NFPA Awards Eleven Fluid Power Research Supplements

The NFPA Education and Technology Foundation is actively working to increase the number of university students educated in fluid power. One of the ways it does this is by supporting academic researchers in fluid power. This helps to engage current and build the careers of future university faculty who are and will be in a position to teach fluid power to undergraduate engineers on their campuses. With this purpose in mind, the NFPA Foundation has recently awarded $6,800 research supplements to eleven faculty members working on fluid power research at four universities.

The recipient universities, faculty members and research projects are:

Iowa State University

• Brian Steward – Off-Highway Vehicle Chassis Dyno Laboratory Development and Hydraulic Dyno Development

Milwaukee School of Engineering

• Paul Michael – Polymer-Enhanced Fluid Effects on Dynamic Response of Hydraulic Pumps

Purdue University

• Andrea Vacca – A New Approach for Increasing Efficiency of Agricultural Tractors and Implements
• Jose Garcia – Mixed Reality for Fluid Power Education
• Farid Breidi – Mechanically Actuated Radial Piston Digital Pump/Motor Utilizing Variable Cams
• Lizhi Shang – AI-Aided Lubricating Interface Modeling Technology for Hydrostatic Pumps and Motors

University of Minnesota

• Perry Li – Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture for Mobile Machines
• Kim Stelson – Short-Term Energy Storage System for High Power Hybrid Hydrostatic Transmissions
• Zongxuan Sun – Optimization and Evaluation of Energy Savings for Connected and Autonomous Off-Road Vehicles
• James Van de Ven – Multi-Stroke Variable Displacement Oscillating Pump for Hydrokinetic Energy
• Thomas Chase – PFI-TT: High Performance, Highly Efficient Valves for Controlling Gas Flows

These research projects independently represent more than $4.6 million in funding from a variety of organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP). They are an excellent sample of the growing body of fluid power research being funded by the federal government and other research organizations.

The research supplements from the NFPA Foundation are intended to provide travel support so that each faculty member and one of their graduate students can attend and present their research at a series of designated industry conferences and research summits, whether they are virtual or in-person events. This will help better connect these researchers with the fluid power industry and allow better exchange of ideas. Any funds not spent on travel will be used in general support of the research project itself.

This year, the designated conferences are the two CCEFP Summits in October 2021 and spring 2022.

The recent October Summit had more than 35 university and industry attendees and eleven university research presentations. NFPA members are welcome to attend the spring event. The CCEFP will offer two registration categories – one for NFPA members who are also CCEFP members, and one for NFPA members who are also Pascal Society donors. An NFPA member who wishes to attend who is neither a CCEFP member nor a Pascal Society donor should first contact Lynn Beyer at lbeyer@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3364.

Please watch NFPA News for further updates on the upcoming CCEFP Summit and the eleven research projects receiving support through this important program.