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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
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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.
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)
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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:
Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control MAY 2012, Vol. 134 / 034501-5
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