Flow Characteristics and Sizing of Annular Seat Valves for Digital Displacement Machines

This paper investigates the steady-state flow characteristics and power losses of annular seat valves for digital displacement machines. Annular seat valves are promising candidates for active check-valves used in digital displacement fluid power machinery which excels in efficiency in a broad operating range. To achieve high machine efficiency, the valve flow losses and the required electrical power needed for valve switching should be low. The annular valve plunger geometry, of a valve prototype developed for digital displacement machines, is parametrized by three parameters: stroke length, seat radius and seat width. The steady-state flow characteristics are analyzed using static axi-symmetric computational fluid dynamics. The pressure drops and flow forces are mapped in the valve design space for several different flow rates. The simulated results are compared against measurements using a valve prototype. Using the simulated maps to estimate the flow power losses and a simple generic model to estimate the electric power losses, both during digital displacement operation, optimal designs of annular seat valves, with respect to valve power losses, are derived under several different operating conditions.