1) Medhat K. Bahr Khalil and 2)Donald M. Loper
Hydraulic hose and
line failures in the field cause an extreme hazard to operators, work
crews, and the environment. This happens more than is reported on a
daily basis. Hydraulic line breaks are a good reason for the increased
fluid replacement bills of nearly all industrial and mobile hydraulic
equipments. Sadly, we can fairly say up to now, there has been no cost
effective solution introduced to the industry to resolve this hazard
effectively until now. In this paper, a patent pending device is
proposed as a realistic and feasible solution to offer protection when
catastrophic accidental line breaks occur. The device consists of a
modified spool design, found in velocity fuses with an optimized
dynamic surge chamber. A mathematical model to describe the
valve’s dynamic response has been developed. This mathematical
model has been used to assure the feasibility of the idea by simulating
the valve’s response over a wide range of working pressures. The
agreement between the simulation results and the prototype lab
experiments validates the mathematical model. Results are presented and
discussed. As this is pending patent, the article focuses on the
feasibility of the idea, the valve diagrams are simplified and some
critical data are omitted for the protection of the owner.
Keywords: leakage, hydraulic line, hose, safety, valve