Modeling of the Manifold Configuration for Maximum Efficiency in a Hydraulic Machine

Abstract

Hydraulic manifolds are metal cuboids machined to realize the compact circuit layout within them. They are introduced in the hydraulic machines to fit the large and complex hydraulic system layouts in narrow spaces available in the machines. Therefore, designing of the manifold in fact is more oriented towards achieving minimum size and weight. But the use of manifold, may introduce high pressure losses in the system. Efficiency of the system decreases and temperature of the fluid increases with pressure drop. This present research work focuses on understanding the pressure losses in the most common channel connections used in the manifold to realize the hydraulic circuit and to understand the efficiency of the manifold at different flow values. To achieve these objectives, a real-time case study is considered, where a manifold for a cable pulling winch machine is modified to reduce the pressure drop and increase the efficiency of the machine. Simple channel models are considered and analyzed using semi empirical equations available in the literature and are compared with results obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis. Various geometric bend models are drafted in Solid Works and then exported to do the CFD software to obtain the pressure drop with different flows. The values obtained from CFD and the characteristic of the valves from the manufacturer’s catalogue are used to create the manifold in Matlab Simulink to predict the performance of the manifold at different flows. Therefore, with these results, the overall hydraulic efficiency of the winch is determined.