Design Aspects for Noise Reduction in Fluid Power Systems

Andreas Johansson and Jan-Ove Palmberg

Linkping University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
SE-581 83 Linkping, Sweden
andjo@ikp.liu.se

Abstract
As a consequence of increased working environmental requirements, substantial
effort has been focused on noise reduction. Still, however, noise is considered one of
the most important disadvantages afflicted with fluid power systems. In fact, in many
applications of today, the fluid power system represents the main bottleneck
regarding to noise. This is by no means a result from lack of interest or expertise in
the area, but rather a consequence illustrating the problematic nature of this task.
With the extremely high power compactness of fluid power systems, noise reduction
is crucial, though highly relevant.
There are many components in fluid power systems that contribute to the arise of
noise. Some components are active noise generators, for example a pump or a valve
introducing disturbances into the system. Other components such as hydraulic pipes
and mechanical structures are passive noise generators, i.e. they interact with the
disturbances and create noise. Even though passive components are unable to create
noise on their own, they can very well be the dominating noise source in a system.
Since noise is a highly system dependant property, the importance of reflecting noise,
not only in the component design, but from a complete system perspective must be
emphasised. To achieve an effective over-all noise reduction, a thorough
understanding of noise generating mechanisms, involving many different domains
such as hydraulics, mechanics and acoustics is required.
This paper gives an overview of the arise of noise in fluid power systems and points
out different ways to modify the noise pattern, both regarding to amplitude and
frequency content.

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INTRODUCTION
For several decades, noise and vibrations has been an important field of study, not
least in the area of fluid power. Several effective design features have been developed
for reduction of pressure oscillations, which is considered as one of the main noise
sources. Still, however, hydraulic systems are relatively high compared to its
surrounding machinery. This is a consequence essentially related to the extremely
high power compactness of fluid power components and circuits. To success in
reduction of noise in hydraulic circuits, the complete noise generating chain from its
origin as fluid oscillations and excitation forces, via structural vibrations into audible
noise, must be considered.
Effective reduction of fluid borne noise at specific operational conditions can be
achieved by relatively simple measures. However, in order to fully utilise the
advantages of the hydraulic system, high power transmission ratios are often required,
implying that the system is exposed to widely varying operational conditions. It has
shown to be difficult to tune existing noise reducing design features for reduction of
fluid borne noise for a great variety of operational conditions [1]. Obviously, the task
is further complicated by the fact that also the interaction between the fluid
oscillations and structure vibrations must be minimised for all operational conditions.

SOUND
According to [2], the arise of noise can be described in three steps: exciter resonance answer - noise emission, illustrated by figure 1. The hammer represents the
noise source, which by interaction with the plate gives rise to a resonance answer. In
turn, the vibrations of the plate cause pressure fluctuations in the surrounding air,
which are interpreted as sound. Following this argument, there are active components
which creates disturbances causing noise and there are passive ones, only generating
noise by reacting on the introduced disturbances. Both active and passive components
are just as capable of generating noise as the other. Consequently, noise reduction can
be achieved in three steps:
Reduction of excitation energy
Careful system design to prevent the arise of resonance answer
Suppression of the emitted noise by insulation
The resonance answer is a frequency dependant quantity. Accordingly, the frequency
content of the excitation energy is at least as important as the amplitude. Low
excitation energy at frequencies coinciding with system resonance frequencies may
be more harmful than high excitation energy at other frequencies. In a hydraulic
system, the pump and motor clearly represent the main origins for excitation energy.
However, analogous to the arguments outlined above, the pump/motor excitation
energy is thus not directly decisive for the resulting noise level. First as it is
implemented in a certain application, the complete noise picture is revealed.

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Figure 1. Illustration of how noise is created in general

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR FLUID POWER SYSTEMS

In a hydraulic system, both hydraulic and mechanical excitations are created as flow
pulsations and force variations respectively. Consequently, there also exist two
different resonance answers, one hydraulic and one mechanical. Interacting with the
hydraulic circuit, flow ripple will give rise to system pressure fluctuations, also
referred to as fluid borne noise. The fluid borne noise will transform to vibrations of
the mechanical structure, structure borne noise, and thus create audible, air borne,
noise. The mechanical excitations directly give rise to mechanical vibrations and thus
noise. Since the vibrations propagate in the circuit, noise will arise at locations
remotely from the actual noise source. Henceforth, the excitations and the resonance
answers are treated separately.
Reduction Of Noise Excitation Energy
Even though for instance valves contributes to the over-all noise level [3], the
hydrostatic pump and motor are, as mentioned, clearly the main noise generators,
introducing a significant amount of hydraulic as well as mechanical excitations into
the external system. The following discussion will focus on the dynamics of axial
piston machines, see figure 2, although similar behaviour is obtained also for other
types of machines.
Flow Ripple. The dynamics of the hydrostatic machine has been dedicated a
particular research interest for several decades. An extensive review of the work
performed in the area over the last 25 years is presented in [4].
The flow ripple of the pump has a harmonic nature and constitutes of two principally
different kinds. The kinematic flow ripple is due to the limited number of pumping
elements, z, and the compressible flow ripple, appearing as a consequence of the fluid
compliance. For pumps with even numbers of pistons, the kinematic flow ripple will
appear at multiples of the fundamental frequency k,even,1=2nz, where n the
rotational shaft speed, whereas pumps with odd number of pistons produce kinematic
flow ripple at harmonics of k,odd,1=4nz. The compressible flow ripple will appear at
multiples of c,1=2nz.

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Figure 2. Axial piston machine of bent-axis type

Accordingly, in a pump with even numbers of pistons, the kinematic and
compressible flow ripple will co-operate at each harmonic, yielding a significantly
higher amplitude especially of the first harmonic compared to a pump with odd
numbers of pistons, where the kinematic flow ripple will only co-operate at every
second harmonic of the compressible flow, see for instance [6]. Therefore, odd
numbers of pistons are normally preferable in a flow ripple point of view. However,
since the compressible part can be widely affected with very small design
modifications, pumps with even numbers of pistons could be worth a second thought
as they tend to give a significantly better internal force balance, as will be seen in
succeeding section.
By matching the cylinder pressure to outlet port pressure, a sudden flow pulse
appearing as the cylinder links up to the discharge line can be minimised. This
pressurisation can be achieved in several different ways. In this section, discharge
flow ripple of axial piston pumps is considered. However, analogous measures can be
applied also for the suction dynamics as well as motor concept.
With ordinary pre-compression, see figure 3a, i.e. by postponing the opening to
discharge kidney, the piston movement pre-compresses the fluid captured in the
cylinder before entering discharge port. An optimal pre-compression can reduce the
magnitude of the flow pulse approximately by a factor 2-2,5, depending on the pump
design. By adding a pressure relief groove [5] at discharge kidney entrance, figure 3b,
fluid is conveyed between the cylinder and the discharge port, through the groove
channel, before the cylinder links up to the discharge port. Even though the pressure
relief groove does not significantly reduce the flow ripple at a specific operational
point, it improves the cylinder pressure matching as the operational conditions varies.
Another efficient design feature for flow ripple reduction is the pre-compression filter
volume (PCFV). The PCFV, see [6, 7, 8] is a small attenuation volume, that can
connect to the cylinder via a narrow passage channel through a hole in the valve plate,
see figure 3c. By transporting fluid excess or deficiency between the PCFV and the
cylinder, the cylinder pressure is excellently matched to the discharge pressure and
flow pulses are substantially subdued. The PCFV is clearly less dependant upon
operational conditions than the two first-mentioned design features.

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a. Pre-compression

b. Pressure relief groove

c. Pre-compression filter
volume

Figure 3. Different design features for flow ripple reduction.

Regarding to the frequency content of the reduced flow ripple, ordinary precompression tends to reduce the first five harmonics somewhat better than the
pressure relief groove, while the pressure relief groove slightly more effectively
reduces higher frequent content, see figure 4. With the PCFV, the first harmonic is
clearly reduced. However, the most evident effect is obtained for harmonic number
two and higher. Above the 20:th harmonic, the PCFV almost completely subdues the
flow ripple.

a. Optimal pre-compression b. Optimal groove (filled) a. Optimal PCFV (filled)

(filled) and unmodified and unmodified (empty) and unmodified (empty)
valve plate
valve plate
(empty) valve plate
Figure 4. Flow ripple for different design features. The pump is a 40 cm3/rev, 7 piston
in-line axial piston pump operating at 250 bar discharge pressure and at 1500 rpm.
Internal Force Balance. The working principle of the hydrostatic pump give rise to
internal piston forces. As the cylinder is in contact with high pressure kidney, this
force is quite large. With, for example, a piston radius of 10 mm and a discharge
pressure of 25 Mpa, a resulting force of approximately 8 kN is obtained, whereas as
the cylinder is connected to low pressure kidney, the piston force will be almost zero.
Summing up all force contributions, a large pulsating force is obtained which will
give rise to alternating stresses in the pump casting and consequently create
vibrations. An early study of the high correlation between piston forces and noise

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emission was performed in [9]. For a pump with even number of pistons, the average
number of cylinders linked up to discharge kidney is an integer, which is not the case
for a pump with odd number of pistons. Accordingly, the resulting piston force for
the even number of piston pump is theoretically constant, while for a pump with odd
number of pistons, the resulting piston force will vary between two distinct values 2z
times per revolution. Obviously, a pump with even number of pistons gives the more
appealing force dynamics.
Pettersson show in [6] that pump casting vibrations are not generated by the piston
forces alone. Also the internal bending moments, obtained as the product between the
piston forces and their distance from the pivot axes to the piston force centre of
action, are essential for the pump's casting vibrations. By modifications of the valve
plate, cylinders pressures build up as well as piston forces centre of actions are
affected, and accordingly also piston forces and bending moments, both regarding to
total pulsation amplitude and frequency content.
In order to reduce excitations of high frequent noise, it may also be desirable to
delimit the rate of cylinder pressure increase. Normally, a pre-compression gives a
smooth cylinder pressure built-up, resulting also in a smoother internal force balance
than achieved with for instance a PCFV.
Reduction Of Resonance Answer
Reduction Of System Pressure Ripple. One of the most common measures to
reduce system pressure ripple is pulsation dampers, which very effectively absorbs
system pressure ripple. Early work on the dynamic properties of pulsation dampers is
carried out by Larsson in [10]. The most common designs of pulsation dampers are:
branches, either a T-pipe or Helmholz-resonators
accumulators
expansion chamber attenuators
The branches give normally effective damping for a very narrow frequency band
while the accumulators, normally working at significantly lower frequencies than the
branches, have rather high damping characteristics and works for a wider range of
frequencies. The expansion chamber attenuators combine the advantages from the
first two mentioned, giving high damping over a relatively broad frequency spectrum.
A novel design of broad banded variable pulsation dampers utilising multiple
damping volumes are studied in [11].
An obvious measure for reducing the pressure oscillations in a hydraulic circuit is to
adjust pipe lengths to assure low attenuation at system resonance frequencies.
Another reactive device is the Quincke tube, see [12], dividing the flow into two
separate paths of different lengths. As these paths merges, destructive interference
occurs if the waves travelling along the two paths are 180 out of phase.
The devices described above are also called passive, either dissipative or re-active,
devices since they do not actively affect the system pressure ripple. Consequently,
one of the main problems with such devices is that they are normally tuned for
specific operational conditions. In recent years, however, different active pressure
ripple cancellation techniques have been studied. By for instance introducing an

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additional flow disturbance Q1=-P1/Z1, where P1 is the pressure measured at the

introduced disturbance flow and Z1 the system impedance at the same position, the
pressure ripple is theoretically cancelled. In [13], the authors are concerned with
active damping using piezo-electric and magneto-strictive actuators to realise the
additional flow disturbance. Due to the dynamic of these materials, the technique
facilitates a very broad banded damping. In [14], on-line measurement and active
cancellation of the progressive pressure wave is carried out. Normally, active
damping devices are restricted mainly by actuator stroke lengths, whereas their
dynamics are reasonably satisfactory.
Reduction Of Mechanical Vibrations. The mechanical systems ability to create
vibrations is coupled to properties such as geometry, mass distribution, material
stiffness and damping, structural stiffness and damping etc. Obviously, there are
many design parameters for reduction of the resonance answer.
To reduce the amount of vibrations that propagates from the pump casting to the
external hydraulic system, and vice versa, hydraulic hoses are preferable between the
pump and the external system instead of rigid steel pipes. This is verified in [15],
where the authors show that the pressure ripple is the clearly dominating source for
the arise of vibrations in system where a hose connects the pump to external system.
To minimise mechanical interaction between driving source and the pump as well as
between the motor and the consumer shaft, specially designed damping clutches can
be employed, see for instance [16].
The mass distribution, i.e. locations of components such as hydraulic valves, and
boundary conditions such as pipe clampings, are essential for the vibration pattern
and has been investigated in [17, 18, 19].

CONCLUSIONS
The hydraulic pump and motor are the main creators of noise excitation energy. This
paper outlines several design features for reduction of flow ripple and internal force
balance, regarding to pulsation amplitude as well as frequency content. However,
flow ripple and internal force balance are normally conflicting objectives that are
scarcely rated mutually. Experimental and theoretical evaluations of plausible
external system designs may however provide the pump designer with information
about which objective to emphasise.
Noise is a highly system dependant property. Small changes in the system design may
have considerable effects on the over-all noise pattern. A fact that further complicates
the reduction of noise is its sensitivity to variations in operational conditions. It is
difficult, or impossible, to obtain a system that minimises noise through the whole
range of operational conditions. Consequently, well-poised judgements concerning
operational conditions during which a low noise level is more important must be
carried out, with higher noise levels at other conditions as acceptable trade-off effects.

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