Lubrication network

The last example highlights concerns with a typical lubrication network with hydraulic resistance components included.

Figure 21: Activity Index results obtained with a lubrication network

We can see in the figure below that most C-elements have 0% activity index.

Figure 22: Activity Index C elements

Many R-elements have small activity contributions. For example, the selection of the first 36 R-elements shows that their total summed activities is 3.19% of the total activity:

Figure 23: Activity Index R elements

Figure 24: Zoom on the Activity Index results obtained for the 36 first R-elements only

Note

It is possible to display where an element is located in the Simcenter Amesim sketch by clicking on the corresponding activity line in the Activity Index List:

Figure 25: Display element on a sketch when clicking in the Activity Index List

The figure below shows the Simcenter Amesim sketch when the first 36 R-elements are selected the same way (multi-selection).

Figure 26: Localization of the first 36 R-elements on the sketch

Finally, the lubrication network can be simplified to get the appropriate reduced model:

Figure 27: Reduced model of the lubrication network

• For this simplified system, the number of state variables has been reduced from 142 to 50 (-65%) and, the total pressure drop at 100 L/min is 5.3453 bar compared to the initial 5.4966 (-2.75%).

• We can see that the reduction in number of state variables is significant, whereas the difference in pressure drop remains within the defined limits.

We can plot some variables to confirm that the results are the same with the complex and the simplified system:

Figure 28: Flowrate sensor - Flow rate at port 3

Figure 29: Volumetric pump - Pressure at port 2