Investigation of the effect of different piston pump types used in aviation on power consumption

The power demand of fighter aircraft hydraulic power system has increased continuously over the years due to the reasons such as the development of their maneuverability and the increase in the number of hydraulic power consuming systems. While meeting the aircraft requirements, staying within the power limits provided by the aircraft engine has created the necessity of efficient use of hydraulic power. In this study, hydraulic power efficiency is investigated in terms of piston pump types. For this purpose, detailed models of pressure compensated pump, dual-pressure pump, torque controlled pump and intelligent pump are created in Simcenter Amesim program. Other elements of the hydraulic power system are sized and modeled using aviation standards. Since the effect of hydraulic pump type on power consumption is examined, variables such as aerodynamic load, actuator displacement input, other equipment dimensions and control valve type are kept constant between simulations. In order to verify the pressure compensated pump model, the results of tests performed on a setup with different parameters are used. The test results are highly similar to the simulation results. As a result of the study, it is observed that the power consumption of the pressure compensated pump, which is used in most of the fighter aircraft hydraulic power systems, is the highest among the pumps examined. The lowest power consumption is seen in the intelligent pump, which is not yet used in aircraft hydraulic power systems; but academic studies are being carried out for its use.