Modeling and Simulation of Complex Hydraulic Valves Using EASY5 Software 972766

Many mechanical systems employing fluid power use one or more valves to control fluid flow. Often these valves can be quite complex, with many inlets and exits, reversing flow, flow and pressure control, and other unique features. It is desirable to model these valves and the associated fluid and control logic circuits with software during the design phase, and explore the effect of design changes on system performance using simulation and other analyses without having to build and modify expensive prototypes. A number of commercially available software packages offer various methods for “graphically modeling” dynamic systems, and some, offer the user pre-defined libraries of hydraulic components that greatly speed the modeling process. However, the variations on valve design are unlimited, and it is often necessary to model a hydraulic valve that has not been previously defined. This paper describes an approach allowing essentially any valve configuration to be modeled. Simulation results are shown for an example based on a pilot-operated four-way valve. Significant savings during the design phase of any fluid power project can be accomplished by the rapid virtual prototyping of fluid systems.