Effect of surface non-flatness on the lubrication characteristics in the valve part of a swash-plate type axial piston pump

The objective of this application study was to investigate the effect of surface non-flatness on the lubrication characteristic of the bearing/sealing part between cylinder barrel and valve plate in a hydrostatic axial piston pump. A developed numerical algorithm facilitated the simultaneous calculation of time-varying cylinder pressure, rotating body motion, and fluid film pressure to observe fluid film geometry and power loss. It was shown that an ideally flat surface might not form full fluid lubrication film properly, and that small-scale machining error, surface waviness, may increase the film thickness to some degree. The shape model of surface waviness considered waviness unit shape as well as its surface lay. However the results demonstrated that surface non-flatness of such small scale did not form the desirable fluid film geometry which minimized the power loss yet. Providing some surface design tips, two particular curved surfaces whose pressure-generating mechanisms differ were selected and analyzed in variation with their shapes and operating conditions. This study asserted that a circumferentially wavy surface would make better performance of motion stability and power efficiency than a radially wedged land surface, and finally that the non-flatness design strategy should be applied with re-considering the clamping ability.