Dynamic improvement and reliability enhancement of a high speed on/off valve based on pre-excitation soft switching control

High Speed on/off Valve (HSV) is an essential component in Aerospace Digital Hydraulic Systems (ADHS), which impose stringent requirements on the dynamic performance and reliability of HSV due to the extreme application environments. However, the faster dynamic leads to increased impact between the spool and valve body, causing severe vibration and wear, which creates a conflict between rapid dynamic and high reliability. To address this problem, a Pre-Excitation Soft Switching Control (PESSC) with both pre-excitation and reverse deceleration functionalities is proposed. The initial current is optimized through pre-excitation to accelerate the opening time, while the application of reverse voltage hastens the decline of electromagnetic force, thereby reducing the spool velocity. The PESSC simultaneously achieves both faster dynamic performance and smaller impact velocity. Moreover, the optimal deceleration voltage parameters are obtained through multi-objective optimization. Experimental results demonstrate that the optimized PESSC shortens the opening time from 2.22 ms to 1.65 ms, reduces the impact velocity by 58.3%, and lowers wear by 55.4%. These findings underline the huge potential of PESSC in enhancing the dynamic performance and reliability of HSVs, offering promising applications in aerospace.