Abstract

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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</jats:title>
<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to analyze the cavitation characteristics of a water hydraulic axial piston motor (WHAPM) to improve the water motor performance, to reduce the vibration and noise and to prolong the service life of the motor.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title>
<jats:p>The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software PumpLinx is chosen to do cavitation analysis of the WHAPM. In this case, first, cavitation mechanism of the water piston motor is analyzed in depth. Then, considering the effects of bubble dynamics, the rate of phase transition, turbulence effects and non-condensable gas, the full cavitation model is selected, the dynamic CFD numerical model of internal flow field on the water hydraulic piston motor is established based on PumpLinx software and the fluid cavitation inside is numerically studied. Finally, the influence of the valve plate and pistons on motor cavitation is analyzed.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</jats:title>
<jats:p>Research results show that there are two serious cavitation regions: one is the pressure transition region of the valve plate that is near the top dead center, and the other is the low-pressure region of the piston that is near the low-pressure transition area. Moreover, the more serious cavitation area is on the valve plate region.</jats:p>
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<jats:title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</jats:title>
<jats:p>The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is able to detect the cavitation characteristics of the water piston motor. Besides, it is deduced that valve-plate structure optimization is more important than pistons to reduce cavitation influence.</jats:p>
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