An Empirically Derived Pressure Compensation Control System for a Variable Displacement Vane Pump

Abstract

Pressure compensated vane pumps are well suited to applications such as automatic transmissions which require a low-cost, compact solution to provide the hydraulic power required for clutch control as well as the lubrication and cooling functions. This paper presents a black-box model of the series of valves providing the flowrate to control the motion of the pivoting cam in a variable displacement vane pump from an automatic transmission application. This series of valves consists of a pressure-reducing valve followed by a solenoid-operated valve that generates a pilot pressure acting on the main pressure regulator valve to adjust the commanded pump outlet pressure setting. Valves taken from a transmission control block were integrated into a custom unit and installed on a test rig with a modified vane pump. Measurements previously collected on this test rig were used to validate a lumped-parameter vane pump model and provide data containing the input-output relationships of the pressure compensation system valves. An analysis of the black-box description of this control system identifies limitations to the achievable system performance. This analysis reveals that the low-cost solenoid-operated valve and the arrangement of the valves within the control circuit both contribute to a controllable bandwidth less than 2Hz. Finally, the paper presents an alternate control system design capable of improved system performance.