Simulation of fluid structure interaction in a novel design of high pressure axial piston hydraulic pump

A novel type of an axial, piston-driven high pressure hydraulic pump with variable capacity marks a significant improvement in the area of the hydraulic machinery design. Total discharge from hydrostatic forces eliminates a need for a servomechanism, thus simplifying operation, reducing weight and introducing the possibility of the pump displacement control by computer. PWK-type pumps, invented in the Gdansk University of Technology, offer high efficiency for pressure levels up to 55 MPa, ability to work self sucking even at high speed. However, the heart of the new invention, the commutation unit, creates harmful pressure peaks. Those peaks can be mitigated by the introduction of a compensation chamber with elastic walls. Owing to the dynamic character of events taking place in the pump, a need for computer simulation arouse in order to understand phenomena leading to the occurrence of pressure peaks and choose compensation chamber parameters accordingly. A CFD package alone would not be sufficient to reliably represent the interaction between the compensation chamber wall and the working fluid. This paper presents Fluid Structure Interaction approach comparing 3 different models: 2 simplified models of the pump and a full pump model.