Influence of the wear rings on the buckling behaviour of hydraulic actuators

During their use, hydraulic actuators are generally subjected to compressive loads which can induce buckling. In this work the critical load of a hydraulic actuator was determined for various boundary conditions and types of wear rings by theoretical and numerical models. In the theoretical model, the actuator was modelled as two connected beams, with different sections. The contribution of the wear rings on the critical load of the actuator was determined through numerical simulation based on the finite element method. The results of the mathematical model are similar to the results provided by the finite element analyses. The contribution of the investigated wear rings stiffness is very low for the materials considered for these components in this paper.