Abstract
Using elements made of plastics in hydraulic drives and controls encounters problems, for example related to strength. However, the advantage of solutions with plastics manifests itself, among others in possibility of shaping hydraulic elements in accordance with the assumed requirements. The use of additive manufacturing techniques allows us to make plastic parts with shapes that are unattainable for steel parts. The authors have attempted to determine the influence of the shape of the closing element on the phenomena of flow through the throttling gap in the hydraulic throttle valve. They chose three poppets of different shapes and carried out flow simulations using CFD. They compared simulation results in the form of flow velocity field in the valve chamber with observations obtained with the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. In visualization tests, a throttle valve made of transparent materials and markers in a form of air bubbles were used. The tests confirmed the possibility of using air bubbles as markers of the PIV method at low pressure. The presented conclusions indicate the need for further modification of the shape of the closing element as well as of the design of the valve body.
Highlights
Parts made of plastics have been used in many branches of mechanical engineering
For plastic components we can use additive manufacture methods, which facilitate complex shapes [12, 13, 14] and they are used in less loaded parts of centrifugal pumps [15]
polylactic acid (PLA) is a popular material designed for 3D printing (e.g. fused deposition modeling (FDM)) but its hardness is not sufficient enough to work with sharp edges
Summary
Parts made of plastics have been used in many branches of mechanical engineering. Application in hydraulic drives and controls is limited. Noise reduction is important [8] Another area of application is in the hydraulic circuit with water or special liquids like magnetorheological [9]. CFD method is commonly used to analyze the flow phenomena in the different hydraulic components. The velocity and pressure distribution in valves with various shapes of closing element is different due to the flow of fluid through chambers and gaps in the valve. This changes the characteristics of the valve as well. For the experimental prototype we used a throttle valve made from a transparent plastic
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