Hydraulic Schematic Troubleshooting

Cooling Hydraulic Oil

Hydraulic oil is cooled by a heat exchanger, there are 2 type of hydraulic oil heat exchanger: shell-and-tube and finned tube. The shell-and-tube heat exchanger consists of series of tubes inside a closed cylinder. The hot hydraulic oil flows through these tubes with the cooling fluid flows around the tube to receive the heat. The oil routing can be a single pass or double pass.

The finned tube exchanger used air for the heat exchange medium. The air may be a free flow air or a forced flow through an electric or hydraulic fan. The finned tube hydraulic oil heat exchanger is commonly installed on a mobile machine.

Oil cooler are designed not to withstand high pressure so it is mounted on the return line. The oil cooler can be installed directly in the return line or we use a low pressure pump to flow the oil inside the reservoir through the heat exchanger. Cooling the oil on the independent loop using low pressure pump can avoid heat exchanger damage due to pulse hammer on a complex circuit.

Categories: Hydraulic Circuits | Tags: finned tube exchanger, heat exchanger, shell-and-tube heat exchanger | Leave a comment