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proportional to the pressure transients within the system.

When
Pressure Transient Flow Forces for commenting upon these two terms, Merritt says, The velocity
Hydraulic Spool Valves term is the more significant because it represents a damping force.
There is little direct evidence to indicate that the pressure rate
term contributes substantially to valve dynamics, and therefore it
Noah D. Manring1 is usually neglected. In this sweeping statement, Merritt dis-
missed the effect of the pressure transient term without a rigorous
Shusen Zhang proof of its significance, and by his weighty influence, Merritt
shaped the opinion of many researchers for nearly 30 yr. This
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, influence is shown in the research papers that follow.
University of Missouri, In an effort to measure the impact of the transient flow force
acting on the spool valve, Nakada and Ikebe [2] conducted experi-
Columbia, MO 65211 ments in which they compared their results with their own flow-
force model, which required an input from the experiments and
neglected the pressure transient flow force explicitly. In the com-
The objective of this paper is to experimentally investigate the sig- parison of this hybrid model with the experimental results, it was
nificance of the pressure transient flow force acting on hydraulic shown that the magnitude of the frequency response agreed well
spool valves. In the past, this flow force effect has been routinely with the model but that the phase angle had slight disagreements
neglected due to its assumed small size. Through analytical and at higher frequencies. The authors attributed the phase angle dis-
experimental methods, this research shows that flow forces due to agreements to modeling assumptions and instrumentation limits
pressure transient effects can be comparable in magnitude to the (particularly the flow measurements).
steady flow forces acting on the valve and that the past tradition Anderson and Li [3] have published a paper in which the non-
of neglecting this effect may not always be justified. The paper linear dynamic model for a two-stage servo valve was presented
also shows that the traditional steady flow force model does a and compared to experimental data. In their modeling, these
fairly good job predicting the steady flow forces on the valve, but authors used Merritts flow-force equation in which the pressure
more research must be done to develop a good model for pressure transients were neglected, but spool velocity transients were
transient flow forces. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4005506] retained. When comparing the experimental frequency response
to the theoretical frequency response, these authors showed that a
Introduction departure in phase angle began to occur between the two results
around 20 Hz. The discrepancy between the model and experi-
Hydraulic spool valves are used for controlling hydraulic power mental data was attributed to a phase lag in the flow measure-
for a wide number of mechanical engineering applications. In ments. Other research conducted by Li [4] has also been based
order for the hydraulic spool valve to accomplish its objective, its upon the traditional flow-force model suggested by Merritt.
position must be controlled by a spool-valve actuation device. As Though discrepancies between the flow-force model and experi-
the actuation device attempts to move the spool, it must overcome mental data have been primarily attributed to the phase lag in flow
the forces that act on the spool valve, which result from the mo- measurements [2,3], it is also possible that these discrepancies
mentum of the fluid passing through the valve itself. These mo- result in part from the assumptions that have been made in the
mentum effects are familiarly known as flow forces and are modeling process and the neglecting of the pressure transient term
generally quite substantial when a large amount of flow is passing explicitly.
through the valve. The size of the flow force is often so large that In an attempt to reconsider the importance of the pressure tran-
it prohibits direct actuation of the spool, and in many cases, the sient flow force acting on a spool valve, Manring [5] published a
hydraulic control valve must be actuated using a first-stage hy- paper in which the pressure drop across the valve was sinusoidally
draulic system that is capable of overcoming the flow forces. The varied to create a pressure transient effect. This paper was theoret-
flow forces that act on the spool valve have both transient and ical in nature and showed that the pressure transient term can pro-
steady components. While it is generally the steady component of vide a significant contribution to the total flow force acting on the
these forces that requires the most effort to overcome, the tran- valve, and that this contribution is more significant at higher fre-
sient component is known for its influence over the dynamic char- quencies of valve operation. This result was illustrated by turning
acteristics of the valve including stability and frequency response. the pressure transient term on and off and by comparing models
As hydraulic control valves are being used in applications that with and without the pressure transient term included. In this
require faster and faster response, it is important to provide a bet- work, Manring recommended that the pressure transient term be
ter understanding of the transient flow forces. This paper is being retained for modeling of high-speed valves that operate in fre-
written to increase this understanding as it particularly relates to quency ranges that are in excess of 25 Hz; however, no experi-
the pressure transient effect. The following paragraphs describe mental data were provided to substantiate this recommendation.
the representative literature in this field. The current paper is being written in part to remedy this defect.
A classical text on hydraulic control systems was written by The most recent paper published on this topic has been auth-
Merritt in 1967 [1]. Though this text is somewhat outdated, it is ored by Del Vescovo and Lippolis [6]. In this paper, transient flow
still heavily referenced in research papers and is used as a college forces are considered using a two-dimensional computational fluid
textbook for courses that are taught with a focus on hydraulic con- dynamics (CFD) analysis with a dynamic mesh technique which
trol systems. Within this text, a derivation for the transient and updates the moving mesh at every time step. This allows for the
steady-state flow force acting on a spool valve is put forward boundaries to change as the spool-valve position changes in the
using Newtons second law with approximations for the fluids simulation. This work studies the impact of both spool motion and
acceleration and mass. In the analysis of the transient flow force, pressure transients on the overall flow force that is exerted on the
Merritt shows that two transient terms appear: (1) a term that is valve. A section of this paper is aimed at studying the pressure
proportional to the spool-valve velocity and (2) a term that is transient impact alone (with a stationary spool valve) and it is
shown that a sinusoidal change in pressure begins to impact the
flow force when the frequency of oscillation increases beyond
1
Corresponding author. 100 Hz. The strongest impact on the flow force is observed at fre-
Contributed by the Dynamic Systems Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF DYNAMIC SYSTEMS, MEASUREMENT, AND CONTROL. Manuscript received
quencies that are higher than 1000 Hz.
April 26, 2011; final manuscript received October 27, 2011; published online March As the reader will note, previous work which has been aimed at
27, 2012. Assoc. Editor: Nariman Sepehri. understanding the importance of the pressure transient flow force

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 034501-1
C 2012 by ASME
Copyright V

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The first term on the right-hand-side of this equation is the tran-
sient flow force, while the second term represents the steady flow
force.
To model the flow through the valve, it is customary to use the
classical orifice equation which is given by
s
2
Q ACd P (3)
q

where Cd is the experimental discharge coefficient and P is the


pressure drop across the flow-restricted area of the valve. Using
Eqs. (2) and (3), a nonlinear model for the flow force acting on
the two-way spool valve shown in Fig. 1 may be produced. In the
literature, however, a linearized model for this force is commonly
used and it is this linearized model that we seek to investigate in
this research. By substituting this result into Eq. (2), the following
linearized expression may be written to describe the flow force
acting on the valve as a function of pressure drop:
F qLKc P_  Kf c P (4)

where the dot notation indicates a derivative of the pressure with


respect to time. In this expression, Kc is called the flow pressure
coefficient and Kf c is called the flow-force pressure coefficient.
Fig. 1 A schematic of the two-way spool valve and the control
volume used to derive an expression for the flow forces acting These coefficients are given, respectively, as
on the spool valve ACd
Kc p and Kf c 2AC2d cosh (5)
2qPo
has been theoretical in nature [5,6]. The work of this present
research is aimed at studying the pressure transient effect from an where Po is the selected operating pressure for linearizing the
experimental point of view and making a qualitative assessment transient flow force. In this equation, the flow-force coefficients
concerning the goodness of existing models. are shown to depend upon the discharge coefficient and the jet
angle. These parameters are topics of research in and of them-
Analysis selves; however, in this research, their traditional and theoretical
The top half of Fig. 1 shows a schematic of a two-way spool values will be used as noted in the Appendix. The reader should
valve where flow Q enters from the left-hand-side of the valve note that in Eq. (4), the first term on the right-hand-side of the
and exits through the right-hand-side. The right-hand-side of the equation, i.e., the pressure transient term, has been traditionally
valve is used to meter the flow by using the cross-sectional area, neglected by past researchers, while the second steady-state term
A, to restrict the flow passage. The volumetric flow rate through has been well received and routinely used. This paper is aimed at
the valve is shown by the symbol Q and the dashed lines show a reconsidering the importance of the pressure transient term and
control volume that is used to analyze the flow forces acting on showing from experiments that this term has the potential to be as
the two-way spool valve. The bottom half of the figure shows the large as the steady term, at least on an intermittent basis.
control volume itself where the flow exiting the control volume is It should also be noted that Eq. (4) considers the flow-force act-
shown to leave the spool valve in a direction identified by the jet ing on a stationary spool valve. In other words, the metering area A
angle h. The force exerted on the spool valve is shown in Fig. 1 is considered to be fixed and terms that are proportional to spool-
by the symbol F and an equal and opposite force is shown to act valve displacement and velocity have been neglected. This simplifi-
on the control volume. When friction is neglected in the model, cation has been introduced because the focus of this paper is on
these two forces are identical. Unit vectors are shown in this figure pressure effects, not spool-valve motion effects. Indeed, spool-
by the symbols ^i and ^j. valve motion effects are important and should be retained in a com-
The Reynolds transport theorem may be used with the control plete flow-force model as presented in a previous research [5].
volume in Fig. 1 to derive an expression for the flow forces acting
on the spool valve. This method of analysis has been previously Experimental Setup
used by the author to analyze flow forces [5,7] and its general An experimental setup was designed at the University of Mis-
form is given by souri to generate pressure transient effects within a hydraulic cir-

@ cuit, which has been used to create a time-rate-of-change for the
F q u dv ^ da
q u u  n (1) volumetric flow rate passing through a two-way spool valve. This
@t cv cs
setup is shown in Fig. 2. In this figure, a pressure compensated
pump with an accumulator is shown to provide a constant pressure
where F is the vector force acting on the control volume, q is the
^ is unit vector source for a square pressure-wave generator, which is essentially
fluid density, u is the fluid velocity vector, and n
a rotary valve that alternately opens the downstream line to either
that points normally outward from the control volume surface for
fluid that is crossing the boundary. The first volume integral con- the pressure supply or the reservoir based upon the rotational posi-
tion of the valve itself. In this research, a square pressure-wave
siders the momentum of the fluid within the control volume, while
generator has been selected as opposed to a sine pressure-wave
the second area integral considers the momentum of the fluid
generator in order to observe moments of transient and steady
entering and leaving the control volume. As shown in previous
flow-force generation in the same experiment. The two-way valve
work, the horizontal component of this equation may be written as
receiving this pressure signal was placed in a valve housing that
would allow the spool to freely slide within the bore; however, the
@Q Q2 spool valve was fixed in place by a force transducer so that it
F qL  q cosh (2)
@t A would not slide within the bore. The flow passage through the

034501-2 / Vol. 134, MAY 2012 Transactions of the ASME

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Fig. 2 A schematic of the experimental setup used to measure the flow forces acting on the
two-way spool valve

valve was restricted as shown in order to mimic the geometry of rate shown in the bottom half of Fig. 4 was generated using an
Fig. 1, and the leakage across the spool-valve lands was measured Euler approximation based upon the discrete data that were col-
and shown to be negligible. The pressure drop across the valve lected for pressure and time. A maximum pressure rise rate
was instantaneously measured as shown in the figure. Figure 3 is shown to approach 600 MPa/s which is typical of current day
shows a photograph of the setup as it resides on the laboratory test
bench.

Results and Discussion


The data for the experiments were taken by setting the dis-
charge pressure of the pump to approximately 10 MPa and turning
the rotary valve (i.e., the square pressure-wave generator) to gen-
erate approximately one square wave per second. The force and
pressure data were collected at a rate of 100 kHz, and since valves
cannot normally respond to an input that is above 100 Hz, the data
were filtered to attenuate any signal information greater than this
value. The top half of Fig. 4 shows the actual pressure drop that
was measured across the valve restriction. The reader will note
that this is not a perfect square wave as the top shelf experiences a
gradual drop before recovering. This characteristic is due to the
response of the pressure compensated pump and the accumulator.
Even so, a substantial pressure rise rate up and down has been Fig. 3 A photograph of the experimental setup used to mea-
achieved as shown in the bottom half of Fig. 4. The pressure rise sure the flow forces acting on the two-way spool valve

Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 034501-3

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Fig. 4 Square pressure-wave generation

fast-acting hydraulic systems. For instance, the typical rise time direction of fluid flow; in other words, the flow forces acting on
for a pressure compensated pump to achieve a 20 MPa adjustment the valve are tending to force the valve closed. This is a well-
is 25 ms [8]. This translates into an average pressure rise rate of known characteristic of the steady flow force which has been con-
800 MPa/s which is on the order of the experimental results firmed by these experiments. The top half of this figure is also
achieved by the square pressure-wave generator. overlaid by the model given in Eq. (4) where the pressure data of
The top half of Fig. 5 shows the flow-force data that were col- Fig. 4 and the design data in the Appendix have been used to gen-
lected by the force transducer shown in Fig. 2. The negative value erate the model. A qualitative assessment of this figure shows that
of this force indicates that the valve is being forced in the opposite the essential physics of the flow force has been captured by the

Fig. 5 Flow force results where the green line in the top strip chart is the theoretical result
produced using Eq. (4)

034501-4 / Vol. 134, MAY 2012 Transactions of the ASME

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model. To make a quantitative assessment of the model, the model that a thorough consideration of transient phenomenon will be
results of Eq. (4) have been subtracted from the experimental required if our machinery is to be designed to meet these
results to calculate the model error. This result is plotted in the demands. The research in this paper illustrates that our past
bottom half of Fig. 5. assumptions concerning pressure transient flow forces may not be
The modeling error shown in the bottom half of Fig. 5 describes valid in the future, and that better models for this phenomenon
the goodness of the model itself. Where the modeling error is may be needed. With that said, the authors invite future research
small, the model is considered to be good. Where the modeling in this direction for the purposes of improving the prediction of
error is large, the model is considered to be not-so-good. As the spool-valve dynamical behavior. In principle, this work should
reader can see from Fig. 5, the modeling errors are smallest in the extend the operating range of experimentation with the most use-
steady regions where the square pressure-wave generator is seek- ful results being presented in nondimensional form.
ing to hold the pressure relatively constant. From the same figure,
it may be seen that the modeling errors are greatest in the transi- Nomenclature
tion regions where the square pressure-wave generator is being
A restricted orifice area of the valve
used to create the transient flow force on the valve. Also, it may
Cd orifice discharge coefficient
be seen that the magnitude of the modeling error in the transition
F vector force acting on the control volume
region is on the order of the total flow force which means two
F scalar force acting on the control volume in the negative
things: (1) the transient flow forces due to pressure are comparable
horizontal direction
to the steady flow forces in magnitude and (2) the model for the
L length between ports on the two-way spool valve
transient flow force presented in Eq. (4) is not adequate. ^
n unit vector pointing normally outward from the control
The reader will recall that Eq. (4) was derived based upon linea-
volume
rizing Eq. (2) about the operating pressure Po. As shown in the
P pressure drop across the valve orifice
Appendix, this value has been selected as 5 MPa, while the actual
Q volumetric flow rate through the valve
pressure varies from 0 to 10 MPa. When the operating pressure is
u fluid velocity vector
actually lower than 5 MPa, the modeled transient flow force will be
Kc pressure flow coefficient for the valve
attenuated by the linearization process. When the operating pres-
Kf c flow-force pressure coefficient
sure is exactly 5 MPa, the modeled transient flow force will be
h jet angle
accurately evaluated by the linearized expression. When the operat-
q fluid density
ing pressure is greater than 5 MPa, the modeled transient flow force
will be amplified by the linearization process. In other words, the
linearization process (which has been useful from a modeling and
understanding point of view) has produced an average theoretical Appendix
result across the operating range of pressures. The results of this The following parameters were used in the modeling of this
research should be considered in this light. paper:
A 2:0 mm2 ; Cd 0:62; L 100 mm;
Conclusion Po 5 MPa; h 69 deg; q 850 kg=m3 :
The following conclusions are supported by the analysis,
experiments, and discussion presented in this paper:

1. Flow forces due to pressure transient effects can be compa- References


rable in magnitude to the steady flow forces acting on the [1] Merritt, H. E., 1967, Hydraulic Control Systems, Wiley, New York.
[2] Nakada, T., and Ikebe, Y., 1980, Measurement of the Unsteady Axial Flow
valve, and the past tradition of neglecting this effect may not Force on a Spool Valve, in Proceedings of the IFAC Symposium Pneumatic
always be justified. and Hydraulic Components and Instruments in Automatic Control, Warsaw,
2. The traditional steady flow-force model does a fairly good Poland. IFAC, May 1980, pp. 193198.
job predicting the steady flow forces on the valve. This is a [3] Anderson, R. T., and Li, P. Y., 2002, Mathematical Modeling of a Two Spool
Flow Control Servovalve Using a Pressure Control Pilot, ASME J. Dyn. Syst.,
confirmation of previous studies. 124, pp. 420427.
3. The pressure transient flow-force model presented in this pa- [4] Li, P. Y., 2002, Dynamic Redesign of a Flow Control Servovalve Using a Pres-
per significantly underestimates the transient flow forces act- sure Control Pilot, ASME J. Dyn. Syst., 124, pp. 428434.
ing on the valve and that an improved model should be [5] Manring, N. D., 2004, Modeling Spool Valve Flow Forces, Proceedings of the
2004 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and RD&D Expo,
pursued if this term needs to be well understood Anaheim, CA, Paper #IMECE2004-59038.
[6] Del Vescovo, G., and Lippolis, A., 2006, A Review Analysis of Unsteady
The issue raised in this paper concerning the importance of the Forces in Hydraulic Valves, Int. J. Fluid Power, 3, pp. 2939.
[7] Manring, N. D., 2005, Hydraulic Control Systems, Wiley, New York.
transient flow-force becomes extremely relevant for fast-acting [8] Manring, N. D., and Mehta, V. S., 2011, Physical Limitations for the Bandwidth
valves. In our postmodern world where engineering applications Frequency of a Pressure Controlled, Axial Piston Pump, ASME J. Dyn. Syst.,
are demanding more and more from our machinery, it is anticipated 133, pp. 112.

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