Subject Applied Hydraulics

Topics : Hydraulic Accumulator

Difficulty : Medium

Hydraulic accumulator is a device which is used to accumulate or store pressure energy of a fluid

This energy may be supplied at a later stage to drive a machine tool for any sudden or intermittent operation.

Therefore an accumulator acts like a flywheel it stores energy when there is surplus of energy and supplies it when there is a short fall

For example in case of hydraulic crane a large amount of energy is needed to lift a load when the crane moves up. This energy is supplied by the hydraulic accumulator.However, when the load moves downwards no large external energy is requires at that times, the energy of a pump is stored in the accumulator