Tribological characteristics of hard-to-hard matching materials of cylinder block/valve plate interface in electro-hydrostatic actuator pumps

Axial piston pumps, serving as the essential power component in electro-hydrostatic actuators (EHA), play a crucial role in achieving advanced actuation by ensuring high efficiency and reliability. The cylinder block/valve plate interface, which is the greatest contact area inside the axial piston pump, significantly affects both leakage and energy dissipation. The interface experiences significant friction loss and severe wear in aerospace applications, primarily due to the rapidly changing mixed and boundary lubrication conditions under a wide range of speed and pressure. Therefore, to improve the efficiency and reliability of electro-hydrostatic actuators, strengthening the cylinder block/valve plate interface is a key problem to overcome. Previous studies have demonstrated that the utilization of soft-to-hard matching materials enhances the friction characteristics of the interface, but it also results in relatively severe wear on the soft material. Therefore, in this study, we propose the concept of employing hard-to-hard matching materials as a strategy to mitigate wear in axial piston pumps. An optimized friction simulation test apparatus is adopted, which contains a simulated piston structure to take the piston stirring effect into consideration. Experimental results show that the implementation of hard-to-hard materials leads to a substantial improvement in the wear resistance of the interface under a wide range of rotational speed (300-6000 rpm). The wear depths of the TiAlN/TiAlN (hard-to-hard) matching material are only 28.6%similar to 34.7% of the tin bronze/TiAlN (soft-to-hard) matching material. Besides, compared with traditional tin bronze/nitrided (soft-to-hard) matching material, the hard-to-hard matching materials improve both friction and wear performance. The hard-to-hard matching materials provide a novel approach to reinforce the cylinder block/valve plate interface, and thus to promote volumetric efficiency and extend the service life of the axial piston pump.