2009 World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering
Vibration active control of fluid pulsation based piezoelectric valve
Hongmei Liu1, Pingchao Ouyang2, Yunlong Cai1, Chen Lu1, Jiahui Luan1
1
Department of System Engineering of Engineering Technology
Beihang University
2
501 research institute
China Academy of Space Technology
Haidian, Beijing, China, 100191
liuhongmeigg@ tom.com
Abstract
With the development of the aircraft hydraulic
power supply system towards high pressure and large
load, Fluid-borne vibration in piping systems leads to
serious problems. Because of pump’s periodic flow
pulsation and fluid-structure interaction, mechanical
fatigue can readily take place. Traditionally, passive
pulsation dampers have been used to reduce fluid
pulsation of high frequencies, but the application of
such passive devices is limited in low frequency
conditions because of their bulk volumes or poor
performances. This paper presented a distributed
active control method using piezoelectric direct drive
servovalve to reduce the fluid pulsation in pipeline
systems. The idea of distributed vibration active
control based on the piezoelectric direct drive servo
was described in detail. Models of the piezoelectric
direct drive servovalve, aero-pump and fluid-structure
coupling vibration were established. The control
method can adjust control parameters adaptively
against the disturbance. A test platform was designed
and built to validate the vibration attenuation
efficiency. The experimental results show that the
vibration active control method is adaptive and robust
aganist disturbance, and can keep the vibration
minmum under variable speed and load.
1. Introduction
Piping systems are important accessories of
pumping systems, which have been used as hydraulic
power sources for different applications. Because
pump’s transient flow is periodic, and the liquid
impedance of its interior and piping system is
inevitable, flow pulsation certainly produces pressure
pulsation wave propagating along the pipes. Due to
fluid structure interaction, the pressure pulsation may
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DOI 10.1109/CSIE.2009.431
cause excessive noise and reach higher level which can
lead to mechanical fatigue and damage within a few
minutes[1]. And for the higher requested systems, such
as servo system, the flow and pressure pulsation can
greatly decrease the performances of control system.
To reduce the fluid pressure pulsation, passive
pulsation dampers have been used traditionally for a
long time, and have better performances in high
frequency conditions. When used in low frequency
conditions and some critical applications, they are
limited for their bulk volumes or poor performances.
Moreover, passive pulsation damper is very difficult to
adapt the variable operation conditions, such as
inconsistent vibration frequency and varying loads[2].
Recently, there are some researcher having carried
out the active control of pulsation in piping systems.
Kojima et.al[3]. have conducted theoretical and
experimental studies into the active control of pressure
pulsation in liquid piping system using designed
electro-hydraulic servo cylinder as an active attenuator.
Used transfer-function-based control method, the
pressure pulsation in a downstream pipe was reduced
to around 1/10 (-20 dB) for almost all harmonics of 15
to 400 Hz, and used adaptive feed-forward control
based on Filtered-X LMS algorithm, the pressure
pulsation can be reduced to at least –20 dB for almost
all harmonics of around 0 to 800 Hz. Maillard et.al.[4]
designed a non-intrusive fluid wave actuator which
consists of a circumferential ring of PZT stacks acting
on the pipe outside wall to generate an axisymmetric
plane wave in the fluid for the active control of
pressure pulsation. Pressure pulsation can be reduced
between 9 dB and 17 dB at the error sensor for all
controlled harmonics and smaller levels at the pressure
sensor located downstream of the error minimization
point. Zhou et.al.[5] conducted experimental studies
using servo valve as second source to reduce pressure
pulsation, and achieved some performances. Jiao
et.al.[2] used an orifice valve driven by PZT as a
second source and used adaptive-optimum control
method to adjust the control parameters to reduce
pressure pulsations and achieved 68% reducing rate at
a frequency of 350 Hz.
In the present work, the vibration active control on
fluid borne pulsation using piezoelectric direct drive
servovalve is investigated. A piezoelectric direct drive
servovalve for distributed active control of the pressure
pulsations in piping systems is designed. The optimum
configuration of the active absorbing spots and the
sensing spots is introduced. Then, the distributed active
control algorithm and the makeup of test rig are
described. Finally, distributed active control test results
are analyzed.
2. Piezoelectric direct drive servovalve
The initial source of the pressure pulsation of the
hydraulic piping systems is the instantaneous flow
fluctuation of the pump. If the flow fluctuation can be
reduced, the pressure pulsation of the piping system
will also be reduced. Because the flow fluctuation
frequency is very high (for the pump with the rotation
speed 1500 r/min and 9 pistons, the basic frequency is
225Hz) and the fluctuation flow is very small (for the
pump with the rotation speed 1500r/min, 9 pistons and
displacement 10.55 ml/r, the theoretical fluctuation
flow is 0.24 L/min), a high frequency and small flow
1 2 3 4
1、valve sleeve 2、spool 3、valve body 4、5 O rings 6、end cover 7、spring 8、push pole 9、piezoelectric ceramic 10、socket
11、displacement sense 12、regulating screw 13、fixed clamp
Fig.1. Schematic configuration of the piezoelectric direct drive servovalve
2.2. Operating principle
In the basic effect, a piezoelectric element generates
a charge when it is subjected to an input mechanical
stress. In the converse, the element develops an output
mechanical deformation when an electric field is
applied. For this application, the piezoelectric behaves
as an actuator.
absorber is needed to active counteract the pulsation.
For this purpose, the piezoelectric direct drive
servovalve is designed, and the static test also
conducted on the servovalve test bed.
2.1. Structure design
The traditional electrohydraulic servovalves are
open to electromagnetic interference, and two of its
other limitations are low resolution and narrow area of
working frequency. The frequency of fluid pressure
pulsation of pump and piping system is often above
500Hz. So the traditional electrohydraulic servovalves
are not fit for the vibration active control on the fluid
borne pulsation. To overcome the bandwidth limitation,
a direct drive piezoelectric servovalve is presented in
this paper. The structure of the piezoelectric direct
drive servovalve is illustrated in figure 1. It mainly
consists of piezoelectric stacks, sleeve, spool, and
displacement sensor. The annulus piezoelectric stacks,
which have holes in the center, drive the spool. When
voltages whose amplitudes are equivalent but inverse
phases are applied on the two piezoelectric stacks, one
piezoelectric stack elongates and the other
simultaneously shortens, then the spool will move to
the special direction. Displacement sensor in the
hollow of the piezoelectric stack can measure the
displacement of the spool.
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
The deformation of the piezoelectric stacks results
from both external electric field and input mechanical
stress. The deformation of piezoelectric stack is in
proportion to the voltage when there is no input
mechanical stress. The proportional coefficient is
piezoelectric constant. The deformation of
piezoelectric stack is also in proportion to mechanical
stress when there is no electric field, but their
directions are opposed, and this phenomenon is fit for
Hooke’s law. So in fact, the whole deformation of
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piezoelectric stack is the linear sum of two
deformations.
The piezoelectric direct drive servovalve can operate
in two modes, one is central position control, and the
other is single control. When the central control is
adopted, control voltage which is amplified enough to
apply on the common port of the two piezoelectric
stacks, one piezoelectric stack elongates because of
converse piezoelectric effect, the other shortens
simultaneously, and the spool will move to the
direction of shortened piezoelectric stack.
Displacement sensor senses the displacement of the
spool and produce corresponding voltage signal which
Fig.3. No load flow characteristic curve of the valve
is different from the control signal, so make the applied
voltage on the two piezoelectric stacks reach some
value and make the spool stay some special position.

2.3. Characteristic test

In order to test the dynamic characteristic of the
piezoelectric valve, applying 200V step-function
voltage signal on the servovalve, its step response
curve is illustrated in figure 2.

Fig.4. Pressure characteristic curve of the valve

From the fig.3 and fig.4, we can know that its flow
satisfies the active control of pressure pulsations and it
exists hysteresis which is inherent characteristic of the
piezoelectric ceramic and needs compensation in active
control.

3. Active control principle

Fig.2. Step response curve of the piezoelectric valve
From the fig.2, we can know that the its dynamic
response is very fast( response time is not beyond 100
microseconds, other tests show the amplitude and
phase frequency width can beyond 104 Hz), which
satisfies the distributed active control of pressure
pulsation completely .
Static test of the piezoelectric direct drive
servovalve is conducted on the servovalve test bed.
The pump source pressure is 5MPa and its no load
flow characteristic curve is illustrated in figure 3 and
pressure characteristic curve is illustrated in figure 4.
The two curve are fitted curves using cubic spine
according to the record data.
There are mainly three methods to reduce the
pressure pulsation in piping systems. The first is using
servo valve to overflow the pulsation flow, the second
is using servo valve to inflow pulsation flow, the last
method is using reciprocating actuator to reduce the
pressure pulsation. The principle described in this
paper is the first one, which is shown in Fig.5.
Pumping source supplies hydraulic power by a
constant pressure variable pump driven by the motor, a
throttle valve as load, two servovalve as active control
components and three pressure sensors as error sensors
placed along the pipeline. In order to suppress the
pressure pulsation, two servovalve diven directly by
piezoelectric stack is connected with the system bypass,
which can adjust flow rate dynamically through a
special control method.

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 It is known that there are standing wave spots along cost, active absorbing and sensing locations need be
the pipeline. On or near the standing wave spots, the optimized to avoid placing the absorbing and sensing
wave amplitude is very small. For effectively reducing locations near the standing wave spots.
the pressure pulsation and not requiring much control

Fig.5. Schematic diagram of active control system

4. Distributed active control algorithm
Active control of hydraulic fluid pulsations usually
is realized by adopting adaptive beforehand control
which needs the reference signal correlated with pump
source pulsations. When the reference signal can not
acquired or to eliminate the effect of the secondary
path, it can be synthesized by manpower. Known from
Pulsation
the simulation of the pump pulsations and test results
of real hydraulic test platform, pump source pulsations
are a series of isolated linear spectrums, adaptive notch
filter can be used to cancel the pump source pulsations
by synthesizing the reference signal whose frequency
is acquired by revolution counter or estimated by
frequency analysis.
d ( n)

x (n) x0 (n ) w0 (n)

+ +
e(n)
H s ( z)
w1 ( n ) −
+
x1 ( n )
90D

Hˆ s ( z ) Hˆ s ( z )

r1 ( n )
r0 ( n )
LMS

Fig.6. Single frequency adaptive notch filter

The single frequency adaptive notch filter structure x1 (n) = A sin(ω0 n) (2)
illustrated in Figure 6 can be applied to eliminate the Flow pulsation signal at cancelling spot is d (n ) , and
hydraulic fluid pulsations which consists of isolated
linear spectrums. d (n) = Ad sin(ω0 n + φd ) (3)
Suppose one reference signal x0 (n) is a cosine signal, The LMS algorithm employed in Fig.6 is
summarized as follows
the other x1 (n) is sinusoidal signal:
y (n) = w0 (n) x0 (n) + w1 (n) x1 (n) (4)
x0 (n) = A cos(ω0 n) (1)

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 e( n ) = d (n ) − y ( n) (5) X10-1

w0 (n + 1) = w0 (n) + μ x0 (n)e(n) (6)

w1 (n + 1) = w1 (n) + μ x1 (n)e(n) (7)
Normalize the control signal y (n) , then
( w0 (n) x0 (n) + w1 (n) x1 (n))
y ( n) = (8)

Pressure (Mpa)
w0 (n) ⋅ w0 (n) + w1 (n) ⋅ w1 (n)
So, the amplitude of the output control signal is not
correlated to change of the two weights, but to the
amplitude of the reference signal. Guaranteeing the
amplitude of the reference signal near the amplitude of Fig.9. Measured pressure before control at sensor 2
the pulsations of the flow and frequency of the
reference signal near the pulsation frequency, pressure X10-1
pulsations can reach very low as the algorithm
converges, as guarantees that system pressure will not
change heavily even if the algorithm diverges.

5. Experimental results and analysis

Pressure (Mpa)
In the test, the condition is that the pump’s rotation
speed is 588r/min, the pump source pressure is 8MPa,
and the sampling frequency is 2 kHz.
X10-1 Fig.10. Measured pressure after control at sensor 2

X10-1
Pressure (Mpa)

Pressure (Mpa)

Fig.7.Measured pressure before control at sensor 1

X10-1 Fig.11.Measured pressure before control
at sensor 3
X10-1
Pressure (Mpa)

Pressure (Mpa)

Fig.8. Measured pressure after control at sensor 1

Fig.12. Measured pressure after control at sensor 3

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 Servovalve 1 and 2 are used as active absorbers in
the pipeline where servovalve 1 is used to cancel the
low frequency pressure pulsation caused by pump shaft
and servovalve 2 is used to cancel the basic frequency
pressure pulsation caused by pump, and pressure
sensor 2 and 3 are used as error sensors. Among the
test, the amplitudes of two reference signals equally
are 0.012 V, the frequencies separately are 10.1 Hz and
88.5 Hz, and convergence factors separately are 0.65
and 0.45. When the control algorithm reaches the stead
state, the effect of distributed active control is
illustrated in figure 7-12. From those figures, we can
see that not only the low frequency caused by pump
shaft and basic frequency caused by pump are canceled
sharply, but also the other harmonic pressure
pulsations are reduced. At sensor 1, low and basic
frequencies separately reduce 3.17dB and 2.06dB. At
sensor 2, low and basic frequencies separately reduce
1.91dB and 2.17dB. At sensor 3, low and basic
frequencies separately reduce 2.11dB and 1.74dB.
6. Conclusions
The new piezoelectric direct drive servovalve offers
the potential for faster response compared to a
traditional two-stage servovalves. This paper put
forward a new idea for designing the new direct drive
servovalve and took it as vibration active absorber.
Aiming at the periodic characteristic of the hydraulic
fluid pulsations, notch filter method is used in the
simulation research of distributed active vibration
control of the hydraulic fluid pulsations, and is tested
on the hydraulic fluid pulsation test bed. Experimental
test results indicate that notch filter method has
obvious effect in the distributed active vibration of the
hydraulic fluid pulsations.
7. Acknowledgements
This project is supported by the China National Nature
& Science foundation (Grant No.50705005) and
National 863 program (Grant No.2007AA04Z431).
The authors would like to acknowledge Chen Lu’s
assistance during the evaluation phase of this research.
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8. References
List and number all bibliographical references in 9-
point Times, single-spaced, at the end of your paper.
When referenced in the text, enclose the citation
number in square brackets, for example [1]. Where
appropriate, include the name(s) of editors of
referenced books.
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