TECHNICAL OPERATIONS RESEARCH (TOR) EXEMPLIFIED BY A HYDROSTATIC POWER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

The possibilities of fluid power system design include different components and control strategies for the same function. Thus the final topology is usually designed by the practical experience of an engineer and afterwards verified. “Technical Operations Research” (TOR) first encourages a phase of description and then uses mathematical optimization tools, known from Operations Research, to develop and structure a technical system. In contrast to parameter optimization, the topology of the system is not fully required, but can be created within the optimization process. The main advantage of this approach is the guarantee for global optimality within the model. We present an optimal topology for a hydrostatic power transmission system.