Improving efficiency of road transport through the use of hydrodiodes in hydraulic systems taking into account cavitation phenomena

Introduction. One of the promising ways to reduce dynamic loads during operation of hydraulic crane manipulator installations is the use of hydrodiodes. In hydraulic systems operating at high speeds of the working fluid, cavitation phenomena may occur in the hydrodiode, which are accompanied by increased noise and vibration, and may lead to the destruction of the hydrodiode, which is not acceptable. The paper compares the results of calculating the flow of liquid in the flow part of a vortex hydrodiode, taking into account cavitation phenomena and without cavitation phenomena, with the results of research tests. The analysis of the effect of cavitation on the working processes in a vortex hydrodiode for crane manipulator installations is presented.Materials and method. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models using the FLUENT CFD code to study the working processes occurring in the working chamber of a vortex hydrodiode were developed. The commercial CFD code ANSYS FLUENT to simulate the flow of liquid in the flow part of a vortex hydrodiode was used.Results. The paper verifies the results of a numerical experiment with the results of research tests. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the effect of cavitation on the working processes of a vortex hydrodiode has been carried out.Discussion and conclusion. It has been found that the values of pressure and diode in calculations taking into account cavitation and without cavitation practically do not differ, thus, the effect of cavitation at Reynolds numbers Re<30000 does not significantly affect the quantitative values of the parameters of the vortex hydrodiode and the cavitation calculation module can not be used. However, at higher values of the Reynolds numbers, cavitation appears in the working cavity of the vortex hydrodiode and the calculated values of the parameters of the hydrodiode without cavitation and taking cavitation into account differ significantly. Therefore, when calculating high-speed flows, it is necessary to use the cavitation calculation module. The analysis of the effect of cavitation on the working processes of a vortex hydrodiode showed that in the forward direction of the flow, cavitation does not significantly affect the parameters of the hydrodiode and the place of its formation, the upper inlet region of th tangential chamber. In the opposite direction of flow, cavitation has a significant effect on the pattern of fluid flow in the vortex hydrodiode. Cavitation covers almost the entire inlet volume of the radial tube and partially captures the central part of the vortex chamber