Slipper Surface Geometry Optimization of the Slipper/Swashplate Interface of Swashplate-Type Axial Piston Machines

Authors

  • Ashkan A. Darbani Mechanical Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
  • Lizhi Shang Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department and Mechanical Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
  • Jeremy R. Beale Hydraulic Applications Engineering, Tec-Hackett Inc., Fort Wayne, IN, USA
  • Monika Ivantysynova Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/ijfp1439-9776.2025

Keywords:

Surface shaping, slipper-swashplate, fluid-solid-thermal interaction, axial piston machines.

Abstract

The slipper/swashplate interface, as one of the three main lubricating interfaces in swashplate type axial piston machine, serves both a sealing function and a bearing function while dissipating energy into heat due to viscous friction. The sealing function prevents the fluid in the displacement chamber from leaking out through the gap to the case, and the bearing function prevents the slipper from contacting to the swashplate. The challenge of the conventional slipper/swashplate lubricating interface design is to rely on the tribological pairing self-adaptive wearing process to find a slipper surface profile that fulfills the bearing function. However, the resulted slipper surface profile from uncontrollable wearing process is not necessarily able to achieve good energy efficiency. This article proposes a novel slipper design approach that overcomes this challenge by adding a quadratic spline curvature to the slipper running surface which eliminates the wear while keeping good efficiency. A fully-coupled fluid-structure and thermal interaction model is used to simulate the performance of the slipper/swashplate interface. A computationally inexpensive optimization scheme is used to find the desired slipper design. This article presents the simulation methodology, the optimization scheme, the full factorial simulation study results, and the optimized slipper running surface.

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Author Biographies

Ashkan A. Darbani, Mechanical Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Ashkan A. Darbani Born on July 6th 1994 in Mashhad, Iran. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from BrighamYoung University – Idaho in 2016 and currently pursuing his master’s degree at Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering. His research revolves on modelling and optimization of slipper-swashplate interface of axial piston pumps.

Lizhi Shang, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department and Mechanical Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Lizhi Shang Born on March 25th 1989 inTianjin (China). He received his B.S. degree in Thermal Energy and Power Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2011 and his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2013. He is currently a PhD student at Maha Fluid Power Research Center in Purdue University. His main research interests are modeling and optimizing of hydraulic pumps/motors.

Jeremy R. Beale, Hydraulic Applications Engineering, Tec-Hackett Inc., Fort Wayne, IN, USA

Jeremy R. Beale Born on October 18th 1991 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2014 and his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 2017. He is currently a hydraulic applications engineer at Tec-Hackett Inc. in FortWayne, Indiana.

Monika Ivantysynova, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

Monika Ivantysynova Born on December 11th 1955 in Polenz (Germany). She received her MSc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering and her PhD. Degree in Fluid Power from the Slovak Technical University of Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. After 7 years in fluid power industry she returned to university. In April 1996 she received a Professorship in fluid power & control at the University of Duisburg (Germany). From 1999 until August 2004 she was Professor of Mechatronic Systems at the Technical University of Hamburg- Harburg. Since August 2004 she is Professor at Purdue University, USA. Her main research areas are energy saving actuator technology and model based optimisation of displacement machines as well as modelling, simulation and testing of fluid power systems. Besides the book “Hydrostatic Pumps and Motors” published in German and English, she has published more than 80 papers in technical journals and at international conferences.

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Published

2019-11-25

How to Cite

Darbani, A. A., Shang, L., Beale, J. R., & Ivantysynova, M. (2019). Slipper Surface Geometry Optimization of the Slipper/Swashplate Interface of Swashplate-Type Axial Piston Machines. International Journal of Fluid Power, 20(2), 245–270. https://doi.org/10.13052/ijfp1439-9776.2025

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