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Experimental study on solenoid valves controlled pneumatic diaphragm

motor

Article  in  Proceedings of the JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power · November 1996

DOI: 10.5739/isfp.1996.247

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 203

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SOLENOID VALVES CONTROLLED

PNEUMATIC DIAPHRAGM MOTOR

Ching-hai YANG*, Sunao KAWAI*, Yukio KAWAKAMI**

Kenji, SINOZAKI, Tadahiro MACHIYAMA***

*Department of Mechanical Engineering

, Waseda University
3-4-1 Okubo Shinjuku Tokyo 169, Japan
email yang (a)kawai. mech. waseda. ac jp
**Shibaura Institute of Technology
, Japan
***Nippon Institute of Technology
, Japan

ABSTRACT

A pneumatic diaphragm motor controlled by two PWM solenoid valves are studied . First, the characteristics of the
PWM solenoid valve is investigated and a simplified mathematical model of the valve is presented . Second, a PWM
control law is synthesized by considering the effects of the valve characteristics and the asymmetrical flow
characteristics between the charging process and the discharging process of the system. The main parameters that
influences the performance of the system are analyzed and their values are optimized experimentally . At last, the
frequency response and the stiffness characteristics of the proposed system are obtained and the results show that the
performance of the proposed system is better than the traditional one. These experiments verify the theoretical design
work, and indicate that the PWM controlled pneumatic diaphragm motor is feasible for practical use .

KEY WORDS

Pneumatic diaphragm motor, On-off valve, PWM, Frequency response

NOMENCLATURE To= period of carrier frequency Tc= 1/fc

Ton= high voltage time of PWM control signal
D= duty ratio of PWM control signal Toff= low voltage time of PWM control signal
e= position error , t2, t3, t4 switching time of on-off valve
t1
Es= driving voltage of on-off valve xv= displacement of on-off valve
F= external load force xvm= maximum of xv
f= carrier frequency yref= position reference input
i= current
y= stem displacement of diaphragm motor
K1,K2= control gain
S e effective cross sectional a= parameter used to compensate the deadband
area of on-off valve
Sein= maximum of Se T s= static characteristics of PWM solenoid valve

Fluid Power. Third HIPS International Symposium (c)1996 JHPS . ISBN4-931070-03-5

247
 INTRODUCTION

Regulating valves are widely used in process control.

It is not only used in the direct control of the flow of fluid,
such as the control of flow rate, fluid level, but also used
in the control of a turbine by regulating the working fluid.
They play important roles as final control elements in
process control systems.
Pneumatic diaphragm motor is one kind of
actuator whose displacement is controlled by a
pneumatic servo mechanism. Conventionally, the
displacement of the diaphragm motor is controlled by a
pilot valve which is called positioner. The structure of
the pilot valve is complex. Literature [1] has presented
the dynamic characteristics of the pneumatic diaphragm
motor with a conventional positioner. Experimental
ndings demonstrated that when the speed fi of the process
uid becomes large the actuator tend to oscillatem,fl and it
is necessary to make efforts to improve the stiffness of
the diaphragm motor in order to satisfy the needs of the
development of the process plant131.
Considering that a high speed on-off valve is now
cheaply available, simple in structure and small in size,
it has been proposed that the conventional positioner be
substituted with two PWM solenoid valvesm. Literature
[4] analyzed the stiffness characteristics of the system
and presented an analytical model of the PWM solenoid
valve, demonstrated the effectiveness of the model for
studying the dynamics of PWM solenoid valve. But in Fig. 1 Schematic of the experimental system
synthesizing the control law, the time delay of the valve
was neglected. However, it has been made clear that
displacement is sensed by a stroke sensor and the signal
when operated at PWM mode, the time delay of the
is feedbacked to the computer. The stroke of the motor is
on-off valve effects the system performance
set to be 50 min and experiments are conducted in the
significantlyi5141. In this paper, first, the characteristics
vicinity of the middle of the stroke. The effective area of
of the PWM solenoid valve is investigated and a
the diaphragm motor is tested to be 1000 cm'. In order to
simplified mathematical model of the valve is presented
investigate the stiffness characteristics of the actuator, it
for synthesizing the control law. In the determining of
is necessary to impact external force to the stem. In this
the control gains, the asymmetrical flow characteristics
paper, the external force is generated by a
between the charging process and the discharging
electro-hydraulic servo system which can be used as a
process is considered. Then, the main parameters that force and a position control system.
influences the performance of the system are analyzed
and their values are optimized experimentally. finally,
CHARACTERISTICS OF PWM
the frequency response and the stiffness characteristics of
SOLENOID VALVE
the proposed system are obtained and compared with the
traditional system.
When a solenoid valve is operated under PWM mode,
its static characteristics is of much concern. Static
SOLENOID VALVES CONTROLLED
characteristics of a PWM on-off valve is defined as the
PNEUMATIC DIAPHRAGM MOTOR
relationship between the average effective area for each
cycle of valve motion and the duty ratio of the modulated
The experimental system of solenoid valves controlled
signal. The static characteristics can be expressed as
pneumatic diaphragm motor is shown in Fig. 1. The
input and the output of the air in the diaphragm chamber
are regulated by the on-off valves (SMC #XT311-3) (1)
which are controlled by PWM mode. The stem

248
characteristics of a PWM on-off valve is defined as the
relationship between the average effective area for each
cycle of valve motion and the duty ratio of the modulated
signal. The static characteristics can be expressed as

(1)

where is the static characteristics, Se is the average

effective area for each period, and Sen,is the value when
D=1.O. Se(t) is a function of the displacement of the valve
plunger as follows

(2)
Fig. 2 Waveforms of electronic current i and
valve displacement x(t) for input u(t)
where xv(t) is the real-time displacement of the valve
plunger, and xvmis the maximun. Substituting Eq. (2) in
(1) yields 0≦D< D1

D1≦D< D1+D2
(3)
D1+D2≦D< 1-D3-D4 (7)
where xv is the average displacement for each cycle of
1-D3-D4≦D< 1-D3
valve motion. Eq. (3) shows that the motion of the valve
1-D3≦ D<1
plunger needs to be cleared in order to obtain the static
characteristics.
Fig. 3 schematically illustrates how the valve behaves where
when it is causing a on-off action(8)'. In the figure, the

signal u(t) denotes the modulated voltage signal input to

the valve, and 1(t) is the solenoid current. It can be seen

that due to its inertia and the delay of solenoid, the

plunger can not instantaneously follow the on-off change

of the input voltage. On the assumption that the motions
of the plunger in the opening and closing process are

uniform ones, xv(t) can be given as follows

when 0•…Ton •…t1
(8)

xv(t)=0 0≦ t≦Tc
(4)

when t1+t2≦Ton≦ To-t3-t

0≦t< t1

t1≦t< t1+t2
Eq. (7) represents the static characteristics of the
t1+t2≦t< Ton+t3 (5)
PWM on-off valve. The equation shows that it is a
Ton+t3≦t< Ton+t3+t
nonlinear function of the duty ratio D. The third case. in
Ton+t3+t4≦ t<Tc the right of the equation represents the so-called linear
region of the on-off valve where the variation of the
average flow rate is proportional to the variation of duty
when Tc-t3≦ Ton≦T c
ratio. Generally, the valves are expected to be operated at
this linear region.
xv(t)=
xvm 0≦t≦ Tc (6)
In order to verify the validity of Eq.(7), the static
characteristics and the four time parameters of the valve
Substituting Eq.(4).(5) and (6) in Eq.(3). and assuming are measured experimentally. The four time parameters
that r is a linear function of D when tisT„„stif-t, and are determined to be t1=11.6 rns, t2=3.33 ms, t3=2.33 ms,
Te-t3-t4≦Ten≦Te-t3.then we get t4=2.67 rns. Fig. 4 shows the experimental results

249
 operated under PWM mode, the air passes through the

valve to fill the tank. The time response of pressure in

the tank is measured. The volume of the tank is

3.85•~10-3 m3, the supply pressure is 0.4MPa. The duty

ratio D of the control signal is set to be proportional to

the control time t, as D=t/tmax, where tmax is the total

control time. In the simulation, the process is supposed

to be isothermal. The experimental result and the

simulation result for different carrier frequency are

shown in Fig. 5. The calculated responses agree well

with the experimental ones when the carrier frequency is

high, but at low carrier frequency the difference between

the simulation and the experiment result becomes

apparent. This can be explained as that at low carrier

Fig. 3 Static characteristics of PWM on-off valve
frequency, the temperature in the tank variates greatly in

the experiment while the isothermal is supposed in the

simulation. The results shown in figure 3 and figure 5

confirm the validity of Eq. (7).

PROPOSED CONTROL STRATEGY

This section presents how the pneumatic diaphragm

Fig. 4 System for studying the characteristics
of the PWM solenoid valve
motor is controlled. The two on-off valves used in the
experiment are identical in size. In synthesizing the
control law, it is supposed that they have the same flow
characteristics as described in the above section. In the
control law, the duty ratio D of the control signal is
shown in Fig. 6, which can be given as

(9)

where e is the system position error, e = yref - y, ƒ¿ is a

parameter used to compensate the deadband of the valve

characteristics shown in Fig. 3, ƒ¿ =D1, where D1 has
been defined in Eq. (7), K,, K2 are the gains of the input
control signal to valve 1 and valve 2, respectively, they

are set to be different because the pressures across the

valves are different. The difference of the pressures

across the valves causes a asymmetrical flow

characteristics in the charging process and the

discharging process. The optimal values of K1 and K2 are

so determined that the system position error caused by

Fig. 5 Time response of pressure for different carrier

frequencies. Duty ratio is set to be a proportional
function of t, D= t/10[s]

Eq. (7) expresses the average dynamic behavior of the

PWM solenoid valve with respect to the duty ratio of the
control signal. To investigate its effectiveness in the
simulation for pneumatic system, a system as Fig. 4 is Fig. 6 Duty ratio of the control signal
used for experiment and simulation. When the valve is

250
 Fig. 9 Effect of compensating parameter a on

Fig. 7 Optimal control gain with respect to the the step response of the system.

frequency of the external force load. K1=1200 1/m, K2=1100 1/m,fc=20Hz

increasing of f,. In this paper the optimal value off, is

set to 20 Hz.
Fig. 9 shows the effect of compensating parameter ƒ¿

on the system response. It can be seen that when ƒ¿ =0,

steady-state error occurs. This is caused by the deadband

of the PWM solenoid valve, which can be known from

Fig. 3. When fc= 20 Hz, from Eq. (7) it can be known

that the deadband is D1=0.23. Substituting this value into

a, it can be seen that the steady-state position error

caused by the deadband is compensated perfectly.

FREQUENCY RESPONSE AND STIFFNESS

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SYSTEM

This section investigates the frequency response and

Fig. 8 Effect of carrier frequencyf on the step
the stiffness characteristics of the proposed system. In the
response of the system. K,=1200 1/m,
experiments, the control parameters concerned are: fc=20
K2=1100 1/m, ƒ¿=0
Hz, ƒ¿ =0.23, K,=1200 1/m, K2=1100 1/m and the

control sampling frequency is 1000 Hz.

To obtain the frequency response characteristics,

the external force is the least. For the external force with
waves with amplitude of 0.015 in are used as the position
different frequencies, the optimal value of K1 and K2 are
reference input under different frequency. The result is
shown in Fig. 7,. which are determined by experiment.
shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the proposed
Fig. 8 shows the effect of carrier frequency on the step
diaphragm motor has a bandwidth of 1.8 Hz, and it is
position response of the system. When fe=5 Hz, the
better than the conventional one which is about 0.23 Hz.
system oscillates with a frequency being equal to the
To test the stiffness of the system, sine waves of
carrier frequency. This is because of the on-off switching
external force with a amplitude of 2505N are generated
of the valves. When fc=20Hz, the system response
by the electro-hydraulic servo system. The result is
smoothly. Since the pneumatic valve and the mechanical
shown in Fig. 11. The figure demonstrates that the
load usually act as a low-pass filter. the oscillating of the
bandwidth of the stiffness characteristics is broadened
system can be decreased by increasing the carrier
apparently, especially the stiffness in the middle
frequency. On the other hand, the nonlinearities and the
frequency area is improved a lot.
fatigue of the valve would become severe with the

251
 discharging process are set to be different. This can
compensate the asymmetrical flow characteristics
in the charging and the discharging process of the
system.
3. The frequency response and the stiffness
characteristics of the proposed system are better
than that of the traditional positioner controlled
one.
These results verify the theoretical design work, and
indicate that the PWM controlled pneumatic diaphragm
motor is feasible for practical use.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

The authors wish to express their thanks to student

Akihiro Yuki of Waseda University and Katsuaki
Terada of SIT for their support in the experiments. The
Fig. 10 Frequency response characteristics of the
authors are grateful to SMC Pneumatics Co„ Ltd. for the
pneumatic diaphragm motor support of the experimental devices.

REFERENCES

1. Kagawa, T., Shimizu, M., Honda, K. and Oyama, O.,

Analysis of Electro-pneumatic Positioner Valve
System Considering Nonlinear Characteristics of
Pilot Valve, Trans. SICE, Japan, 1993, 29-11,
pp1337-1341
2. Kawakami, Y., Nishi, K., Sakamoto, K. and Kawai, S.,
A Study on High Speed Drive of A Pneumatic
Diaphragm Motor, Proceedings of JHPS autumn
meeting, 1989. pp25-28 (in Japanese)
3. Machiyama, T., Terashima, Y., Shinozaki, K. and
Harada, T., An Experimental Investigation on the
Diaphragm Motor as a Regulating Valve,
Proceedings of JHPS autumn meeting, 1991. pp89-93
(in Japanese)
Fig. 11 Stiffness characteristics of the pneumatic 4. Yang, Q. H., Kawaguchi, H., Kawai, S., Kawakami,
diaphragm motor
Y. and Machiyama, T., Sonic Considerations on
Improvement of the Stiffness for Pneumatic
The results obtained in this section manifest that the Diaphragm Motors, Proceedings of the 2nd
PWM controlled pneumatic diaphragm motor has a International Symposium on Fluid Power
better frequency characteristics and a better stiffness Transmission and Control. 1995, Shanghai,
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5. Tanaka, H., A Study on High Speed on-off Valves,
CONCLUSIONS Trans. JSME (Japanese), 1984, 50-457, pp 1594-1601
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