Prof.Andrea Vacca, USA

Director of the Maha Fluid Power Research Center

Purdue University, USA

Biography:

Andrea Vacca is the director of the Maha Fluid Power Research Center of Purdue University, the largest academic research center dedicated to fluid power research in the United States. His research focuses on several aspects of hydraulic control technology including new concepts to perform hydraulic actuations, new designs for positive displacement machines, electrification of fluid power systems, modeling of the properties of hydraulic fluids. Dr. Vacca authored more than 200 technical papers and wrote the textbook “Hydraulic Fluid Power” by Wiley. Among several awards, in 2019 he received the J. Bramah medal by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He is the Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Fluid Power, one of the directors of the Global Fluid Power Society, and a former chair of the SAE Fluid Power Division and of the ASME Fluid Power System and Technology Division.

Keynote address: Research and Applications of Multiple Pressure Rail Hydraulic Control Technology for Off-Road Vehicles

Increasing the energy efficiency of hydraulic actuation systems is more than ever a societal need for a sustainable off-vehicles. Different approaches can be found in literature to either mitigate throttling losses or recover energy from overruning loads. Among these, very promising are the systems based on pressure rails, which consist of connecting hydraulic functions to multiple pressure supply lines, each one at a different pressure level. The concept can be declined into Constant Pressure Rails (CPR) or Multi-Pressure Rails (MPR), depending on the ability of the system to adapts the rail pressures to the instantaneous actuators demands. These architectures are particularly attractive in systems with several actuators, like certain construction and agricultural equipment. Such vehicles traditionally use centralized hydraulic systems with significant potential for power loss reduction, and they are not particularly suitable for distributed hydraulic actuation concepts, due to the number of hydraulic functions.

This lecture will first introduce the concept of CPR and MPR, along with an hystorical background. Afterwards, the focus will shift to the recent accomplishments on such technology at the Maha Fluid Power Research Center. The case of two vehicles with significantly different duty cycle will be considered: an agricultural tractor and an excavator Sizing considerations, control challenges for each case will be discussed, along with significant results.