Available online at www. sciencedirecticom ScienceDirect IFAC: oiine CONFERENCE PAPER ARCHIVE IFAC PapersOnLine 5-1 (2018) 242-248 Computationally Efficient Non-linear Electro-hydraulic Actuation System Model for Real-time Simulation K.R Bimal” N.S Mate" V.G Sanjawadmath"** AN. Rao" * Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore, India (e-mail: bimatragk7@gtre.drdo.in) ** Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore, India e-mail: matenslesh gtre.drdo.in) ++" Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore, India e-mail: vivekgsatre.drdo in) 1 Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore, India (e-mail: vishwanatha gtre.drdo.in) we 4 Abstract: An electro-hydraulic actuation system with critically lapped servovalve and pres- surized return line is exposited. The dynamic equations governing the behavior of various components are explained; using these nonlinear equations, a simulation model is developed in Simmulink® software for the purpose of controller design and verification, Model requires very small integration step size as the equations involved are stiff. A relationship between the various pressures in the system is derived, and a simplified method for the nonlinear modeling of electro hydraulic actuating system is developed using these relationships. The simplified model is computationally efficent as the integration step-size is large compared to the original model. ‘The computationally efficient model finds application in real-time hardware-in-loop simulation (aLs) © 2018, IFAC {Intemational Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. Keywords: Flectro-hydraulic system, servo control, computer simulation, real-time systems, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, fault detection. 1. INTRODUCTION Hydraulic actuation systems are used im aerospace and ground applications, where high power, lower weight and faster response are required. An electro-hydraulic servo valve (EHSY) is typically used in such systems for control of the hydraulic fluid connected to the actuator cylinder. Bak has published the results of the model based design of an electro hydraulic actuation system for offshore pipe handling equipment Bak (2014). ENISV is controlled by an electronic contzol unit (can be analog or digital) by modulating the current to the torque-motor of the EHSV to get the desired actuator position. A typical servo con- trolled hydraulic actuation system with position feedback is shown in Fig.1 Modeling of the electro-hydraulic actuation system(EHAS) dynamics is the primary step in designing controllers for high performance systems Watton (2014). The EHAS is characterized by the nonlinear gain between the current and the actuator velocity due to the nonlinear relationship of servovalve control fiow to the differential pressure, and the asymmetric gain characteristics during extension and retraction of the actuator, duc to the difference in head-ond and rod-end areas of the piston. The mode! used for control system design and simulation must be faithful enough to represent the essential dynamies and nonlinearities, that can affect the closed loop control performance 2405.9968 © 2018, Fig. 1. An Electro Hydraulic Ac Feedback Controller ation Syste with Computer siraulation models of various levels of accuraci starting from simple transfer function models to detailed, multi-domain models, which can predict the internal forces and flow characteristics have been developed for different purposes. These models are generally used for the design ‘optimization and performance prediction of the servo valves and actuators, As the model become more sophisti- cated, including minute details, the computation require ment also increases, Hence, suck models are generally not used for the design of the controllers for the closed loop control of the servo system. Typically, linearized transfer function models are used for the synthesis of the controller ‘Watton (2014). However, the linear design is verified on nonlinear plant model, simulating different conditions of loads and pressure levels. A linear mathematical model of the electro-hydraulie position control system is developed "AC (lotermational Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Hlsevier Lid. Al sights reterved, Deer review tnder reponsbiltyof International Federation of Automatic Control 20 1016/j feo. 2018050592 KR Bimal eral /TEAC PapersOnL.ine 5-1 (2018) 2438-248 in Simulink for the purpose of the design of the controller in Cheng et al. (2011). A seventh order linear model of the servovalve actuation system is compared against the AMBsim model by Liu, and Jiang (2014). Neural network model for proportional servovalve is integrated with the actuator model by Das and colleagues in Das etal (2008). ‘The electro-hydraulic actuator control may be a subsys- tom in a larger aystem with several actuators, plant and electronic controllers with sensors and drives. ‘The pr- formance of the controller is often verified im real-time Simulation set-up with the models of the actuators and plant running in realtime, responding the commands of the actual embedded controller hardware, and providing feedback signals for closed loop control. Sach simulations are commonly called hardware-in-loop simulation (HLS). Foniare addressed the issuo of stiff nonlinear differential equations with simplified relationships and developed a model for HILS using state charts in Modelica software by simplifying the impact dynarnics of the piston in cylinder Forreiva (2012). HILS test result of an electzo-hydraulic sorvo system is given in Kovari (2009) Detailed nonlinear simulation models of EHAS often re- quire specialized hardware for executing the EHAS simula- tion program in realtime, which is difficult and expensive in a HILS setup. Usage of linearized models in ILS is over simplification of the problem, as it fails to bring ‘out real system effects in the nonlinear environment. In addition, the lineatized models fail to provide the feedback signals (can be flow, pressures) tothe fault detection logis, hich are common in any advance electronic control unit. ‘The advantages of the method suggested by Forxiare is limited, asthe technique is applicable to the simplification of the impact dynamics at the piston extremes, which is a rare situation in any practical electro-hydraulie actuation system. ‘The aforementioned issues with the real-time simulation call for a computationally efficient model of the EHAS ‘without compromising its nonlinear dynamic characteris ties. Such a modeling technique for EHAS is not available in the open literature lead to the development of a new technique, suitable for real-time simulations. In this pa- per, a nonlinear dynamic model of the electro-hydraulic actuation system, which Gnds application in gas-Lurbine control is developed in Simulink®. Later, a simplified relationship between the pressures in the system is de- rived by neglecting the compressibility effect of the fluid and pipeline. Using the system pressure relationship, the problem of obtaining the head-end and rod-end pressures inn a variable pressure return line actuator is solved. The nonlinear relationship between the servovalve current, and ‘the actuator velocity is computed adaptively in the sim- plified computationally efficient model. 2. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION A representative block diagram of the various components in the EHAS considered in this paper is shown in Fig.2 ‘The working hydraulic fluid is stored in the tank, and it, is pressurized first with a high-volume centrifugal pump called first-stage pump. The output of the first-stage pump is connected to the low pressure line. The fluid pressure in this line is denoted as P,(low pressure). The low pressure line is connected to a positive-displacement ear pump called the main-pump. The outlet pressure of the main-pump is termed as Ps (Servo Pressure). The outlet of the main-pump is tapped, and it is connected to the supply port of electro-hydraulic servovalve (EHSV) for hydraulic actuation. It shall be noted that in this exemplary embodiment, the primary purpose of the pumps are to supply fuel to the combustion chamber, so the flow capacities of the pumps ate much higher than the rated flow capacity of the servo valve. Hence, it is assumed that the low variations due to hydraulic actuation is not going to alfect the supply and return pressures. ‘The two contyol ports of the EHSV are connected to the head-end and rod-end of the actuation cylinder with Ayr and Ap as areas. The return line of the KHSV is connected to the low pressure line with pressure P,. It has to be noted ‘that the return line of the actuation system is not directly ‘connected to the tank. The fist stage pump outlet pressure and main pump outlet pressure varies depending on the speed of the prime mover. Such a kind of system is used in aircraft gas-turbine engines, where the engine fuel is also used as the medium for hydraulic actuation. The EHSV considered here is a critically lapped jet-type proportional servovalve, where the control flow is proportional to the applied current in the torque-motor. The actuator position is measured with an LVDT and it is used for closed-loop control using a digital-clectronic controler Py Pe Fig. 2, Fuel actuated servo control system with first-stage pump, main-pump, servovalve and actuator. 3, MODELING OF EHAS Different subsystem dynamics are identified and are mod- eled. EHSV, volume and pressure dynamics in the cylinder chamber and actuator force equations are modeled in the following sections. $3.1 Modeling of EHSV When a current is applied to the coil of the torque-motor, the jet nozzle is deflected, causing a differential pressure across the spool-valve. The spool-valve moves from theKER Bimal et al /TEAC PapersOnL.ine 1-1 (2018) 203-248 245 equilibriuan, opening the control-ports of the servovalve, comecting. one port to the supply line and the second port to the retum line. The pressure drop at the control- port depends on the area of the port, determined by the Position of the spool valve. A feedback is provided to the jet nozele via a spring, 80 that the armatuxe torque is balanced by the spring deflection due to the valve snovement. ‘Ths, the spool displacement is proportional to the applied ‘current. ‘The dynamics of the torque- totor, spool-valve, and feedbackespring ate not modeled explicitly. The torque-motor input current Jy is passed through a second order transfer function to’ obtain the logged input curtent Ji in equation(1), where wy is the natural frequency, Gis the damping coefficient nd s is the Laplace operator 2 inl) FH Mwws ta, 1 a) ‘The servovalve port area is proportional to the spool-valve displacement, in turn proportional to the lagged current. Anh 2 Valve flow rate @ is given by the following equation lane =caa, {25° 3 Q Vo 3) Where Cy is the discharge coefficient, Ais the atea of the port, pis the density of the uid and AP is the differential Presse across the control port. Assuming Cx and p are hot changing with the operating conditions, the following relationship can be obtained: Q= FnVAP Where Fn is defined as the fow number ofthe control-port orifice z Fn=cda/= Ve If we consider discharge cocfficiont(C) and density(o) as constants, then Fn is proportional to the area A, which is again proportional to the lagged torque-motor current Hence, Fr can be written as Fa=Kh Oy) Where K is the proportionality constant, Consider the extending motion of the actuator, where the supply pressure line is connected to the head-end of the actuator. The fiow rate Ql, ftom the servovalve port to the head-end chamber of the cylinder is given by Ql = FnyPs— Pa @) In this problem, we assume that the control-port areas are same. The fiow rate Q2, from the rod-end to the retum, line can be written as Q2=-FnVPa-PL ©) 8.2 Modeling of Volume Dynamics The rush of flow to the cylinder causes the actuator piston to move in the direction of the resultant force. ‘The actuator initially undergoes an accelerated motion, then attains a constant velocity and retards to a final position. Once the chamber pressures are stabilized, the volume derivative generated by the movement of the piston ‘will be equal to flow rato, However, during transient, the compressibility of the fluid and the dimensions of the pipeline come into picture and the equality is not valid siving difference in the inflow and the volume generated due to the motion of the piston. Consider the extending motion of the actuator. Let V4 be the instantaneous velocity of the piston; the differential volume rates at head- end and rod-end of the cylinder are given below: For Fn >0 Vin = PayPs Pa AnVa i) 8Vq=-FoyPa— P+ Ava 8) In the equation (7) for volume change, the first term on RUS represents the flow rate into the head-end chamber (due to differential pressure between the supply and head- ‘end pressures). ‘The second term represents the volume dezivative due to piston movement, given by (AnVa). Ideally for an incompressible fiuid both the quantities will be equal ie, the flow rate of the fluid to the head-end side will be equal to the volume derivative generated by the motion of the piston, The difference in volume derivative arises due to the compressibility effect of fluid and the ‘expansion of the pipeline. Similarly, for retarding motion of the actuator the following equations are applicable For Fn <0) Vig = PrP — Pi ~ AnVa O} 6Vq=—FnyVPs—Pa+AnVa (20) Note that the volume on both sides of the piston depends ‘on the position of the piston, denoted by X4. Volume of the chambers can be written as a fimction of actuator position: Vy = AnXa+Vew Va —An(Xu ~ Xa) + Vow ay Where Xv is the maximum stroke of the actuator, and Vow is the pipe work volume 5.9 Pressure dynamics Due to the volume changes, there will be pressure changes 'm the eylinder chamber. The pressure derivatives on both sides of the piston (equation.12) are given in Watton (2014) Si Pa Koy Ve Pa= Kee aay Where Kb is the combined bulk modulus of the Suid and the pipeline, Note that the bulk modulus of the fuid varies with temperature and pressure, For more accurate sinsulation, the effects of temperature and pressure nced +o be considered in the sizalation Jinghong et al. (1994)246 KR Bimal eral /TEAC PapersOnL.ine 1-1 (2018) 43-248 G4 Modeling of Piston Motion “The pressures on the both sides act on the piston and develop feces proportional to the ateas. The net force teting on tie puston isthe summation of the lon fore {L), force due to viscous fetion with frictional cone B, and the diferential presure forces FoPyAn—Prd—-L~BVs (33) ‘The resultant force F causes the piston to acceletate if the force is greater than the Coulomb friction force. wee a4) Where IY is the mass of the piston, The acceleration Vi is integrated to get the velocity Va, and further integrated to ret the position X.. Ifthe actuator hits the lower or upper stops, the velocity is set to zero. Coulomb friction can be ‘modeled and included im equation(13) for improving the fidelity of the simulation. 4, MODEL DEVELOPMENT IN SIMULINK ‘The EHAS model is developed in Simulink®, using the equations given in the preceding sections. Block diagram of the model is given Pig.3, Volume dynamies, pressure dynamics, and position computations are done in different subsystems, For the sake of completeness, the internal and. ‘extornal leakage flow coefficients are also included in the model. The supply pressure Ps and the return pressuxePx are modeled as a function of the pump speeds in the standalone simulation. The actuator saturation limits, ike maximum and minimum positions and EHSV dead bands are also included in the simulation, This model works at a sample time of 10 microsecond. Increasing the sample time beyond 10 microseconds causes the model to diverge. Fig. 3. EHAS Model in Simulink 5. DEVELOPMENT OF SI IMPLIFIE MODEL A study of the dynamics of the EHAS can be done by linearizing the nonlinear equations around an operat- ing point. It is evident that the pressure dynamics docs not provide any damping at steady-state of the actuator ‘with zero control flows in the servovalve Watton (2014). Moreover, it is evident from linearized equations that the pressure dynamics changes considerably with the system pressures and volumes. One approach to solve the afore mentioned problem is to remove the pressure dynamics completely and replace with assumed cylinder pressures, However, the cylinder pressures vary with actuator load even for a given supply and return pressure. Hence, this approximation cannot be used. A method for computing ‘the cylinder rod-end and head-end chamber pressures from, algebraic relationships, without using the stiff differential ‘equations is given in the following paragraphs. From equation (7) and equation (8), the following relation- ship can be derived, considering LHS is equal to zero: VPP An as) VPaaP An Put (Fre =Ps+ een, (16) Aap, — x Pas GE)Pa = KI an Where K1 is a constant. The assumption is valid, since the servo pressure Ps and the return pressure Py, are not changing as fast as the chamber pressues. From equation(9) and equation(10), the pressure relation- ship for Fn < 0 can be derived: VTE=TE _ Ay an VPsa Pa An Py AB Pe (GEN Ps +P, (19) Py GAP Pe — 2 (20) By neglecting the frictional force, tho following relation- ship ean be obtained from equation(13), once the piston attains a steady velocity. L= Pun PrAn en) From equation (17) and equation (21), the following ma- ‘ix equality can be formed with Py and Py as unknown ‘orien (a, ade” [Pe ~ FA] (2) Similany for Fn <0 [a mite” Fe) = [22] en ‘The matrix can be solved for obtaining Py and Px as a fanction of supply pressure(Ps), return pressure (P,) and ‘the actuator load (L). Ps and Pi, are not constant in a. practical system, However, the supply and return pressure dynamics are not coupled with the chamber pressure ‘dynamics in the considered application, 5.1 Actuator Velocity Computation Once the chamber pressures are obtained, it is possible to develop the velocity of the actuator to the control port area variations. Assuming zero 6Viy and 6Vi_ in equation(7), For Fn >0KER Bimal et al /TEAC PapersOnL.ine 1-1 (2018) 248-248 287 Vy — VPS Pap, (24) An For Fr <0 Va= (25) 6, SIMPLIFIED MODEL IN SIMULINK In this simplified model, the volume derivatives and pres- sure derivatives are not computed. The rod-end and hiead-end pressures axe obtained by solving the matyix equality given in equation (22) and equation (23). The matrix inverse is precomputed and used in the simula- tion, as the elements are constant. The actuator velocity gain is computed adaptively using the rod-end and head- end pressures obtained. The model executes at a sam- ple time of 1 millisecond, which is higher than an or der of two from the original model. The performance of the two simulation models are compared on a desktop computer with Microsoft Windows 8 operating system with Matlabé:Simulink® 2015b version. Simulinke-profiler report is used for comparing the execution. The original model took 20 seconds for a 1 second simulation, while the simplified one took 0.5 seconds. The advantage is significant in terms of execution time. Fig. 4. Simplified Model in Simulink 7. COMPARISON WITH ORIGINAL MODEL A step-command to the actuator position is applied to both the models and the results are compared. The actua- tor current and closed-loop position comparisons are given im Fig.5 The chamber pressures in the actuator cylinder are given in Fig.7, and the actuator velocity comparison is siven in Fig.6. The simplified model response agrees closely with the original model response. The effect of replacing the pressure dynamies with algebraic equations can be seen im Fig.7. 8. CONCLUSION ‘The relationship connecting head-end and rod-end pres- sure to the supply are return pressures in an clectro- hydraulic actuation system is derived without considering the compressibility effect of the fuid. Using this relation- ship, the dynamic equations for the chamber pressures of the actuator cylinder are replaced with algebraic equations im the EHAS simulation. Thus the simulation step size could ineease from 10 microseconds to 1 millisecond in Fig. 5. Comparison of response: Actuator position and servovalve current with a step-input in the reference Position, Response o aStep Command Fig, 6, Comparison of response: Piston velocity profile for a step command in reference position Fig. 7 rod-end pressures, Comparison of response: Cylinder head-end and. ‘the Simulink model. The computationally efficient EHAS model developed is integrated with other subsystem mod- cls and successfully deployed for real-time hardware-in- loop simulation, The pressure relationship can be very well ‘used for detecting actuator faults like, internal and exter= nal leakages which are very important for safety critical systems. Converting the non-linear differential equations288 KR Bimal ota /FAC PapersOnLine SI (2018) 243-268 into linear algebraic equations and neglecting the viscous friction force between the eylinder and piston are the important steps in the model simplification, Including the friction effect in the simplified model can lead to higher de- igtve simultaneous algebraic equations, which are difficult, to solve in realtime, REFERENCES Bak, MK. (2014). Model based design of electro-hydraulic ‘motion control systems for offshore pipe handling equip- ment. University of Agder, Norway. Cheng, J., Liu, W., and Zhang, Z.(2011). Modeling and simulation for the electro-hydraulic servo syste based on Simulink. International Conference on Consumer Blecironics, Communications and Networks (CECNet) pp. 466-469. Das, J., DasK.C., Saha,R., Mookherjee,S., and Sanyal, D (2008). Modeling and siraulation of an clectro-hydraulie actuation system through subsystem characterization, Annual IEBE India Conference, pp. 514-518, Ferreira, J.A., Oliveira, J., and Costa, V, (2012) Modeling of hydraulic systems for hardware-in-the-loop simula- tion: A methodology proposal. ASME. Jinghong Y., Zhaoneng C.,and Yuanzhang, L,(1994). The variation of oil effective bulk modulus With pressure im hydraulic systems Journal of Dynaraie System Measurement and Control, 116(1)'146-150. Kovari, (2009). Hardwer-in-the-Loop testing of an elec- trohydraulic servo system. : International Symposium of Hungarian Researchers on Computational Intelligence and Informatics, Liu, C., and Jiang, H, (2014). A seventh-order model for dynamic response of an electro-hydraulic servo valve. Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, Volume 27, Issue 6, Pages 1605-1611 Watton, J.(2014). Fundamentals of fluid power Control Cambridge University Press, New York.