Investigation of Fluid Borne Noise in the Hydraulic Power Steering Vane Pump through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

The present article related to the investigation of fluid bore noise in the power steering pump which is the major source of noise generation in hydraulic power steering system due to the flow ripple and pressure pulsation. In this article, the different parameters (Pump operating speed, operating pressure, bypass hole dimensions and bypass hole orientation) has been investigated and its contribution to the fluid borne noise has been analyzed through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods. The design optimization has been done on the power steering pump on the basis of CFD results and the physical sample was made for the same to validate the CFD results. The results show that the pump operating speed is more significant in the fluid borne noise generation followed by the operating pressure, bypass hole angle and diameter. The fluid borne noise increases as the operating speed and operating pressure increases. Conversely the fluid borne noise decreases as the bypass hole angle and diameter increases. Since the operating speed and pressures are functional requirement, optimization has been done on bypass hole angle and diameter through CFD. The experimental results show that the fluid borne noise in the power steering pump was reduced about 5% ~16% through angular bypass hole optimization.