This application claims priority to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2022 000 975.7, filed on Mar. 22, 2022 with the German Patent and Trademark Office. The contents of the aforesaid Patent Application are incorporated herein for all purposes.
The disclosure relates to a piston accumulator comprising an accumulator housing and a separating piston guided so as to be longitudinally movable therein, which separates two media chambers from each other, in particular a media chamber with a working gas from a further media chamber with a fluid, such as hydraulic oil.
Piston accumulators of this type are customary. They are widely used in hydraulic systems, for example for energy storage, for emergency actuations to damp mechanical shocks or pressure surges, for vehicle suspensions and the like.
DE 197 01 303 A1 discloses a piston accumulator comprising a first separating piston, which can be moved longitudinally within an accumulator housing and separates a liquid side of the accumulator from a gas side, a second separating piston being arranged on the liquid side of the accumulator, and an intermediate space arranged between the two separating pistons being filled with a sealing medium, which is pretensioned under the action of the two separating pistons which can be moved towards each other via a force accumulator, regularly in the form of a compression spring.
For this purpose, the two separating pistons are passed through by a connecting rod and the said compression spring rests with one end on the first separating piston and with the other end on the connecting rod. In this way, the first separating piston of block-like design is guided longitudinally with stability over a relatively long distance on the inside of an accumulator housing designed rigidly in this respect, using a plurality of sealing and guide strips which are arranged on the outer circumference, but it is held axially movable on the connecting rod against the pretension of the compression spring, whereas the second separating piston of disc-like design is guided movably along the inside of the accumulator housing with only one sealing ring and is firmly connected to the connecting rod. In this way, the two separating pistons, configured on the one hand as a solid block and on the other hand as a disc-shaped body, are pretensioned against each other under the action of the compression spring which acts on the connecting rod, so that a kind of variable two-part separating piston is created with a gas barrier located in the intermediate space between the separating pistons, which prevents the small gas molecules from being able to creep through the otherwise airtight sealing system, in the form of the sealing rings arranged on the outer circumference of the separating pistons, when the pressure on the oil side is relieved, which would impair the functional reliability of the known piston accumulator in the long term.
Due to the rigid construction of accumulator housing and separating piston arrangement, the known piston accumulator arrangement can only be used inadequately where both the accumulator housing side and the separating piston arrangement are subject to relevant bending stresses, despite the fact that the separating pistons can be moved relative to each other. For example, DE 10 2016 003 345 B4 shows such a bending stress for piston accumulators as part of a balancing device for compensating the imbalance of rotors of wind turbines, consisting of at least one
By means of this balancing device, it is possible to balance the respective rotor of a wind turbine accordingly during operation, which is regularly necessary since imbalances can develop in particular during operation, for example due to dirt deposits on the rotor blades or due to uneven incident wind flow, for example when turbulence occurs during wind turbine operation.
The rotor blades are also regularly subject to deformations during operation of the wind turbine, for the description of which kinematic models are used that are able to describe the deformations of a rotor blade, for example based on the assumptions of an Euler-Bernoulli beam. The deformations on the respective rotor blade which can be determined theoretically in this respect correspond to practical measured value acquisitions, which are 85 preferably based on a combination of photogrammetric and laser scanner measurements. In any case, rotor blade deformations regularly occur in this respect in practice, in the form of reversible deflections along the longitudinal axis of the rotor and, according to the teaching of DE 10 2016 003 345 B4, the piston accumulators hinged to the rotor blades must be able to follow these deformations which result from a constantly changing bending curve caused by the changing incident wind flow together with turbulence occurring during operation. The piston accumulator solutions, which are regularly constructed of solid steel materials, are then no longer able to follow the bending curve of the rotor blade as it changes over time, which frequently leads to failure of the connection point between piston accumulator and rotor blade and thus to the balancing device as a whole becoming unusable.
Irrespective of the initial situation for wind turbines described above, piston accumulators can also be exposed to other changing alternating bending stresses, for example if the piston accumulator is exposed to strong vibrations during the operation of a hydraulic system, such as used in aircraft, rockets, military vehicles, agricultural machines, etc.
A need exists to provide an improved piston accumulator allowing safe operation, even if bending stresses should occur.
The need is addressed by the subject matter of the independent claim(s). Embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims, the following description, and the drawings.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will be apparent from the description, drawings, and from the claims.
In the following description of embodiments of the invention, specific details are described in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the instant description.
In some embodiments, the piston accumulator comprises two piston parts, which are formed as discs with the same outer diameter and which are securely connected to each other and held at a distance from each other via an elastically flexible piston rod, which, under the action of at least one external force, allows for curvature as a whole starting from an initial state and returns to the initial state with the removal of the respective force. Thus, a piston accumulator is provided which, even with large deflections of the accumulator housing, ensures that the separating piston with its two piston parts can follow the corresponding deflection unobstructed and returns to its initial state without deformation when the load is removed, and at the same time remains fully functional even in the event of the aforementioned deflection of the accumulator housing. The secure coupling of the two piston parts via the elastically yielding piston rod significantly contributes to this, by means of which a linear-elastic behaviour (Hooke's Law) can be implemented for the multi-part separating piston. Furthermore, the elastically yielding coupling via the piston rod prevents the disc-shaped piston parts inside the accumulator housing from being able to tilt towards each other in such a manner that unobstructed operation would no longer be guaranteed.
Some embodiments of the piston accumulator are the subject matter of the dependent claims. In particular, the flexibility of the separating piston with its two piston parts, via the elastically yielding piston rod disposed therebetween, allows the piston rod with its longitudinal axis to follow the line of the bending curve formed in this way without constraint in the event of any curvature of the accumulator housing along a central axis of curvature, which also applies in the event of resetting when the curved line merges again into a straight centre axis line. This thus has no equivalent in prior art.
The piston accumulator is explained in greater detail below with reference to embodiments according to the drawings. Specific references to components, process steps, and other elements are not intended to be limiting. The drawings are not to scale.
As part of the said sandwich structure, the innermost layer 18 of the housing 10 is impermeable to gas and the respective subsequent outward layers 20, 22 and 24 are formed of a fibre winding. The aforementioned layer composite is shown in particular in
As further shown in
At the point of transition between steeply sloping contact surface and, in contrast, the flat rising surface of the ramp including the ramp part 48, the fixing ramp 36 as shown in the diagram of
Pin recesses 54, which are evenly distributed around the outer circumference of the connecting flange 34, are located on the free end faces of the respective connecting flange 34 of the connecting part 30. The respective cover part 56 can be pinned to the associated connecting part 30 via the aforementioned pin recesses 54, such a cover part 56 being present at each free end of the accumulator housing 10. The aforementioned associated pins, which are not shown in greater detail, are to be attached to the cover part 56 along an annular surface 58 provided therefor, the notional inner curve of which is shown by a dot-dash line 60. In addition, the aforementioned annular surface 58 is used on its inner side directed towards the accumulator housing 10 for the application of an adhesive, in this way to create a media-tight connection between the two media chambers 14, 16 and the environment. Furthermore, in the context of an embodiment not shown in greater detail, it is possible to connect the respective cover part 56 to the accumulator housing 10 via a fibre winding in a media-tight and pressure-resistant manner. In the central region of each cover part 56, there is a connection opening 62 which can be sealed tightly to the media chamber 14 on the gas side of the accumulator housing 10 and remains open on the liquid side in order to connect the further media chamber 16 to a conventional hydraulic circuit (not shown). To separate the two media chambers 14, 16, i.e. a gas side from a liquid side, in a media-tight manner, a separating piston 12 is inserted into the accumulator housing 10 in a longitudinally movable manner according to the diagram in
The one piston part 13, which is directed towards the one media chamber 14, has a guide strip 19 on the outer circumference and the other piston part 15, which is directed towards the further media chamber 16, has a further guide strip 21 and a ring seal 23 made of a conventional elastomer material. The two annular guide strips 19, 21 are configured as identical parts and consist of a material with good sliding properties, which is for example correspondingly temperature-resistant, such as PTFE material. Both the guide strips 19, 21 and the ring seal 23 are each inserted in ring-like receiving grooves in the associated piston parts 13, 15 and slide along the inner circumference of the accumulator housing in the form of the running surface 26. In this respect, as shown in the diagram of
As can further be seen from
If the piston accumulator is fitted as part of a balancing device for compensating the imbalance of rotors of wind turbines, as shown by way of example in
The inner piston accumulator 74 in each case is arranged in the region of the blade root adjacent to the rotor hub and the outer piston accumulator 76, on the other hand, is offset toward the respective blade tip by a distance which extends along the longitudinal orientation of the respective rotor blade 68. It is for example provided that the outer piston accumulator 76 is dimensioned to be slenderer than the inner piston accumulator 74 of the pair, corresponding to the smaller installation space available close to the blade tip within the respective rotor blade 68.
In the inner piston accumulator 74, the media or working chamber 14, which carries the compressible pressure medium such as the working gas, for example in the form of nitrogen gas, is directed towards the blade root, while in the outer piston accumulator 76, the working chamber 14, which carries the compressible medium, is directed towards the blade tips. If necessary, the media chamber 14 of the inner piston accumulator 74 can also carry ambient air and be kept depressurised. In the respective other media chambers of the piston accumulators 74 and 76, which are directed towards each other within the rotor blade 68, the incompressible medium, such as hydraulic fluid, is located as a mass which can be displaced within a relevant rotor blade 68 to compensate imbalance. These fluid-conducting media chambers 16, which are directed towards each other, are connected to each other via a fluid line 78, for example in the form of a pipe or a hose. A control valve 80, for example in the form of an electromagnetically actuated switching valve which can be centrally controlled by a control system 82, is arranged in the respective fluid line 78 adjacent to the respective inner piston accumulator 74. To transmit the values of lateral accelerations acting on the support structure of the wind turbine transverse to the rotor shaft to the control system 82, an acceleration sensor 84 is arranged in the tower head or the nacelle 72, which sensor is connected to the control system 82 via corresponding measurement signal lines. Furthermore, a rotor position sensor 86 is provided which, in the form of a rotor speed sensor or a rotor rotational position sensor on the rotor shaft, determines the position of the rotor blades 68 and transmits it to the control system 82 via a further measurement signal line.
To carry out an imbalance compensation process using the balancing device, the wind turbine is brought into an initial state by increasing the rotor speed by motor to a speed at which the hydraulic fluid, which is located in the fluid-conducting media chambers 16 of the piston accumulators 74, 76 and in the fluid line 78 therebetween, is displaced outwards towards the blade tips under the effect of the centrifugal force when the control valves are open and the working gas in the respective media chamber 14 of the outer piston accumulators 76 is thereby compressed so that they are in a state of charge. To detect the presence of an imbalance, the wind turbine must be operated at a critical speed and, if an imbalance is present, operation at these speeds results in lateral vibrations of the tower and thus to the occurrence of acceleration signals of the acceleration sensor 84. The determination of which of the rotor blades 68 has a deviating mass moment of inertia is carried out with the aid of the rotor rotational position sensor on the rotor shaft, which determines the precise position of the rotor blades 68 at any time. From the instantaneous value of the lateral acceleration of the rotor position, the control system 82 determines which rotor blade 68 has the deviating mass moment of inertia and provides a control signal for the control valves 80, which partially discharge the charged piston accumulators 76 in question in order to shift the mass of the incompressible hydraulic fluid in such a manner that lateral acceleration is no longer measured. The rotor is then balanced as a whole.
It is understood that during operation of the rotor blades 68, deformations due to bending forces occur as a result of the influence of wind force, also during the occurrence of turbulence, in particular bending of the respective rotor blade 68 in its longitudinal orientation. Thanks to the piston accumulator solution described above using an accumulator housing 10 and/or a separating piston 12 which are flexible to bending, the respective bending deformations of the rotor blade 68 can be absorbed in this way in all directions, the piston accumulator pairs 74, 76 also being able to perform a functionally reliable mass balancing to compensate for the imbalance of the rotor blades 68 even in the event of the deflection described.
The invention has been described in the preceding using various exemplary embodiments. Other variations to the disclosed embodiments may be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single processor, device, or other unit may be arranged to fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims. Likewise, multiple processors, devices, or other units may be arranged to fulfil the functions of several items recited in the claims.
The term “exemplary” used throughout the specification means “serving as an example, instance, or exemplification” and does not mean “preferred” or “having advantages” over other embodiments. The term “in particular” and “particularly” used throughout the specification means “for example” or “for instance”.
The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims or embodiments does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2022 000 975.7 | Mar 2022 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2023/055114 | 3/1/2023 | WO |