Design of Test Equipment for Hydrostatic Transducers and Hydraulic Fluids

The article refers to the proposed test equipment used to monitor the service life of hydrostatic transducers and fluids under constant or dynamic operating pressure loading. The proposed laboratory test equipment enables simultaneous testing of hydrostatic transducers and energy carriers in two hydraulic circuits and is designed to measure the flow characteristics and technical life of hydrostatic transducers with different energy carriers. The benefit of the proposed device is the possibility of simultaneous testing of the transducers as well as the performance of verification measurements of individual circuits, which was preceded by the development of a theoretical design. This includes the calculations necessary to determine the power of the drive, the cooling power as well as the definition of other parameters and elements of the hydraulic system. The design of the device was based on technical characteristics, load characteristics obtained by own measurements, and characteristics of individual hydraulic and electrohydraulic elements. On the basis of the prepared laboratory test equipment, it is possible to significantly shorten the time of operational tests and perform repeated tests under the same operational load with different types of energy carriers. The hydraulic circuit (primary or secondary) can be loaded through a proportional electrohydraulic pressure valve, which is able to simulate the load with the operational pressure curve obtained by measurement, as well as the cyclic stress, the frequency, amplitude, and rate of increase of which can be defined according to the selected methodology. A verification measurement of the flow characteristics of the used transducers was also carried out, which confirmed the correct function and design of the test laboratory equipment. The achieved results can be used in mechanical engineering for the accelerated life test of hydrostatic transducers, which are often used in mobile energy devices working in environmentally sensitive areas. The proposed laboratory test equipment will be used for testing ecological energy carriers, increasing the efficiency of energy conversion in agricultural facilities using biomass.