Nowadays, fluid transmission and control technology has been developed to highly integrated and lightweight directions. The flow channel is one of the most important elements of hydraulic integrated systems. However, when the subtractive manufacturing technology is adopted on flow channel in limited space, large pressure loss and impurity deposition are caused. In order to avoid such problems, additive manufacturing technology can be applied. But what structure parameters of the flow channel in a certain space can get the minimum pressure loss and weight is still vague. Therefore, a three-way spatial flow channel (TSFC) with the circular arc transition, the typical and fundamental flow channel, is taken as the research object, and its structural parameters are optimized to realize low pressure loss and lightweight.In this study, the TSFC optimization is based on mathematic modeling of pressure loss, the path of axis, and the wall thick mass. Among, the mathematic modeling of pressure loss is regarded as three parts: circular arc transition section, curved section, and straight line section. The Box-Benhnken Design (BBD) method is used to analyze the influence degree of the flow channel diameters, curvature radius/diameter, and branch angle on local pressure loss. Furthermore, mathematic model of local pressure loss is established by regression fitting of the local pressure loss. The mathematic model of pressure loss about TSFC is formed by adding the mathematic model of local pressure loss and the mathematic model of pressure loss along the curved section and the straight line section. To achieve the goal of low pressure loss, light weight, and short path, multi-objective optimization design is proceed with the pressure loss, the path of axis, and the wall thick mass. As a result, the optimized TSFC model is built by choosing the optimal structural parameters.After the optimization on TSFC, the mathematic model and optimization method are verified by simulation and experiment. The changes in pressure loss of the flow channel between the original and optimized model are obtained by simulation. The results show that compared with the original model, the wall thick mass has been reduced by 5.68%, and the pressure loss has been reduced by 70.75%. The optimized TSFC model has eliminated the blind holes and realized lower pressure loss and lighter weight, which verify the feasibility of the multi-objective optimization method. Besides, the TSFC model is manufactured by additive manufacturing and machining, and the experiments are carried out on the TSFC test platform. The results show that the error of pressure loss between the experiment and the simulation is only 4.3%. So, the pressure loss of the TSFC model is basically consistent with the simulation, which verify the accuracy of mathematical models of the pressure loss. The results in this paper make a contribution and a reference to the multi-way spatial flow channel. Also, this research lay the foundation for the design and optimization on spatial flow channel in the highly integrated hydraulic systems.&nbsp;Keywords: hydraulic flow channel, pressure loss, multi-objective optimization, additive manufacturing

Pressure Loss and Multi-Objective Optimization of Three-Way Spatial Flow Channel Based on Additive Manufacturing

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/FPST/FPMC2021/volume/85239

2021 ASME/BATH Symposium on Fluid Power and Motion Control (FPMC2021)

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