Three types of hydraulic attenuators are designed and investigated to study the pulsation-reduction characteristics in hydraulic system. Attenuator test rig is established to obtain pressure signals in time domain and frequency domain (5 Hz to 1200 Hz), respectively. Influences of changing source impedance and loading impedance to the attenuation rate (Ka) and pressure ratio of inlet and outlet (Pio) are discussed.
Experiment results show that expansion chamber attenuator (ECA) is a better choice for a wide frequency range of pulsation reduction. Two types of perforated tube attenuators (PTA) have better performances in some certain frequency range. The performance of PTA can have further improvements by designing the damping holes diameters. The performance of the attenuator is mainly influenced by pump character and rotating speed. The system loading has limited influence on the performance comparing to source impedance.
