Performance of a flow control valve with pilot switching valve

In digital fluid power, fast switching valve is a potential digital hydraulic component because of less throttling loss, reliability, low price, and so on. But its outlet flow is usually small and discontinuous. In this article, a two-stage proportional flow control valve is presented, in which the main stage is a flow amplifying valve, and the pilot stage consists of several switching valves with pulse width modulation control strategy. Peak and hold technique is adopted to improve the dynamic performance of the pilot stage. Benefits of the proposed configuration are continuous outlet flow and large flow capacity. The valve performance is investigated by theoretical analysis, simulation, and test. It is shown that both poppet displacement and outlet flow fluctuate around a stable value because of the discontinuous pilot flow, but the average outlet flow as well as poppet displacement of the main stage can be approximately proportionally regulated by changing pulse width modulation duty ratio. Average outlet flow of the main stage is an amplification of that of pilot stage. Increasing the average pressure drop not only increases outlet flow but also increases the severity of flow pulsations because pressure fluctuation becomes more serious as the average pressure difference increases. In theory, higher carrier frequency leads to smoother outflow; however, tested outflow profile of the proposed valve at 50 Hz is not significantly smoother than that at 30 Hz. This phenomenon may be due to the asynchrony of the four switching valves and the pressure fluctuations during the testing process.