Numerical Analysis and Optimisation of the Flow Forces in a Water Hydraulic Proportional Cartridge Valve for Injection System

In the applications of the large transient power hydraulic systems, the nonlinear disturbance forces have a significant influence on the performance of the injection system, and it is necessary to take some detail analyses to reduce the influence of the nonlinear disturbance forces. According to the analyses of nonlinear disturbance forces, it can be considered that the flow forces are the major disturbance force. The optimization of the poppet geometry is presented to reduce the axial flow forces. A numerical simulation method is applied to obtain the visualization of the internal flow and achieve a better understanding of the flow field in the valve with double-U-grooves. The main influential geometry parameters of the metering edge were defined and the 3-D computational models were established. Then effects of various parameters on the axial flow forces were studied in detail by using the commercial software ANSYS/Fluent. And the simulation results indicate that the distance between the small U-grooves and the big U-grooves has a major influence on the axial flow forces, and the maximal axial flow forces can be significantly reduced by optimizing the geometry parameters of the valve poppet. Finally, the simulation model of the injection system has been established in AMESim and the simulation results prove that optimum parameters of the poppet can obviously improve the injection performance.