Determination of undissolved air content in oil by means of a compression method

Abstract

This article describes a combination of experimental and mathematical methods for the determination of undissolved air content in hydraulic oil. The experimental part consists of the determination of the oil bulk modulus, considering the influence of undissolved air by means of a volume compression method in a steel pipe. A multiphase model of an oil/undissolved air mixture is subsequently defined using Matlab SimHydraulics software. The multiphase model permits the volume compression of oil and air bubbles independently of each other. Furthermore, time dependencies of pressures are mathematically simulated during the compression of the multiphase mixture of oil and undissolved air for different concentrations of the latter. The undissolved air content is determined by comparing the mathematically simulated and experimentally measured time dependencies of pressure increases.