Recent trends in hydraulic systems have shown that precision and reliability are among the most desirable characteristics. To minimize potential damage to sensitive components, special attention should be paid to the cleanliness of hydraulic systems. If contaminants generated during manufacture and maintenance processes, or generated during operation, are not removed from the system, they can cause damage to components. The hydraulic system can be cleaned by flushing, but various sources are unclear about which components of the system can be cleaned by flushing.
The objective of our study was to determine the minimum value of Reynolds number Re at which the system can be effectively cleaned and to determine which components within the system can and should be flushed. We set up our experiment in several stages. On a preliminary system, we tested different flushing methods – flushing with hot oil; flushing with hot oil and low flow; and flushing using turbulent flow. On a real system, we found that the filter housing and the hydraulic cylinder could not be cleaned by flushing. In an effort to optimize the cleaning method, we tested various Re values and finally concluded that the minimum Re value for effective cleaning is 4000, but the optimum Re value for our system is 10 000.
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