Comparative Numerical Study of Digital Hydraulic Systems With and Without Soft Switching

Abstract

The paper submits a numerical comparative performance study of digital hydraulic systems with and without soft switching. The systems are based on off-the-shelf two-way solenoid valves. A lumped parameter component-oriented modeling approach is employed through the use of the Modelica modeling language. The numerical simulations are conducted in OpenModelica environment. The obtained numerical results demonstrate the potential benefits and limitations to soft switching methods in energy efficient digital hydraulic systems such as virtually variable displacement pumps.