CFD parametric analysis and experimental results on a hydraulic actuator

A new methodology to study the influence of several geometric parameters on the performance of a hydraulic actuator has been here developed. A full parametric CAD model of a hydraulic machine has been created and integrated in a CFD module to simulate the real working conditions. The reliability of the numerical models has been verified by comparing the calculated results with the experimental data of a real prototype. A good agreement between numerical and experimental results has been noted. Many solutions have been analysed by modifying the actuator geometry. To evaluate the efficiency of every analysed configuration, a performance coefficient has been defined. Post-processing of results can lead to choose the optimized geometric configuration of the actuator. The proposed methodology can be effectively used to identify the best geometry of a hydraulic actuator depending on the imposed boundary and working conditions.