In oil hydraulic systems, components such as pumps, motors and valves often cause flow and pressure oscillation, with consequent vibration and noise, and possibly a breakdown of the system. To avoid such situations, one of the present authors had proposed a π-filter consisting of branch pipes and as a result, pulsation had been completely eliminated. The π-filter could not sufficiently reduce pulsation right at the pump out-port, though. To develop an oil hydraulic filter without this drawback, examination was made of the use of a Helmholtz resonator, a conventional detector in acoustics. The impedance of an 'oil hydraulic' Helmholtz resonator was found to be -60 dB lower than the characteristic impedance at the neck at an anti-resonant frequency. It should thus serve adequately as a filter. To estimate anti-resonant frequency and impedance of a resonator, the wave motion of oil in the resonator volume and unsteady viscous loss in the neck tube must be taken into consideration. The plane wave approximation was found appropriate for a cylindrical resonator under the condition of a large length-to-diameter ratio. The resonator thoroughly absorbed flow rate pulsation from the gear pump, thus demonstrating its usefulness as a filter to adequately eliminate pulsation.
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