Experimental investigation of the performance and energy consumption efficiency of elliptical gear hydraulic pump and evaluation by Taguchi method

Abstract

This study presents an approach based on the Taguchi method to evaluate the energy consumption performance of spur and elliptical gear hydraulic pumps. Output flow is one of the essential indicators of gear pump performance. Taguchi L8 experimental design with two factors and mixed level design was applied to determine the gear pump performances. Rotational speed (200, 600, 1000 and 1400 rpm) and pump type (spur and elliptical) is selected as experimental parameters. Thus, the effect of the rotational speed of an elliptical gear pump on the gear pump flow and energy consumption performance is experimentally analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that the elliptical gear pump delivered approximately 120 % higher volumetric flow rate. In terms of pressure performance, the elliptical gear pump showed an advantage of around 87 %, providing higher pressure, especially at low speeds. In terms of energy consumption, the elliptical gear pump has been experimentally proven to consume approximately 145 % less energy at low speeds. It is also found that there is less temperature difference in the hydraulic fluid during operation of the elliptical gear pump. In addition, the elliptical gear pump exhibited a similar behavior tendency under high-loads as in the partia-loaded case.Elliptical gear pump can be said to be a new type of volumetric pump, which is better than the commonly used spur gear pump, especially in terms of output flow and energy consumption performance.