When designing a hydraulic fluid conveyance system—whether it is pipe, hose or tube—it is important beforehand to model or simulate it to prevent power loss and determine its effect on the rest of the system.
If modeling of a line is not completed, you are ignoring a lot of power losses that realistically are going to happen inside the system.
In reality, a hydraulic line experiences pressure drop on every stop of the way. If you have a piece of line, and you put two pressure gauges at separate points and establish flow, you’re going to notice that the pressure has dropped. It is best to quantify this pressure drop in the line before the system is completely designed. If they are not determined beforehand, eventually all of these pressure drops would be accumulated backward in front of the pump.
In addition, modeling a hydraulic transmission line helps the designer understand its effect on the transient performance of the system. For example, if there is 10 ft of tube between a cylinder and valve, there will be a slight delay from when the valve is opened to the cylinder responding. Modeling can gauge the impact of this and other environmental effects, such as temperature, air in the line, etc. that will affect system performance.
By modeling the heat generation in a transmission line, for example, you determine how much heat is naturally dissipated by the system and how much must be removed by installing a heat exchanger.
Filed Under: Hose Assembly Tips