CONTROL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT OF AN EMV SYSTEM USING A PM/EM HYBRID ACTUATOR

In this study, we improved control performance of an EMV (electromechanical valve) system using a PM/EM (permanent magnet/electromagnet) hybrid EMA (electromagnetic actuator) and showed the feasibilities of both soft landing and fast transition of the EMV system using a simple PID control. The conventional EMV systems using only EM show significant nonlinear characteristics. Therefore, it is very difficult to control the valve position and several complex control schemes are used. This paper focused on the control performance improvement using a PM/EM hybrid actuator. In particular, a PM is used as a key design parameter such as a bias current of a magnetic bearing in order to improve the linear characteristic of the actuator, although most PM/EM hybrid actuators use a PM as a power saver during valve-open and -closed states. First, a FE (finite element) analysis was performed to confirm its linear static force characteristics. Then, both a test rig and a valve control system were built in order to prove experimentally the control performance improvement of the actuator. Finally, feasibilities of both soft landing and fast transition of the system were shown experimentally through gain-scheduled PID (proportional derivative integral) control.