Study the Effect of Pneumatic Valve Characteristics due to Linear and Non-Linear Damping System

Abstract

Pneumatic valves are widely used in heavy commercial vehicles’ air braking systems. These valves are mainly used in the braking system layout to maintain the vehicle stability during dynamic conditions. Rubber components are inevitable in valves as a sealing element, and it is very difficult to predict the behavior due to its nonlinear nature. Basically, this valve efficiency is defined in terms of performance and response characteristics. These characteristics are determined in the concept stage itself using 1D simulation software. AMESim software has a variety of elements to use in a unique way for performance and response behavior prediction. For pneumatic valves, 1D analysis is an effective method and it gives good correlation with actual test results. During the modelling of pneumatic valves, some of the contacts between rubber and metals are controlled by various parameters such as damping, contact stiffness and desired phase angle. Instead of giving these parameters to a linear contact element, rubber elements can be used to reduce the variations and increase the correlation with test results. Some of the challenges during modelling the rubber elements are, there is no incorporated rubber element with gap, end-stop controls, and it requires, load Vs deflection characteristics of the rubber (prediction of load and deflection). This paper deals with the modelling and parameterization of a typical pneumatic valve with linear and Non-linear contact elements. Outcome from the 1D simulation results have been validated with the experimental test results.