Assessment of energetistic measuring techniques and their application to diagnosis of acoustic condition of hydraulic machinery and equipment

Energy methods in acoustic were introduced more than 40 years ago but new techniques of data analyses can give new possibility for hydraulic system health assessment. Possibilities of applying energetistic techniques to the measurement of complex vibroacoustic processes are presented using as an example a hydraulic feeder. These research methods open up new prospects for the reduction of noise emission in hydraulic machinery and equipment. The described vector techniques of locating sound sources by means of an acoustic probe and a measuring plane antenna deserve special attention. As a result of the measurement a distribution of the intensity of emissions originating from different parts of the source is obtained in the form of emission maps. The techniques can be applied to any object (e.g. a pump, a motor) to determine the main sources of noise emission and then this information can be used to improve the object's design.This paper is based on research in the fields of the design and operation of hydraulic systems, conducted for many years in the Institute of Machine Design and Operation at Wrocław University of Technology.