Development of an analytical model to estimate the churning losses in high-speed axial piston pumps

The axial piston pumps in aerospace applications are often characterized by high-speed rotation to achieve great power density. However, their internal rotating parts are fully immersed in the casing oil during operation, leading to considerable churning losses (more than 10% of total power losses) at high rotational speeds. The churning losses deserve much attention at the design stage of high-speed axial piston pumps, but accurate analytical models are not available to estimate the drag torque associated with the churning losses. In this paper, we derive the analytical expressions of the drag torque acting on the key rotating parts immersed in oil, including the cylinder block and the multiple pistons in a circular array. The calculated drag torque agrees well with the experimental data over a wide range of rotational speeds from 1500 to 12000 r/min. The presented analytical model provides practical guidelines for reducing the churning losses in high-speed axial piston pumps or motors.