Hydraulic System Example

Hydraulic System Example Hydraulic System â€" Essay Example > The modern trends in aircraft Hydraulic systemIntroductionTraditional air crafts relied on three sources of power to run their systems and subsystems namely the hydraulic system, pneumatic system and the electrical system. These systems of power generation worked in consonance with the well-distributed system functionalities ensuring that the system functions have optimum redundancy thus securing the safety of the flight. The hydraulic systems are useful in driving the control systems of the flight as well as the aircraft’s landing gear system. These systems comprised of servo-valves, servo-actuators, power cylinders, solenoid valves, hydraulic motors, orifices as well as check valves, which have very close similarities with industrial hydraulic compositions (Zhanlin others, 2000). The aircraft’s hydraulic system had the capacity to generate pressures of 20.7MPa until the late 1970’s when hydraulic systems generating 55.2MPa were developed. Currently, manufacturers of hydra ulic products have commercialized highly pressurized hydraulic components for the air crafts. Highly maneuverable air crafts apply hydraulic systems that generate a standard 34.5MPa. Several adjustments continue to find their way to the evolving hydraulic systems with more shifting towards electrifying the aircraft system while progressively reducing the use of hydraulic systems (Cao, Mecrow, Atkinson, Bennett, Atkinson, 2012). Power distribution in the conventional aircraft Conventional air crafts use engines to convert fuel into power a significant proportion of which propels the aircraft while the rest is converted into four forms. Pneumatic power generated from high-pressure compressors in the engine is useful in powering the Environmental Control System (ECS) while supplying hot air to de-ice the wings. Secondly, the gearbox conveys mechanical power generated by the engines to localized pumps serving the engines as well as other subsystems that rely on mechanical power, and t he main generator for electricity production. Thirdly, hydraulic pump supplies hydraulic energy to the actuators for powering both the primary as well as the secondary control of the flight. Lastly, electric power produced from the main generator drives the avionics, aircraft and cabin lifting, galleys as well as other systems including entertainment systems (Cao et al. , 2012). Figure 1: Distribution of power in a conventional aircraftThe need to improve the performance of the aircraft's power system, enhance reliability, and reduce the maintenance costs of air crafts birthed the concept of more electrified air crafts (MEA) with remarkable modifications from the original systems. The shift to MEA was also informed by the need to create a more efficient system that weighs less as compared to the hydraulic systems. In addition, the maintenance requirements for hydraulic systems remain high and they are more vulnerable to security risks. Reduction of weight is useful in cutting down the energy requirements for the aircraft translating to manageable user costs. The commencement of using electrically powered systems has seen the reduction of energy requirements for the air crafts by half. This is very crucial especially for the military departments that consume huge proportions of the national budget on powering their airborne systems (Emadi Ehsani, 2000). The use of electrically computerized control systems replaced the use of mechanical signals from the pilot while controlling hydraulic servo actuators used in flight control. This allows for the conversion of electrical signals to hydraulic signals thereby amplifying power control of actuators. Upon improvement of the characteristics of electric magnets in the 1990s, direct drive valves (DDV) that rely on force motors from an electric coil began serving as hydraulic servo-valves. However, procurement of DDV is very costly thus forcing most of the large air crafts to continue relying on EHSVs as servo-actuat ors (Peeters, Hendricx, Debille, Climent, 2009).