Two-dimensional pressure control valve

Abstract

The two-dimensional pressure control valve is a piloted control valve which functions by using both linear and rotary motions of a single spool. A groove on the spool land, incorporating a sensing channel, forms the pilot stage to control the pressure of a spool chamber, while the load pressure is fed to the other spool chamber. To sustain the balance of the force across the spool, the load pressure must follow the change of pressure variation along the groove while the spool is in rotary motion. The geometric parameters of the groove and the spool-to-sleeve clearance have significant effects on both the static and dynamic characteristics of the valve. Increasing the sectional size of the groove results in a large Reynolds number and the static property of the valve thus changes from that of linearity owing to the entrance effect. The linearity of the static property is also affected by the leakage through the spool-to-sleeve clearance. The dynamic characteristics of the valve are dependent upon both the structural parameters and the tune constant of the load. The stability and dynamic response were investigated under different structural parameters and time constants of the load using both linear theory and simulation methods. Experiments were designed to obtain the static and dynamic characteristics of the valve and the leakage through the pilot. A balance should be made between the linearity of the static property and the response speed; it was found that both fairly linear static and desired dynamic characteristics could be simultaneously maintained for the two-dimensional pressure control valve.