper employs Pareto optimality. Each
objective function, i.e. discharge and suction port ow ripples respectively, is
obtained as the sum of the ow ripple peak-to-peak values at three dierent
displacement angles; 16 , 8 and 1 :

max(qdis ) min(qdis )
(3)
f1 =
i=1 ,8 and16
f2

max(qinl ) min(qinl )
(4)
i=1 ,8 and16
The design is thus expected to give low ow ripples throughout the whole
range of displacement angles. The solution space is made up by ve design
parameters; the cross-angle and all four kidney port angles. No additional
design features such as pressure relief grooves or PCFV are considered. It is
important that the obtained design does not lead to cavitation. Therefore, a
minimum cylinder pressure of 0.05 MPa is implemented as a constraint. Neither is exaggerated pre-compression, i.e. cylinder pressure overshoots, allowed.
A maximum pressure overshoot of 2 MPa is therefore implemented as another
constraint. Thus, the complete multi-objective optimisation problem is formulated as:
T

(5)
minf (x) =
f1 (x), f2 (x)
x1i xi xhi
s.t.
min(pcyl,i ) 0.05M P a
max(pcyl,i ) 20M P a
i = 1, 2, ..., 5
i = 1, 2, ...no. of cylinders
i = 1, 2, ...no. of cylinders
This optimisation is also carried out at 20 MPa discharge pressure, at 1700

rpm and at 0.5 MPa suction port pressure.
Optimisation results
One way to obtain the complete Pareto front in one optimisation is to employ a
multi-objective optimisation algorithm, as described for example in [13] which
was also used in the work presented in [5]. In this particular case a dierent
approach has been taken. The cross-angle alone controls the compromise between discharge and suction port ow ripples. Therefore, it is possible to set
248
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page 249
Average inlet flow ripple [l/min]
the cross-angle to a specic value, and then nd the valve plate angles that are
optimal for this particular cross-angle. At each cross-angle value there exists no
trade-o between the two objectives, which implies that the objective function
in equation 5 can be separated into two single objective optimisation objectives
that are solved individually using the Complex algorithm. This procedure is
repeated for a number of dierent values of the cross-angle, which yield the
Pareto front shown in gure 3. The x-axis shows the average discharge ow
ripples at the three dierent displacement angles. In the same way, the yaxis shows the average suction port (inlet) ow ripples at the three dierent
displacements.
As stated in earlier works on the design of the cross-angle, low suction port
ow ripples require a slightly larger cross-angle than low discharge ow ripples,
which is also obvious here. The chosen compromise solution has a 2 cross-angle
which gives a fair trade-o between discharge and suction port ow ripples.
19
1.8
18
17
1.9
16
15
14
2.0
2.2
2.1
2.3
13
16
17
18
19
Average discharge flow ripple [l/min]
Figure 3 Pareto front showing the trade-o between discharge and suction port
(inlet) ow ripples using dierent cross-angle values. The solution with a 2
cross-angle has been chosen for further studies.
Measurement results
This section concerns the experimental verication of the two designs. To make
the measurements comparable, the two designs are tested in the same pump.
Measured quantities are source ow and directly emitted sound levels from the
two dierent pumps.
4.1
Measurement of source ow
By measuring dynamic pressure at three locations along a rigid measurement

pipe, it is possible to determine the eective bulk modulus in the pipe numerically , see [14]. Using this information, the two-microphone method [15] is
249
9:7
page 250
Paper V
120
120
110
110
used to obtain source impedance and source ow. The two-microphone method
requires the test pump ow to create the discharge pressure. Therefore, it is
very dicult to carry out measurements at displacements lower than 6 for this
particular pump size. Figure 4 shows typical correlation between simulations
and measurements at dierent operational conditions using the two designs.
100
90
80
70
60
0
2 Time [ms] 4
80
70
80
80
70
70
60
50
40
30
20
0
4(c)
Time [ms]
4(b)
90
60
0
4(a)
100
Time [ms]
60
50
40
30
20
0
Time [ms]
4(d)
Figure 4 Source ow measurements (dotted) and simulations (solid) for dierent

operational conditions. (a) and (b) are obtained at 16 displacement angle and
20 MPa discharge pressure, for ordinary pre-compression angle in (a) and with
the cross-angle in (b). (c) and (d) are obtained at 9 and 25 MPa discharge
pressure, without and with the cross-angle respectively.
As can be seen, especially in gures 4(c) and 4(d), high-frequency oscillations

superimpose the source ow. There are two reasons for this.
With the two-microphone method, the source ow is determined in the frequency domain via a model of the measured source impedance, i.e. a source
model, see [15]. The source model used is very close to measured source impedance up to about 1500 Hz. Above this frequency, however, the match is not
as good. Hence, the accuracy of the determined high-frequency source ow is
uncertain, which may give rise to high-frequency oscillations. In addition, the
250
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page 251
measured pressure spectra are truncated at 3000 Hz, since this is considered
to be the upper frequency limit for reliable measurements. Hence, ow ripples
above 3000 Hz are cut o when transforming back to the time domain, which
also contributes to time domain oscillations. This is a problem particularly at
low displacement angles without the cross-angle, where the poor timing gives
rise to substantial high-frequency content of the source ow spectra. Generally,
however, the source ow measurements are satisfactory.
Figure 5(a) shows the peak-to-peak values of the simulated and measured discharge ow ripple as functions of the displacement angle without cross-angle
and gure 5(b) with cross-angle design. To investigate the sensitivity to discharge pressure levels, tests were carried out at 15, 20 and 25 MPa. It should
60
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
5(a)
4
8
12
16
50
40
30
20
10
0
0
4
8
12
16
5(b)
Figure 5 Flow ripple peak-to-peak as function of displacement angle without

cross-angle (a), and with cross-angle (b) for dierent discharge pressure levels.
The lines represent simulations and the markers are measured values. The dotted
line and circles represents 25 MPa, solid line and squares 20 MPa and dashed
line and triangles 15 MPa.
be pointed out that the simulations in gures 5(a) and 5(b) were only obtained
at the same points where measurements are carried out. The lines were created
by linear interpolation between these points.
At full displacement, the ow ripple peak-to-peak values are very similar
with and without the cross-angle, as expected. As the displacement angle is
reduced however, the benet from using the cross-angle becomes clear. Without
the cross-angle, the ow ripple peak-to-peak drops to a minimum for a specic
displacement angle. When the displacement is further decreased, the pulsations
increase. This becomes especially serious at zero displacement where a low
pump noise level is expected since no hydraulic power is demanded. At 15
MPa, the ow ripple from the design without the cross-angle is minimised
at exactly half displacement which gives a perfect compromise between ow
ripples at full and at zero displacement.
When the cross-angle design is used, the pulsations are reduced linearly by
251
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page 252
Paper V
the displacement angle for all pressures in a very controlled manner. The linear
slope indicates that the cross-angle is correctly designed. If it were not, the
ow ripples would drop to a minimum for a specic displacement angle and
then increase again at lower displacements, as shown in gure 5(a). It seems,
however, as if the valve plate design is optimised for a pressure somewhere
between 20 and 25 MPa, rather than 20 MPa which was specied in the optimisation problem formulation. The reason for this is a slightly under-estimated
bulk modulus in the optimisation carried out. In turn, this implies that the
ow ripples obtained at 15 MPa when using the cross-angle, are larger than
predicted. At 20 and 25 MPa, however, substantial improvements are obtained
for all displacement angles when using the cross-angle. Especially at zero displacement, the ow ripple peak-to-peak values at 20 and 25 MPa are reduced
by a factor of 3 and 4 respectively.
4.2
Measurement of noise emission
Figure 6(a) shows the A-weighted sound level without the cross-angle and gure
6(b) with the cross-angle measured at 15, 20 and 25 MPa discharge pressure
levels in an anechoic sound chamber. The sound level transducer is located
1 m in front of the test unit. To avoid noise from other sources than the
test pump, it is important that connection hoses are as short as possible. It
is, however, dicult to completely avoid pressure ripples in hoses contributing to the overall noise emission. When the cross-angle is used, the eective
85
Sound level [dBA]
Sound level [dBA]
85
80
75
6
6(a)
8
10
12
14
16
80
75
6
8
10
12
14
16
6(b)
Figure 6 Measured A-weighted sound levels as functions of the displacement

angle without the cross-angle (a) and with the cross-angle (b) at 25 MPa (dotted
line), 20 MPa (solid line) and 15 MPa (dashed line).
sound level is almost linearly reduced by the displacement angle. This conrms
the earlier discussion concerning the correlation between low cylinder pressure
rates (smooth piston forces and bending moments) and direct sound emission.
Since the cross-angle produces a very low cylinder pressure rate, and thereby
252
9:7
page 253
smooth piston forces and bending moments for all displacement angles, the
sound level is also reduced at low displacement angles. Without the crossangle, the cylinder pressure rates are increased at low displacements, which
causes more transient forces and moments and hence more directly emitted
noise. At a 6 displacement angle, the sound level is reduced by 3 dBA at 20
MPa discharge pressure and by 4.5 dBA at 25 MPa when the cross-angle is
used, which corresponds to considerable noise reduction.
At full displacement, the sound levels at 20 and 25 MPa discharge pressure
are slightly higher with the cross-angle than without. There are two reasons for
this. The valve plate used without the cross-angle has a pressure relief groove
at the entrance to the suction port which provides good decompression also
when the discharge pressure level is changed. The valve plate used together
with the cross-angle, however, has an ordinary decompression angle which is
highly sensitive to the discharge pressure level. Therefore, at high pressure levels, insucient decompression and hence a transient pressure drop is obtained
when the cylinder links up to the suction port. According to [16], insucient
decompression has substantial inuence on the directly emitted noise. The
second reason is that the design without the cross-angle gives slightly better
pressurisation at full displacement, especially for 20 and 25 MPa, see gure 5.
Discussion
The cross-angle provides eective reduction of ow ripples as well as direct noise

emission for all displacement angles. It would be highly interesting to carry out
sound measurements of the two designs, i.e. with and without the cross-angle,
for displacement angles less than 6 . According to gure 6(a), the incline of
the curves indicates a further increasing sound level down to zero displacement.
When the cross-angle is used however, the incline is constantly negative which
indicates that the sound level is reduced down to zero displacement.
The suction port commutation is crucial for uid air-release and it is very
dicult to predict beforehand how much air-release a certain valve plate
will cause. This is clearly the most uncertain parameter when employing
simulation-based optimisation of the pump. In the optimisations carried out,
the uid air content was set to 1.2% at normal temperature and atmospheric
pressure, which was indicated by some initial measurements with similar valve
plates. Measurements show, however, that the uid bulk modulus is thereby
slightly under-estimated. That implies that the obtained design is optimal for
a somewhat higher pressure than was specied in the optimisation problem
formulation. Given this information, the under-estimated bulk modulus could
be compensated for in the next prototype.
Only discharge port ow ripples are concerned in this study, simply because suction port ow ripples are dicult to measure due to the scarcely
predictable bulk modulus and air-release at low pressures. Simulations show,
however, that similar improvements are also obtained in the decompression re-
253
9:7
page 254
Paper V
gion, i.e. at suction port commutation. The smooth decompression obtained

at all displacements when using the cross-angle, may have positive inuence on
air-release and cavitation at suction port commutation. This has however not
been studied in this paper.
Even though the cross-angle is small, the piston forces will give rise to a
force resultant along the rotational axis of the swash plate. In this particular pump, a cross-angle of 2 implies an axial force exceeding 1 kN, which is
substantial. In addition, this force pulsates due to the alternating number of
cylinders connected to the discharge port. It is important to take this force
into consideration when designing a cross-angle swash plate suspension since
ordinary pumps without the cross-angle are not designed to withstand forces
in this direction.
This study concerns the cross-angle together with a very simple valve plate
with only ordinary pre-compression and decompression angles. The cross-angle
can, however, be supplemented with more rened valve plate design features
such as pressure relief grooves and PCFV, which will further reduce sensitivity
to variations in operational conditions. Together with a PCFV, extremely low
sensitivity to both displacement angle and discharge pressure is expected.
Conclusions
In this study, the predicted improvements due to the cross-angle regarding

ow ripples and directly emitted sound levels are conrmed by experiments.
The reduced sound level from the pump housing also conrms the hypothesis
concerning the high correlation between low cylinder pressure rate (smooth
piston forces and bending moments) and noise emitted from the pump housing.
With the cross-angle, it is possible to minimise ow ripples at all displacement
angles for one specic discharge pressure which makes it ideal for constant
pressure, variable displacement pumps. It is, however, shown that sensitivity
to variations in discharge pressure level when the cross-angle is used is not
higher than when using a traditional swash plate, i.e. without the cross-angle.
There are generally very good correlations between simulations and experiments, which conrms the applicability of employing simulation-based optimisation in hydraulic pump design. The cross-angle designed (2 in this particular
pump) produces a very linear slope of the ow ripple peak-to-peak as functions
of the displacement angles, which indicates that the cross-angle predicted as
optimal by the optimisation is optimal also in reality. Due to a somewhat
under-estimated bulk modulus, the valve plate design is optimal for a pressure slightly higher than was specied in the optimisation problem formulation.
Nevertheless, the obtained design is very good, especially considering that it is
the rst prototype.
254
9:7
page 255
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to Parker Hannin, Trollhttan, Sweden, for supplying the pump used for the tests, for help with manufacturing
the cross-angle and matching valve plate and for putting the anechoic sound
chamber at our disposal for the sound measurements carried out.
References
[1] Grahl T., Geruschminderung an axialkolbenpumpen durch variable
umsteuersysteme, O+P, lhydraulik und Pneumatik, (5):437443, November 1989.
[2] Citroen, Improvements in or relating to swash plate pumps, Published at
the Patent Oce, 25, Southampton Buildings, London, W C 2. Index at
acceptance:- Class 102(1), AI B(8 B:9), A(3 G 4 A:455 A). International
classication: - F 05 b, Jan. 16 1963.
[3] Helgestad B.O., Foster K. and Bannister F.K., Pressure transients
in an axial piston hydraulic pump, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 188(17/74):189199, 1974.
[4] Balkind L.V., Calculating the moments of the swash plate of a rotary
axial piston pump, Vestnik Mastinostroeniya, 4(54):1724, 1974.
[5] Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.O., Optimal design of
the cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable displacement pumps, in
The Bath Workshop on Power Transmission and Motion Control, PTMC
[6] Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.O., Eects of crossangle on piston forces and bending moments in axial piston pumps, in
The 7th International Symposium on Fluid Control, Measurement and Visualization (FLUCOME03), University of Bath, UK, August 2003.
[7] Pettersson M., Weddfelt K. and Palmberg J.O., Methods of reducing ow ripple from uid power piston pumps - a theoretical approach,
in SAE International O-Highway & Powerplant Congress, Milwaukee,
USA, September 1991.
[8] Weddfelt K., Pettersson M. and Palmberg J.O., Methods of reducing ow ripple from uid power piston pumps - an experimental approach, in SAE International O-Highway & Powerplant Congress, Milwaukee, USA, September 1991.
255
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Paper V
and bulk modulus in hydraulic lines, Proc. of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, 205:191197, 1991.
[15] Weddfelt K., Measurement of pump source characteristics by the twomicrophone method, in The second Tampere International Conference on
Fluid Power, Tampere, Finland, March 1991.
[16] Johansson A. and Palmberg J.O., The importance of suction port
timing in axial piston pumps, in The Ninth Scandinavian International
Conference on Fluid Power, SICFP05, Linkping, Sweden, June 2005.
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9:7

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in

Linkping Studies in Science and Technology.

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in

Division of Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems

c 2005 by Andreas Johansson) illustrates

Printed in Sweden by Linkpings Tryckeri AB 2005.921.

he following six appended papers will be referred to by their Roman

Johansson A. and Palmberg J.-O., The importance of suction port

Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O., Optimal design

Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O.1 , Inuence from

Johansson A., Andersson J. and Palmberg J.-O., Experimental

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

3 Noise generation and reduction

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

10 Discussion and conclusions

Dynamic analysis of shuttle technique performance - applied on hydraulic transformer

The importance of suction port timing in axial piston pumps

Optimal design of the cross-angle for pulsation reduction in variable

Inuence from the cross-angle on piston forces and bending moments

Experimental verication of cross-angle for noise reduction in hydraulic piston pumps

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Bending moment around x-axis

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Pipe inner radius

Hydraulics is a transmission domain, transferring mechanical input power

to mechanical output power. It is employed in various mobile applications,

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

This thesis focuses on the design of hydrostatic pumps concerning reduction

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Sound is the perception of air pressure uctuations generated by vibrating

Figure 3.1 Illustration of the inner ear.

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Sound pressure level [dB]

Another important property of hearing interpretation is the ability to mask

Noise generation and reduction

Hearing treshold level

Noise generation in hydraulic systems

In Principia (1686), Isaac Newton (1642-1727) outlined a platform for modern

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Excitation energies in hydraulic systems

Resonance responces in hydraulic systems

Noise generation and reduction

Hydraulic resonance responce

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Figure 3.6 Illustration of expansion chamber attenuators, which provide an

Noise generation and reduction

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Noise generation and reduction

Mechanical resonance responce

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

propagation of pressure ripples and the transformation from pressure ripples

Noise generation and reduction

Noise emission from hydraulic systems

nates directly or indirectly from the hydrostatic pump. Therefore, a detailed

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps

Figure 4.1 Illustration of an in-line axial piston pump. Courtesy of Parker

Figure 4.2 Illustration of a bent-axis axial piston pump. Courtesy of Parker

Noise origins in axial piston pumps

Figure 4.3 Illustration of valve plate.

As already mentioned, the pump generates both hydraulic excitation energy,

Design Principles for Noise Reduction in Hydraulic Piston Pumps