Efficient pneumatic pressure reducers and boosters
Research Task/Objectives
Electronic-pneumatic analogies
Pressure reducers and boosters are widely used in production units with pneumatic drives to adjust the network pressure locally. Currently, manufactured boosters demonstrate a moderate efficiency which is bounded by their design and operating principle. Meanwhile the boosting technologies in electronics present a high efficiency and are already partially implemented in hydraulics. Thus the objective of the study is to transfer the electrical DC-to-DC converters into a pneumatic system and to analyze the potentials of such new circuits.
Approach/Results
Workflow by research of a transferred circuits
Firstly, the electrical converters were transferred into pneumatics applying the electronic-pneumatic analogies theory. New pneumatic circuits were simulated using a lumped parameters approach and their maximal pressure gain and exergy efficiency were evaluated. The prospective prototypes were implemented then on a test rig to verify the simulation results and to compare them with each other. One of the new concepts in some performance ranges presents comparable exergy efficiency with regard to the reference and enables a higher maximal available pressure gain. Design and control improvement offer further potential for the performance increase of a novel booster.
The presented research activities are part of the project “Energy efficient pneumatic pressure boosters and reducers” (Ref. No. 703461). The authors would like to thank the Fluid Power Research Fund of the VDMA for the funding and support.