Fluid Power

The power transmitted by a fluid flowing in a conduit at a volume flow rate Q

1m3/s1 under/against a pressure p [Pa] is given by
P=pxQ
This is synonymous with F x v of a virtual piston of area A being pushed by the
fluid under a force F = p x A to move at a velocity v= Q/A. The unit of Q is a very
large one, while the unit of p is very small. lt is therefore customary to specify Q in
liter/s and p in bar then to convert to Sl units.
Withp = 100 barand Q = 1 liter/s, P= 100 x 105 x 1 x 10-3 = 10,000 W= 10 kW.
With p = 400 bar and Q = 25 liter/s, P = 1 MW.
Therefore, fluid power transmission systems can deal with up to megawatt-scale
power, such that they could be used in wind turbine transmissions instead of
gearing, see the drawing next. But they have also several fields of application in
industry and in mobile equipment with a power of tens or hundreds of kW. These
systems are also called hydraulic or hydrostatic transmissions.
The two main advantages of fluid power transmission systems are controllability
as well as the provision of arbitrarily required transmission ratios just by proper
choice of the component sizes.
Basic Gonfiguration of Fluid Power Transmissions
A fluid power transmission system consists basically of a fluid power generator
(pump) and a fluid power motor. Input mechanical shaft power to the pump is
converted to fluid power in the high-pressure line of the circuit, then again to
output mechanical shaft power in the motor. The mechanical design of these
hydraulic pumps and motors is very much the same, so they may collectively be
named "units."

CYLINDER VALVE FIXED

OUTPUT
PI STONS BLOCK PLATE SWASHPL ATE
lYH EEL

INPUT
DRIVE
SH AFT

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CI RCUI T
VARI ABLE
SWASI'IPLATE
SI{AsHPL ATE
ANGLE CONTROL

PUMP MOTOR
(vARt ABLE Dl SPLACEI,{ENT) (FIXED DISPLACEfiENT)
'Variable Displacement Pump Driving Fixed Displacement Motor
Piston Type Pumps and Motors
All the possible designs of hydraulic units have been explored by inventors and
manufacturers over the past one and a half century. But for an appreciable
amount of power to be handled with units of a smallest size (therefore highest
power density) the units should be capable of displaclng (delivering as a pump,
and receiving as a motor) a large-enough flow rate, and of operating under a high-
enough system pressure. These two requirements are best met simultaneously by
piston-type units. These include a number of pistons that are made to reciprocate
through a stroke in cylinder bores. The motion of the pistons is in a sequentia!
order, such that they fill-in the cylinder volume during half the cycle and discharge
the fluid during the other half cycle of operation.

Classification of Piston-Type Units

According to the method of producing the reciprocation through a piston stroke
the units are classified into the following basic categories:

1. Axial-Piston Units

These are further sub-classified into inline units and bent-axis units.
Axia!-Piston lnline Units
The drawing of the "Basic Configuration of Fluid Power Transmissions" featured
axial-piston inline units of 13 pistons each, which move in a cylinder block that
rotates with the drive shaft. The cylinder block bask surface is pressed over a
stationary valve plate with two crescent-shaped openings that communicate with
the cylinders during the filling-in and discharge discharge; the inlet and outlet
openings. These two openings are connected to the two fluid ports of the unit. Also
shown is a non-rotating inclined swashplate that produces the sinusoida! piston
stroke as the cylinder block rotates. The motor has a swashplate of fixed
inclination (for a fixed displacement volume), and the pump has a swashplate of a
variable inclination (for a variable-displacement volume).

Another schematic drawing is given below of an inline unit of 9 pistons to show the
piston slippers that slide over the swashplate and that are connected to the piston
ends by ball and socket joints.
Piston slipper Piston
Cylinder block

Swashplate Valve plate

Bent-Axis Units
Bent-axis units adopt a different principle of producing the piston reciprocation.
The pistons operate inside a cylinder block as usual but their spherical ends are
supported in cavities in a drive flange with the drive shaft, the axis of which is
inclined to the axis of the cylinder block by an angle B. Therefore, the name bent
axis. The piston heads (or crowns) should be of a spherical segment shape to
accommodate the slight orbiting motion inside the cylinder bores, and the cylinder
block should rotate at the same speed as the drive shaft by some means. These
units are available in different versions regarding the rotational synchronization
means of the cylinder block with the drive shaft.
There are versions that use a pair of identical bevel gears for synchronization,
such as shown next.

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Other units make the spherical-segment piston crown merge into a tapered shank
such that, as the pistons orbit inside the cylinder bores, they maintain line contact
that performs the driving function of the cylinder block. A centering pin is needed
as shown. An actual design drawing of the latter type is given below.

Tapered piston

Centering pin
Drive shaft

Cylinder block

Straight-line
Contact

Valve plate

Construction of a bent-axis pump/motor of the tapered-piston type

Klnematics of Bent-Axis Units
ln a view along the cylinder block axis the centers of the cylinder bores lie on the
pitch circle ds while the centers of the ends of the tapered piston rods are
projected as an ellipse of major axis dp in the transverse plane and a minor axis
dp cos B in the axial plane. For the tapered piston rods to maintain line contact with
the cylinders, the difference between the major axis and de should be equal the
difference between ds and the minor axis, or
dr-da=de-decosB
hence
dFldB= 2l(1 + cos F)

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2. Radial-piston Units

Typical examples are the radial-piston motor of the classroom problem on mobility,
as well as that in the attached drawing with so-called fluid-column technology; with
telescopic cylinders that consist of two parts [3]. These push on the spherical
eccentric crankshaft partly by their lower ends but mainly with the fluid pressure
directly, therefore, the name fluid column. ln radial-piston units the stroke is
produced by the crankshaft eccentricity (e)
"The fluid column technology"
The Displacement Volume
The displacement volume (V6) of a hydraulic unit is defined as the volume of fluid
the unit handles per revolution of its shaft. Therefore,

For axial-piston inline units, where the pistons are arranged in a cylinder block
on a pitch-circle diameter da and in which the inclination angle o of the swashplate
produces the piston reciprocation: s - ds tan o, so that V6 = fi&tq(de tan a)N.

For bent-axis units where the piston spherical ends are arranged in the drive
flange at a pitch-circle diameter dr and the cylinder block axis is tilted at an angle B
to the drive shaft: s = dr sin B, so that vo= gr&tq(0lF sin B)N.

For radial-piston units, in which an eccentric shaft of eccentricity e produces the

piston reciprocation: s = 2e, so that Vo= (nfit$Qe)N.
Worked Example

Compare the maximum possible displacement volume of a swashplate unit with

that of a tapered-piston, bent-axis unit if they had the same pitch-circle diameter ds
on the cylinder block, piston diameter d, and number of pistons N (assumed).
Solution
Swashplate unit:
Vosw = @&tq{f,rtan o)N
Bent-axis unit:
vosR = F&tqtr,, sin B)N
Dividing,
VaeA/Vosw = @rldil(sin B)/(tan a)
Since drlda= 2l('l + cos F)
Therefore, the required ratio is given by
VoeA/Vosw = (2 sin $ll(( + cos B) tan ol
With the typical maximum values of B= 40'and q= 18" thls ratio becomes2.24.
Thus the power density of bent-axis units is higher than that of swashplate units.