Design and FEM Analysis of Plastic Parts of a Tie-Rod Composite Hydraulic Cylinder

Due to a number of advantages, such as a high ratio of power transmitted to the weight of the system, the possibility of easy control and the freedom to arrange system elements on the machine, hydrostatic drive is one of the most popular methods of machine drive. The executive elements in such a system are hydraulic cylinders that convert the energy of the pressure of the liquid into the mechanical energy of the reciprocating motion. One of the disadvantages of conventional actuators is their weight, so research is being done to make them as light as possible. The directions of this research include the use of modern engineering materials such as composites and plastics. The paper presents the process of designing, FEM analysis and experimental validation of the base and gland of a composite hydraulic cylinder. The considered elements are made of PET plastic. During the analysis, material non-linearity was taken into account, and the analysis itself was carried out in two steps. The first was the preloading of the tie-rods, and the second was the loading of the cylinder with internal pressure. The numerical calculations were experimentally validated by prototype tests with the use of strain gauges.