Experimental study of an insert and its influence on churning losses in a high-speed electro-hydrostatic actuator pump of an aircraft

The speed of an Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA) pump can recently reach 20000 r/min, and its churning losses increase obviously with an increasing speed, which results in low efficiency and thus increasing heat in aircraft EHA systems. In order to reduce churning losses at high speeds, more attention should be given to the design of an insert. In this paper, the effect of an insert with different design parameters on churning losses is investigated through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation and experiments by calculating the difference between churning losses torques of the test pump with and without the insert based on a high-speed churning losses test rig. Analytical results show that the gap between the insert and the cylinder is critical for churning losses reduction. It is found that the churning losses of the test pump can be reduced with a decreasing gap between the cylinder block and the insert at high speeds. This is because the insert can decrease the turbulence occurrence at high speeds. The results can be used for flow field analysis and optimization of the high-speed EHA pump and provide a new method for improving efficiency of high-speed EHA pumps.