New Hydraulic Control Technologies for Improving the Energy Efficiency of the Hydraulic System of Agricultural Tractors and Their Implements

Authors

  • Xin Tian Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
  • Xiaofan Guo Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
  • Patrick Stump Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
  • Giovanni Dessy Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
  • Andrea Vacca Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
  • Stefano Fiorati CNH Industrial S.p.A, Modena, Italy
  • Francesco Pintore CNH Industrial S.p.A, Modena, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13052/ijfp1439-9776.2525

Keywords:

Load-sensing, agricultural tractors, implements, efficiency, energy

Abstract

This paper describes two alternative methods to achieve the goal of reducing the fuel consumption of the high-pressure hydraulic control system of agricultural tractors and their implements. The first approach consists of a re-visitation of the basic load sensing (LS) technology used to power the hydraulic remotes. Namely, the metering regulations proper of a LS system is shifted from the tractor remote valves to the implement control valves. The second approach instead converts the hydraulic supply from a flow-based control logic (like in the LS system) to a pressure-based control. In different ways, both methods allow eliminating the conflicts existing between the tractor control valves and the implement ones, which cause excessive pressurization of the supply pumps and therefore high throttling losses.

The proposed methods are properly analyzed in simulation, and then tested considering reference of a 390 hp tractor and a 16-row planter. The results show a high improvement in energy performance for both the proposed solutions. With respect to the commercial system considered as the baseline, both solutions allow increasing the energy efficiency by more than 38%, with variations that depend on the operating conditions.

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Author Biographies

Xin Tian, Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Xin Tian received her PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University where she focused on simulation and control of hydraulic systems in agricultural machines. Before that, she received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China. She is currently a system modelling engineer in CNH Industrial America LLC, design analysis and simulation team. Her work mainly focuses on simulation and control of hydraulic system for future product development of off-road vehicles.

Xiaofan Guo, Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Xiaofan Guo received the bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and PhD in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in 2015, 2017 and 2024 respectively. He is currently working as a Systems Engineer at the Bosch Rexroth Corp. His research areas include innovative hydraulic system design, modeling and control.

Patrick Stump, Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Patrick Stump is an electro-hydraulic controls engineer for CNH Industrial and a PhD candidate at Purdue University. He received his Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering at Marshall University before working as a research assistant for Professor Andrea Vacca at Purdue University where he received his master’s. His area of research is experimental work in energy-efficient hydraulic systems, which includes electronic load-sensing architectures, adaptive pump controls, and efficient systems integration.

Giovanni Dessy, Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Giovanni Dessy received his bachelor degree in Mechanical engineering from University of Cagliari in 2020. He then graduated Polytechnic of Turin in 2022, with his master’s in Mechatronic Engineering. During his master’s degree he worked on his thesis at the Maha Fluid power lab. Currently he is a PhD student at the Dynamic Legged System lab at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia(IIT). His area of research involves human-robot and robot-robot interaction and collaboration involving quadruped’s robot.

Andrea Vacca, Maha Fluid Power Research Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Andrea Vacca is the director of the Maha Fluid Power Research Center, the largest academic research center dedicated to fluid power research in the United States. His research focuses on several aspects of hydraulic control technology including new concepts to perform hydraulic actuations, new designs and modeling of positive displacement machines, electrification of fluid power systems, modeling of the properties of hydraulic fluids, reduction of noise emissions from hydraulic components. Dr. Vacca is author of about 200 technical papers, and of the textbook “Hydraulic Fluid Power”. He was awarded the 2019 Joseph Bramah Medal from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers for his contributions to global fluid power research, particularly related to gear pumps. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Stefano Fiorati, CNH Industrial S.p.A, Modena, Italy

Stefano Fiorati is Director of Innovation & Advanced Propulsion Systems at CNH. He is responsible for expanding alternative fuels, electrification and driveline technologies across the Company’s entire agriculture and construction product portfolio. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Fiorati was Manager of Tractor Innovation, Zero Emission & Advanced Drivetrain at CNH from 2021–2023 and Tractor Innovation from 2014–2021. In this previous role, he was technical project leader for the New Holland T6.140 Methane Powered tractor prototype and subsequent concepts, presented in 2015 and 2017 respectively. Mr. Fiorati started his professional career with CNH Industrial in 2011 as Mechanical Design Engineer within the Innovation department. He has a PhD in Mechanics of Machine awarded jointly by the University of Ferrara, Italy, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He has a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ferrara, Italy.

Francesco Pintore, CNH Industrial S.p.A, Modena, Italy

Francesco Pintore is Manager of High-Performance System Simulation at CNH. He is responsible for High Fidelity 0D/1D model development, looking on entire vehicle performance evaluation, interfacing and providing modeling support to multiple Teams across CNH. He is also responsible for interfacing Modeling Team with electrification, Hydraulics, Driveline and Powertrain Teams across the Company’s entire agriculture and construction product portfolio. He has a Ph.D. in High Mechanics and Automotive Design & Technology from University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy. And a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy. Mr. Pintore, started his professional career with CNH in 2010 as PhD Student, within Innovation Department. He joins Design Analysis & Simulation Team in 2015 as System Modeling Engineer, creating Hydraulic & Driveline High fidelity Model for a wide range of Vehicles.

References

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X. Tian, X. Guo, P. Stump, A. Vacca, S. Fiorati, and F. Pintore, “A Pressure Control Method for Increasing the Energy Efficiency of the Hydraulic System Powering Agricultural Implements,” J. Dyn. Sys., Meas., no. (under review), 2022.

X. Tian, J. C. Gomez, A. Vacca, S. Fiorati, and F. Pintore, “Analysis of Power Distribution in the Hydraulic Remote System of Agricultural Tractors Through Modelling and Simulations,” in Bath/ASME Symposium on Fluid Power and Motion Control, FPMC 2019, 2019.

X. Tian, A. Vacca, S. Fiorati, and F. Pintore, “An Analysis of the Energy Consumption in the High-Pressure System of an Agricultural Tractor through Modeling and Experiment,” in 77th International Conference on Agricultural Engineering, LAND. TECHNIK AgEng, 2019, pp. 9–18.

X. Tian, P. Stump, A. Vacca, S. Fiorati, and F. Pintore, “Power Saving Solutions for Pre-Compensated Load-Sensing Systems on Mobile Machines,” Trans. ASABE, vol. 64, no. 5, pp. 1435–1448, 2021.

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Published

2024-07-30

How to Cite

Tian, X. ., Guo, X. ., Stump, P. ., Dessy, G. ., Vacca, A. ., Fiorati, S. ., & Pintore, F. . (2024). New Hydraulic Control Technologies for Improving the Energy Efficiency of the Hydraulic System of Agricultural Tractors and Their Implements. International Journal of Fluid Power, 25(02), 203–224. https://doi.org/10.13052/ijfp1439-9776.2525

Issue

2024: Vol 25 Iss 2

Section

GFPS 2022

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