CFD Analyses of Textured Surfaces for Tribological Improvements in Hydraulic Pumps

Paolo Casoli, Fabio Scolari, Massimo Rundo, Antonio Lettini and Manuel Rigosi
Additional contact information
Paolo Casoli: Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
Fabio Scolari: Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy
Massimo Rundo: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy
Antonio Lettini: Casappa Ltd., Via Balestrieri 1, Lemignano di Collecchio, 43044 Parma, Italy
Manuel Rigosi: Casappa Ltd., Via Balestrieri 1, Lemignano di Collecchio, 43044 Parma, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-22

Abstract: In any hydraulic machine there are lubricated couplings that could become critical beyond certain operating conditions. This paper presents the simulation results concerning textured surfaces with the aim of improving the performance of lubricated couplings in relative motion. The texturing design requires much care to obtain good improvements, and it is essential to analyze both the geometric features of the dimples and the characteristics of the coupled surfaces, like the sliding velocity and gap height. For this purpose, several CFD simulations have been performed to study the behavior of the fluid bounded in the coupling, considering dimples with different shapes, size, and spatial distribution. The simulations consider the onset of gaseous cavitation to evaluate the influence of this phenomenon on the pressure distribution generated by the textured surface. The analyses have pointed out that it is critical to correctly predict the behavior of the textured surface in the presence of local cavitation, in fact, when cavitation occurs, the characteristic time of the transient in which the phase of the fluid change is very rapid and it is comparable to the time taken by the fluid to move from one dimple to the next.

Keywords: CFD simulation; textured surfaces; dynamic cavitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/21/5799/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/21/5799/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:21:p:5799-:d:440591

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().