Enhanced Toolbox for the Combined Analysis of Fluid- and Structure-Borne Noise of Hydraulic Systems

Abstract

Today’s available software packages that feature dedicated hydraulic system noise analysis capabilities focus on the Fluid-Borne Noise (FBN) prediction in frequency or time domain. However, some noise sensitive hydraulic installation areas, like light weight structures in aviation, drive the development of an extended toolbox that also covers the prediction of Structure-Borne Noise (SBN) and Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI) in hydraulic systems. This conference contribution presents the concept and design of such a toolbox. It is implemented in a Matlab Simulink/ Simscape environment by FBN-, SBN- and FSI- model libraries. For a given study case a simulation model is generated using elements from these libraries. The simulation results are experimentally validated using a dedicated hydraulic system noise test rig. It features a rotary valve as FBN source and a pipe system equipped with dynamic pressure transducers for FBN detection and acceleration sensors for SBN detection. The analysis capabilities of such a toolbox are considered beneficial in particular for future (pre-/re-) design projects in the aviation environment, which hold challenging application constraints for efficient hydraulic system noise reduction devices: Besides obligatory strong limits on component weight and size, the high safety and reliability standards demand simple and maintenance-free onboard devices. Hence solutions with minimum hardware efforts are preferred. In this context, the proposed toolbox can be used for a combined tuning of type and location of standard/simple FBN silencers together with type and location of SBN effecting pipe clamps in order to optimize the overall system noise pattern towards an increased equipment durability and passenger comfort.