Study and optimization of the dynamic performance of high-speed on/off valve by measuring the switching behavior in the fluid

High-speed on/off valves (HSVs) play an important role in digital hydraulic systems, and their dynamic performance directly affects the control accuracy of actuators. However, because of the inherent lag caused by a coil with many turns, a conventional HSV driven by a single coil does not achieve the best dynamic performance. In this study, an HSV driven by multiple coils discretized in the axial dimension (HSV-MCDAD) is proposed. A multifield-coupled dynamic model was developed, and its dynamic characteristics were determined. Moreover, an acoustic-vibration fusion-based measurement method was developed to detect the switching behavior of the HSV-MCDAD, which was shown to have the same accuracy as the coil current test method. The influence of the enabled state combinations of different coils on the dynamic performance was analyzed. Accordingly, a combination drive strategy is proposed to optimize the selection of multiple coils during different moving stages. Experiments indicated that the total opening and closing times of the HSV-MCDAD were reduced by 10.3% and 59.5%, respectively, compared to those of an HSV driven by a single coil. The proposed combination-drive strategy results in a higher and more stable dynamic performance of the HSV-MCDAD for different frequencies.