Coupling mechanical systems and fluid transmission lines with bi-dimensional flow and non-conventional constitutive models

The design of hydraulic transmission systems for control and actuation requires accurate knowledge of their dynamic response: some standard techniques are known to obtain a consistent dynamic model of a fluid line, including the contribution of inertia, compressibility and friction. In this study an efficient procedure is developed for simulating the dynamic response of a fluid line coupled with mechanical systems, in both the frequency and time domains. A bi-dimensional approach is adopted for the fluid line, and the laminar flow frequency-dependent friction is modelled using non-integer order differential laws, which may improve the accuracy in comparison with more traditional Newtonian models. The coupling problem with mechanical systems is studied by means of both continuous models of the fluid line (yielding frequency response functions in exact analytical form), and discretized models of the fluid line (to express time response functions in approximate analytical form).