Modeling of fluid properties in hydraulic positive displacement machines

This paper presents a numerical model for the simulation of a swash-plate axial piston pump, focusing on the characterization of fluid properties. As it is well known, the reduction of flow oscillations (which generates pressure ripples and produces vibration and noise in the entire circuit) and the avoidance of cavitation are the major problems in the design of these pumps. Developing a simulation code can be very useful for component optimisation in order to predict and reduce the undesired phenomena. The paper first gives a quick overview on a previously developed pump model; afterwards four different models of the fluid are presented: they take into account cavitation in different ways. Their aim at characterizing as well as possible the unsteady and erratic cavitation features in a simplified manner, in order to apply the models to the simulation of hydraulic components. In the second part of the paper an application is shown of these models to an axial piston pump: a few results are presented and compared with available test data. The effects of the fluid models on the predicted pump performance are shown and commented.