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Integrated slipper retainer mechanism to eliminate slipper wear in high-speed axial piston pumps

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Abstract

The power density of axial piston pumps can greatly benefit from increasing the speed level. However, traditional slippers in axial piston pumps are exposed to continuous sliding on the swash plate, suffering from serious wear at high rotational speeds. Therefore, this paper presents a new integrated slipper retainer mechanism for high-speed axial piston pumps, which can avoid direct contact between the slippers and the swash plate and thereby eliminate slipper wear under severe operating conditions. A lubrication model was developed for this specific slipper retainer mechanism, and experiments were carried out on a pump prototype operating at high rotational speed up to 10000 r/min. Experimental results qualitatively validated the theoretical model and confirmed the effectiveness of the new slipper design.

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Abbreviations

BDC:

Bottom dead center

DLC:

Diamond-like carbon

DLC + WC:

W-doped DLC coating

HP:

High-pressure

LP:

Low-pressure

a p :

Acceleration of the piston along its centerline

f b :

Friction coefficient between the piston ball and slipper socket

f p :

Friction coefficient between the piston and cylinder bore

F a :

Reciprocating inertial force of the piston-slipper assembly

F b :

Contact force between the piston ball and slipper socket

F d :

Pressure force from the displacement chamber

F f :

Friction force between the piston and cylinder bore

F s :

Spring force exerted by the spherical cup

F c :

Total clamping force

F h :

Separating force generated by the fluid film

h :

Gap height

h 1, h 2, h 3 :

Gap heights at three points

h max :

Maximum gap height

h min :

Minimum gap height

J p :

Piston’s moment of inertia about its axis

l :

Contact length of the piston within the cylinder bore

l 0 :

Initial contact length of the first piston

L :

Piston length

m :

Mass of one piston-slipper assembly

m p :

Piston mass

M x :

Moment component of Mc in the x direction

M y :

Moment component of Mc in the y direction

M c :

Moment generated by the total clamping force

M h :

Moment generated by the separating force

N 1, N 2 :

Contact forces between the piston and cylinder bore at two engaging ends

p :

Fluid pressure

P c :

Casing pressure of the pump

p(φi):

ith displacement chamber pressure as a function of the angular displacement

r :

Radial distance from the coordinate origin

r b :

Piston ball radius

r p :

Piston radius

R :

Pitch radius of the kidney-shaped pockets in the sliding plate

R 1 :

Inner radius of internal sealing land

R 2 :

Outer radius of internal sealing land

R 3 :

Inner radius of external sealing land

R 4 :

Outer radius of external sealing land

R p :

Piston pitch radius

t :

Time

V p :

Velocity of the piston along its centerline

V p :

Resultant velocity of the piston relative to the cylinder block

α :

Angular span of the kidney-shaped pocket in the sliding plate

β :

Swash-plate angle

θ :

Angular distance from the y axis

θ a :

Azimuth angle of the minimum or maximum gap height

ω :

Angular displacement of the piston from the BDC

μ :

Fluid dynamic viscosity

ρ :

Fluid density

ω :

Rotational speed of the pump

ω p :

Spinning speed of the piston

ω s :

Rotational speed of the sliding plate

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFB2004504), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52005323), the National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51922093), the China National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (Grant No. BX20200210), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2019M660086). The authors are thankful to research fellow Wunong Hu and senior engineer Yan Zhang, both at AVIC Xi’an Flight Automatic Control Research Institute, for their kind help during tests on the high-speed axial piston pump prototype.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Qun Chao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Qun Chao, Junhui Zhang, Bing Xu, Qiannan Wang & Fei Lyu

  3. Qing’an Group Co., Ltd, Xi’an, 710077, China

    Kun Li

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  1. Qun Chao
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  2. Junhui Zhang
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Correspondence to Junhui Zhang.

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Chao, Q., Zhang, J., Xu, B. et al. Integrated slipper retainer mechanism to eliminate slipper wear in high-speed axial piston pumps. Front. Mech. Eng. 17, 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-021-0657-z

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