Efficiency Improvement of a Constant Pressure System using an Intermediate Pressure Line

The paper introduces a new hydraulic system based on a constant pressure system with the aim to increase the efficiency of actuation of hydraulic cylinders in mobile machines. Using a third pressure level located between high pressure and tank pressure called intermediate pressure the system enables additional pressure potentials from high pressure to intermediate pressure and from intermediate pressure to tank pressure. This reduces throttle losses at hydraulic cylinders when driven at low or medium loads. An accumulator connected to the intermediate pressure line is being charged or discharged in function of which pressure potential is currently used. Using the example of a typical duty cycle of a wheel loader the paper describes how the accumulator can be applied in order to reach best efficiency results for the new system and it reveals a theoretical efficiency improvement of 20% compared to a conventional Load Sensing system. Furthermore it proposes an online control strategy using Model Predictive Control with an optimization algorithm created with the Dynamic Programming method.