Investigation of accumulator parameters for a novel hybrid architecture

An open center system (OC-System), which is one of the major hydraulic architectures for excavators, has been improved in the world to reduce fuel consumption for global environment conservation and lower operating costs. However, the total system efficiency, including the internal combustion engine (ICE), has not been thoroughly considered. In contrast, a constant pressure system (CP-System) enabling the engine to be driven optimally is developed, but is not accepted in the industry owing to the complexity of the required components. Thus, in this research, a hybrid system combining an OC-System with a CP-System is proposed to improve the total system efficiency. An accumulator, which is used to provide flow rate to actuators, is essential for the new hybrid system, and it is vital to consider the nominal gas volume and pressure level for the accumulator in terms of energy savings and initial cost. Therefore, the influences of accumulator volume and pressure level are discussed in this paper.