Pre-screening of hydraulic fluids for vane pumps: An alternative to Vickers vane pump tests

The tribological behaviour of hydraulic fluids is mainly evaluated by standardized Vickers vane pump tests, according to ASTM D7043, DIN 51389 or ISO 20763. These tests provide the closest possible representation of actual working conditions, but require many hours of testing and large quantities of hydraulic fluids per experiment, while the frictional behaviour of the tribosystem is not measured. Because of the long testing time, oil quantity and cost, it is impractical to perform multiple tests and this makes the method unsuitable for development purposes. In this work, a new methodology is proposed that allows for a fast and efficient pre-screening and ranking of hydraulic fluids that correlates well with the Vickers vane pump test. To validate the methodology, five different hydraulic fluids are tested and compared to ISO 20763 Vickers vane pump test results. The aim is to achieve similar wear mechanisms and ranking of the anti-wear properties of hydraulic fluids. The future goal is to propose a standardized method that will aid in the development of hydraulic fluids and will complement existing standardized tests.