Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a Swash-Plate Axial Piston Pump

This work proposes an MDO (multidisciplinary design optimization) procedure for a swash-plate axial piston pump based on co-simulation and integrated optimization. The integrated hydraulic-mechanical model of the pump is built to reflect its actual performance, and a hydraulic-mechanical co-simulation is conducted through data exchange between different domains. The flow ripple of the pump is optimized by using a MDO procedure. A CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation of the pump's flow field is done, which shows that the hydrodynamic shock of the pump is improved after optimization. To verify the MDO effect, an experimental system is established to test the optimized piston pump. Experimental results show that the simulated and experimental curves are similar. The flow ripple is improved by the MDO procedure. The peak of the pressure curve is lower than before optimization, and the pressure pulsation is reduced by 0.21 MPa, which shows that the pressure pulsation is improved with the decreasing of the flow ripple. Comparing the experimental and simulation results shows that MDO method is effective and feasible in the optimization design of the pump.