Module- 4: ELECTRO-HYDRAULICS VALVES

LECTURE- 14: Critical Center Spool Valve Analysis-Stroking force

Stroking forces

Force required to drive a spool at an instant is the instantaneous stroking force. It has usually steady
state, transient and dynamic components. Not only at the vicinity of control point but also during
spool motion from a position to other position the flow force (steady state part) dominates.

Flow forces & static pressure forces

1) Flow forces on spool valves

It is named as flow induced forces, Bernoulli forces or hydraulic reaction forces. The force
induced as a result of flows through the valve orifices and valve body passages.

Referring to Fig. 4.14-1, the steady-state flow forces (jet), Fj can be expressed as,

Q2 2  Q2 2  Q2 2
Fj  V  
A2V A2 Cc A0 …4.14-1
Mass Accn.

Where, Q  Volumetric flow rate through orifice, m3 / sec

V  Control volume being accelarated, m3
A0  wxv  Orifice area, m 2
Cc  Contraction coefficient, (dimensionless)
Cv  Velocity coefficient, (dimensionless)
Cd  Cv Cc  Coefficient of discharge, (dimensionless)
  Oil mass density, kg / m3
w  Area gradient of orifice
(=  spool land dia. at orifice), m 2 / m
Av  Area (annular) of valve land, m 2
  Jet angle, degrees.

Force Fj is now resolved in their reaction force components (Newton’s third law). The axial
component,
F1   Fj cos  … 4.14-2

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and the lateral component,
F2   Fj sin  … 4.14-3

Lateral force causes sticking the spool to sleeve or valve body bore wall. It is balanced by
symmetrical porting.
Continuity requires that,
Q1  Q2 … 4.14-4

Vena Contracta

Balancing Force

Fig. 4.14-1: Flow forces on a spool valve due to flow leaving a valve chamber.

Therefore, using orifice equation,

1/2 1/2
2  2 
Q1  Q2  Cd A0  ( P1  P2 )   Cc Cv A0  ( P1  P2 )  … 4.14-5
   

Substituting in eqn. 4.14-1,

2 2 
   Cc Cu A0   ( P1  P2 ) 
F1    cos 
Cc A0
Therefore, F1 along the shown direction is finally,

F1  2 Cd Cu A0 ( P1  P2 ) cos  … 4.14-6

This force will try to close the port.

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If the orifice is rectangular and the peripheral width is large in comparison to axial opening, then
the flow is usually two dimensional and may be assumed as irrotational, nonviscous and
incompressible. Von Mises used LaPlace’s equation to find jet angle  . For all practical purposes
with very insignificant radial clearance  may be taken as 69o (see Fig.- 4.14-2).

69o
0.935

Cr xv

cos 

xv 1  ( / 2) sin   log e tan{(1/ 2)(   )} cos 


Cr 1  ( / 2) cos   log e tan{(1/ 2)( / 2   )} sin 

21o

xv C r 
Fig. 4.14-2: Effect of radial clearance on the jet angle

At small orifice openings i.e. at the beginning of opening  remains close to 21o (See Fig. 4.14-2).
The steady state force then expressed as,

F1  2 Cd Cv w( P ) xv2  Cr2 cos  … 4.14-7

However, experimental results show higher values than estimated values and stiffer curves near the
null point, by using above formulae.

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Transient flow forces

Transient flow force F3 due to fluid mass is expressed as:

d  Q1 / Av   LdQ1
F3  Ma   L Av  … 4.14-8
dt dt

L is called damping length & Av is the cross section inside the spool chamber.

Obtaining dQ1 / dt from 4.14-5, flow force at transient zone is expressed as,

dxv LCd wxv d ( P1  P2 )

F3  LC d w (2 /  )( P1  P2 )  … 4.14-9
dt (2  )( P1  P2 ) dt

Clearly, transient flow force is proportional to spool velocity and change in pressure drop.
The velocity term, which represents damping force, is more sensitive. The pressure part has
negligibly small contribution towards the valve dynamics. It is to be noted that for reverse flow i.e.,
flow entering through the orifice (right end orifice in Fig. 4.14-1) the transient flow force is
destabilizing. Care must be taken in analysis of force balancing as there are few ports in series
along the spool.

Stroking force

Referring to the Fig-4.12-1 let xv is positive for orifice 1 & 3 the total force opposing the spool
motion is expressed as,

dQ1
FR  2 Cd Cv (cos  ) wxv ( Ps  P1 )  L1 
dt
… 4.14-10
dQ
 2Cd Cv (cos  ) wxv P2  L2  3
dt

For symmetrical and matched valve,

dxv
FR  2Cd Cv (cos  ) w ( Ps  P1 ) xv  ( L2  L1 )Cd w  ( Ps  P1 ) … 4.14-11
dt

dPL
The pressure derivative part terms are negligibly small and not considered.
dt
Now the equation of motion of the spool valve is as follows,

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 d 2 xv dx
Fi  M s 2
 B f v  K f xv … 4.14-12
dt dt

Where, M s = Mass of the spool.

The damping coefficient B f is expressed as,

B f  ( L2  L1 )Cd w  ( Ps  P1 ) … 4.14-13

and the spring coefficient (spring rate) K f is expressed as,

K f  2Cd Cv (cos  ) w ( Ps  P1 ) … 4.14-14

Analyses show that,

# The steady state flow force acts as centering spring on the valve.
# The transient flow force acts as viscous damping.
# Both quantities are non linear because of changes in PL.
# If L2  L1 , the transient flow force is negative and may cause valve instability.

Therefore, in design it is maintained that L2  L1

Now the “damping ratio” may be defined as

Bf
s  … 4.14-15
2 K f Ms

Substituting the expression of B f and K f we get,

( L2  L1 )Cd w  ( PS  PL )
s  … 4.14-16
2 2Cd Cv w(cos  )( PS  PL )  M s

( L2  L1 ) Cd  w

2 2 cos  Cv M s
Finally,
 1 Cd   w
 s  ( L2  L1 )   … 4.14-17
 2 2Cv Cd cos   M s

It is independent of pressure  PS  PL  

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Practical design

In a practical design,

L  6d … 4.14-18

Where, d is spool land diameter (See Fig. 4.12-1).

And the damping length

L
L1  L2  2d … 4.14-19
3
Also, the spool rod diameter may be taken as,

d
dr  …4.14-20
2

The spool volume is also approximated as,

     1  3 3
d 2 L  2  d 2  d r2  ( L1  L2 )    d 2 L  d …4.14-21
4 4 4  2 4 4

 3 3 
M s   d  s … 4.14-22
 4 

Significance of the transient flow force coefficient B f by computing the damping ratio.

Substituting the expression of M s in equation 4.14-17, the relation of damping ratio can be
rewritten as,

 1 Cd   w
 s  ( L2  L1 )  
 2 2Cv Cd cos    3 d 3   s
 4 
 1 Cd   2 w
 ( L2  L1 )  
 2 2Cv Cd cos   d 3 s d
( L2  L1 )  Cd  2  w
  
2d  2Cv Cd cos  3 s   d

Considering damping length (eqn. 4.14-19) finally,

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 ( L2  L1 )  Cd 4   w
s    … 4.14-23
( L2  L1 )  2Cv Cd cos  3  s   d

Calculations:

With a good approximation it may be assumed that (re: Fig.-4.14_2),

  690 , cos 690  0.358

Also,
Cd  0.61, Cv  0.98.
both Cd and Cv are dimensionless.

Therefore,

2Cd Cv (cos  ) 0.43

For steel spool,

 s  7.8 gm / cm3  7.8 103 kg / m3

And for hydraulic oil.

  830 kg / m3

Cd 4  0.61 4 830
   0.93  0.142  0.93  0.377  0.35
2Cv Cd cos  3 s 0.43 3 7800

Therefore,

( L2  L1 ) w
 s  0.35 … 4.14-24
( L2  L1 )  d

It is dimensionless and independent of any unit system.

w
For a rectangular port, which is very common in spool valve, w   d . Therefore, is unity.
d
In such condition if damping length is 50% greater than thewother (say L2  1.5 L1 ), the damping
ratio  s becomes 0.07. On the other hand if L1  1.5 L2 then  s becomes negative with same value.

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It would create same effect but with negative value . i.e., magnitude of  s can never be greater than
0.35 w /  d . However, a realistic value is around 0.1 w /  d . In practice
L2  L1[but with positive damping]
Both viscous damping coefficient and spring rate maximum at null point, at PL  0.
K fo  0.43wPs
Mass of the spool.

 M s  (1.84 104 )d 3 kg

Where d is in meter.

Example for d=12.5 mm at 7MPa

K fo  0.43 12.5 103  7 106
 118.14 kN / m
Therefore, for a stroke of 0.5 mm at null point spool force required approximately
(0.5  10 3 )  (118.14  103 )  59 N

Bibliography:

1. Herbert E. Merritt, ‘Hydraulic Control System’, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, 1967.