Development of a High-Performance Electric Pressure Regulator Applied for Compressed-Natural-Gas-Fueled Vehicles

Abstract

A model-based study is carried out based on a combination of mathematical and Maxwell models to develop a high-performance electric pressure regulator utilized for compressed-natural-gas-fueled vehicles. To reduce computational cost, a symmetric two-direction model of the electric pressure regulator is established in Maxwell software, in which its material properties and dimension parameters are obtained on the base of specifications of a real electric pressure regulator. The output of simulating in Maxwell is the electromagnetic force, which is significantly improved when changing core shape in the various dimensions ∆1, ∆2, and ∆3. The optimal electromagnetic force is utilized for the mathematical models as an input variable to simulate the operational characteristics of the electric pressure regulator such as displacement and response time of plunger. The operational characteristics of the electric pressure regulator are examined under the influences of key parameters, including inlet gas pressure, diameter of orifice, and spring stiffness. By optimizing these key parameters, the simulated results in this study show that an electric pressure regulator with high performance can be obtained.