Improving the Performance of an Electro-Hydraulic Load-Sensing Proportional Control Valve

The paper deals with the simulation and the experimental verification of the hydraulic behavior of an electro-hydraulic load-sensing proportional control valve. An innovative CAE (computer aided engineering) methodology, developed combining CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations with lumped and distributed numerical modeling, is firstly introduced and tailored by comparing the numerical results with measurements coming from an experimental campaign performed for a wide range of pressure loads and metered flow rates. Then, both the reliability and the limits of the numerical approach are highlighted through a detailed numerical vs. experimental comparison, involving the pressure of the main hydraulic lines, the flow rate through the first section and the local compensator displacement. Finally, the CAE methodology has been applied for assessing the internal ducts hydraulic permeability and the local compensator spring pre-load influence on the control valve metering curves. At the end of this analysis, an optimized design configuration, featuring a maximum controlled volumetric flow rate increased of more than 25%, has been proposed.