Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Abstract
The paper describes the development of an electrically operated pneumatic fast-switching valve for pneumatic position control systems. The valve was designed and fabricated as an ono valve with 2/2-way function and its characteristics were investigated. The
detailed theoretical analysis and preliminary tests were carried out on the manufactured valve and showed that the switching time of
the single stage valve is about 4.5 ms and provides a 460 l/min of ow rate at standard air conditions. Production and assembling of
the valve is rather simple and does not need a manufacturing operation with tight tolerance and therefore, it is envisaged as a low cost
valve. The four of 2/2-way function valves are applicable for the realization of pneumatic actuators driving with a well-known established
technique of the pulse width modulation (PWM).
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Electro-pneumatic; Fast switching solenoid valve; PWM; Mechatronic
1. Introduction
Electro-pneumatic control valves are used as interfaces
to electronic controls to allow the innitely variable electrical remote adjustment of uid ow of the valve output
driving a pneumatic actuator. There are two types of
electro-pneumatic valves used in the realizing control of
uid ow of the pneumatic actuator. These are servovalves
and ono valves.
The servovalves are used to achieve high linear control
accuracy in pneumatic actuators, but they have complex
structures and they are very costly. On the other hand,
owing to low cost, high ow rate gain, small size and simple
structure, the fast-switching ono valves that are used to
control the pneumatic actuators have received considerable
attention [1,2]. They are also known [3,4] as digital valves.
The ono switching valves are inherently nonlinear discrete electro-pneumatic converters. To obtain similar linear
*
Corresponding author.
_ Yuksel).
E-mail address: ibrahim@uludag.edu.tr (I.
0957-4158/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechatronics.2006.01.005
characteristics of the servovalves with simple ono switching valves, pulse width modulation technique is used. To
reach a large modulated linear area, the valve switching
times must be very rapid during the short cycle time. The
limits of the modulation depend on the valve switching
times and the modulation frequency.
The conventional single stage solenoid operated ono
valves are very bulky and their dynamic performances are
low. With these valves, ne motion control is dicult to
achieve because of the limitation of the valve response
time. Therefore, it needs a fast switching valve to get a
good performance. As a result, a considerable amount of
research has been devoted to develop various position control systems using fast response ono solenoid valves
[57].
A very early application of pulse width modulation
schemes in uid power systems started with the adaptation
of conventional electro-hydraulic servo valves for using as
switching valves [8]. However, the rst application of pulsemodulated control in pneumatic systems emerged towards
the end of 1960. Goldstein and Ricardson [9] investigated
366
Nomenclature
useful air gap ux density, f(x, i) (Wb/m2)
applied input voltage (V)
modulation frequency (Hz)
external force (N)
magnetic force (N)
pressure force aected on the disc (N)
magnetic intensity (A-turns/m)
current in the coil (A)
air mass into the chambers (kg)
magnetomotive force (A-turns)
absolute downstream stagnation pressure of the
valve (N/m2)
Pup
absolute upstream stagnation pressure of the
valve (N/m2)
Qn
nominal ow rate (m3/s)
Td, Tt disc delay and traveling time (s)
Tso, Tsc opening and closing switching time of the valve
(s)
tp
the valve switching pulse time (s)
V
volume of cylinder (m3)
x
motion of the disc (m)
y
piston position (m)
dm/dt mass ow rate (kg/s)
DP
net pressure (N/m2)
/
eective ux of the magnetic circuit (Wb)
Q
mean value of this ow oscillation (m3/s)
MR
modulation ratio
Ae
eective area of the magnetic circuit
(256 106 m2)
Bg
e
fpwm
Fd
Fm
Fprs
H
I
M
NI
Pdown
the principles of pulse-modulated control using free oating-apper disc switching valves. A study was carried out
by Taft and Harned [10] on the development of a fourway electro-pneumatic valve utilized permanent and ferromagnetic valve switching elements. Yuksel [11] developed
two types of novel electro-hydraulic oating disc type of
fast switching valves where a disc type of magnetic circuit
was used to operate the valves electrically. Later the investigation on the development of the disc valve has been carried out by several researchers [1215].
PWM technique in the application of fast switching solenoid valves that are used to drive linear hydraulic actuators
were investigated by several authors. Muto et al. [16] and
also Suematsu et al. [17] have used dierential PWM
method to control a hydraulic actuator with three-way
high-speed on/o solenoid valves. Keles and Ercan [18]
has shown that no stick-slip phenomenon is observed in
hydraulic systems with slowly moving loads if they are
driven by pulse-modulated inputs.
In pneumatic systems, Morito et al. [19] and Noritsugu
[20] implemented the PWM technique in pneumatic manipulators to control pressure and contact force. Ye et al. [21]
investigated a model for determining the maximum operat-
c
l
Index
i
Ai
Av
b
Cd
d
k
L
md
N
Pcr
Patm
Ps
Rc
R
r
T
Vtank
w
xh
xt
367
368
Displacement Sensor
y(t)
B
A
P 1, V 1, T 1
F out
P2 , V2 , T 2
.
Mb
.
Ma
1 Ps
2 P atm
3 Patm
4 Ps
Power
Amplifier
ADC
Input
command
PWM
Circuit
DAC
PC
exerted by the static pressure, which, in turn, can be estimated from the pressure on the valve in close position
and the area acted on by this pressure.
The proposed valves are intended for use as PWM controlled solenoid valves, which are generally composed of a
PWM circuit, a power amplier, and solenoid valves. The
+24 V
+12 V
R8
Valve
R7
R1
PWM
Signal
Buffer
Optocoupler
R2
R3
R7
R4
R5
C1
BJT1
(BC237B)
R6
(47)
(100 3W)
C2
(100 nf 250 VAC )
DSEI12
IGBT
(IXGH24NCD1)
BJT2
(BC237B)
Sensing
Resistance
(0.1)
et Rc it
H i li
2
l
where
2Bg xt
l
B2g Ae
/2
Ae l
l
Furthermore, the magnetic ux /(t) is a function of current i, disc movement x (/ = /(i(t), x(t))). Then, it can be
shown that the magnetic force equation can be written as:
369
Fm
lAe NI2
4xt x
F m t m
Electrical
Circuit
e(t)
Electrical
Signal
Magnetic
Circuit
i(t)
Coil
L,R
Magnetic
Circuit
(t)
Electromechanical Subsystem
Fm(t)
Mechanical
Circuit
Fluid
Circuit
x(t)
Disc
m,b,k
M (t)
Fluid
dx/dt
Mechanic-Fluid Subsystem
Fluid
Signal
370
The electro-mechanical part of the valve is used to control the uid ow through the valve orice. As the uid in
the valve and in the pneumatic system is compressible,
when the upstream to downstream pressure is larger than
the critical value Pcr, the mass ow depends nonlinearly
on both pressures. Whereas, when the pressure ratio is
smaller than Pcr, the ow attains sonic velocity (choked
ow) and depends linearly on the upstream pressure.
The standard equation for mass ow rate through an
orice of area Av is [23,25]
8
P
>
0:0405C d Av pupT for sonic flow
>
>
>
>
P down
>
>
> where P up 6 0:528
<
dm
2
c1 1=2
P down c
P down c
2c
P u
dt >
>
p
A
for subsonic flow
C
> d v T Rc1
P up
P up
>
>
>
>
>
: where P down > 0:528
P up
pr DP 6 F 6 pr w DP
pr w2 r2
DP
2 ln1 w=r
P i V i mi RT i
10
RT
dmi
P i Ai
dy
c
L
L
dt
dt
y
y
V 0i Ai
V 0i Ai
2
2
13
14
371
300
275
1. i=0.5 A
2. i=1.25 A
3. i=1.75 A
4. i=3.0 A
5. i=4.0 A
6. i=5.0 A
7. i=6.0 A
8. i=7.0 A
8
250
225
200
175
5
150
3
125
4
Spring characteristics
100
75
50
25
0
1
0
0.1
Holding Gap
0.2
0.3
0.4
Travelling Gap
Total Gap
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Displacement (mm)
372
x 10
Pup:7*105 Pa
8
Pup:6*105 Pa
Pup:5*105 Pa
Pup:4*105 Pa
4
Pup:3*105 Pa
3
Pup:2*105 Pa
Pup:1*105 Pa
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
Pdown /Pup
Fig. 8. Flow characteristics of the valve.
the valve is approximately 4.65 ms, and the disc delay time
is 3.2 ms, which is 69% of the total switching time.
The closing time of the valve is as critical as the opening
time of the valve in selection of the cycle time of PWM signal. The valve starts to close when the coil is de-energized.
The total closing time of the valve is similar to the opening
x 10
1
10
9
-3
0.9
0.8
0.7
Tsc
T dc
Input
0.6
Ttc
0.5
tp
0.4
Displacement
0.3
Tso
0.2
0.1
Td
Tt
0
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
Time (s)
0
0.03
Displacement (m)
Current
373
-4
Current
5
Switching
input
Displacement
Displacement (m)
x 10
Holding input
1
0.005
0.01
0.015
0.02
0.025
0.03
0.035
0.04
Time (s)
force. The current and holding force decay in the deenergized magnet are not instantaneous but they follow a
transient state. This retards the beginning of the motion
of the disc depending on the level of holding current. The
simulation and experimental results show that the closing
time delay can be reduced as much as about a half of the
maximum time delay. Thereby the holding current can be
reduced to a level of 25% of the maximum applied current,
which is just enough to hold the disc against the spring
force. The disc travel time is almost the same with the
travel time of the valve opening.
T s 6 tp 6 T pwm T s or
Furthermore, the opening switching time Tso and closing switching time Tsc of the solenoid-operated spring
return valve are not identical which reduces linearity more
severely. In this case, the following switching condition
must be satised in order to ensure the on/o switching
operation of the valve can be executed completely
16
T so 6 tp 6 T pwm T sc
T pwm P 2T s
or T pwm P T so T sc
17
18
T so
T pwm
MRmax 1
T sc
T pwm
19
20
374
2T s
T pwm
M pb 1
or
T so T sc
T pwm
21
Eqs. (19)(21), indicate that the smaller the valve opening and closing times the greater is the PWM frequency,
fpwm(=1/Tpwm) with the greater proportional band, Mpb.
This can be achieved with a fast switching valve.
The discrepancy between the ideal and the real conditions of the valve introduces a dead zone on the relationship
of the duty ratio of the valve input and ow characteristics
of the valve output as it is shown in Figs. 9 and 10. To overcome the dead zone and improve the linearity several dierent PWM methods such as D-PWM; M-D-PWM have been
oered several authors [5,9,17,20].
In this study, an overdriving pulse technique is intended
to use with newly developed PWM methods [1,2] which are
dierent to existing methods in order to improve the linearity and to reduce the dead zone. The simulation and the
experimental results have shown that the electrical time
delay, Te(=L(x)/R) constitutes the main portion of the
9
5
8
Current (A)
1,2,3,4: experimental
5
: simulation
0
0.6
0.602
0.604
0.606
0.608
0.61
Time (s)
0.612
0.614
375
x 10-4
Input
Displacement
0
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
Displacement (m)
Current
7
0
0.1
Time (s)
Power
Amplifier
PWM
Circuit
in Fig. 13. The outlet pressure history of the valves is measured by the transducer 1 for determining the switching
time of the valves under pressure. The pressure transducer
1 is tted to downstream side of the valve as close as possible in order to avoid a ow transition lag. The total
switching time of the valve is determined from the current
history curves and pressure history curves and the dead
time is determined from the pressure curves. Fig. 14 shows
typical switching characteristics of the valve under pressure. The opening time of the valve under pressure is about
3 ms which is much less than comparing with 4.5 ms of the
opening time of the valve with no load. This is expected as
the pressure force helps to open the valve. On the other
hand the closing time of the valve under pressure increases
comparing with the closing time of the valve with no load.
DAC
Prototype
valve
PC
Input
command
ADC
Pressure
Sensor 2
Psupply
Pressure
Sensor 1
Patm
376
7
5
Current (A)
4
0
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Time (s)
Table 1
Switching times for various working conditions
Working
condition
Opening
time tso (ms)
Closing
time tsc (ms)
4.5
5.5
8.0
16.5
8.5
4.5
(Theoretical:
4.65)
12.3
(Theoretical:
4.7)
4.5
(Theoretical:
4.65)
5.0
(Theoretical:
2.1)
3.0
6.0
Pressure
Sensor
Pressure
Sensor
TANK
Prototype
valve
Patm
Power
Amplifier
ADC
Psupply
PWM
Circuit
DAC
PC
Input
command
Fig. 15. Experimental setup for determination steady PWM characteristics of valves.
377
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
P/Pup
0.5
0.4
0.3
--x--:fc=10 Hz
--+--:fc=20 Hz
-- --:fc=33 Hz
--o--:fc=50 Hz
0.2
0.1
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Md=td/Tc
0.3
Displacement (m)
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
Time (s)
0.5
0.6
378