The Third Workshop on Digital Fluid Power, October 13 - 14, 2010, Tampere, Finland

DIGITAL HYDRAULIC POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TOWARDS LOSSLESS HYDRAULICS

Matti Linjama, Kalevi Huhtala Department of Intelligent Hydraulics and Automation Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland matti.linjama@tut.fi

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the general characteristics of digital hydraulic power management system. The principle is new and studied only in few research publications. Functionality, controllability and losses are discussed, and the conclusion is that the technology makes almost optimal power management possible. The technology also improves the energy storing capacity of the accumulator by factor of 2-3 when compared to traditional constant pressure systems. KEYWORDS: Digital hydraulics, pump, motor, transformer, power management

1. INTRODUCTION Two main application areas of hydraulics are hydrostatic transmission and control of hydraulic actuators. The focus of this paper is in the latter one. The efficiency of hydraulic actuation systems is usually very poor. Many tasks require small or even negative average mechanical power some examples being unloading of a truck or turning of an excavator, but they take big and continuous power from the prime mover in traditional hydraulic systems. The reason is that the design of hydraulic systems is poor from the energy efficiency point of view. All key components have already relatively good efficiency but system efficiencies remain below 10 percent. The result is excess fuel consumption, emissions, cooling systems and economical losses [1]. 1.1. How to Measure Energy Efficiency? The poor energy efficiency of hydraulic actuation systems is not fully recognized. Efficiency is poor indicator because of its limitations. Good efficiency is not needed if the actuator moves seldom or its power level is small. Also, efficiency is not defined for negative actuator power, which is very important to consider in the calculations. The correct indicator is energy loss, i.e. time integral of the power loss over the complete work cycle, which must be minimized. As the energy loss of hydraulic systems is under consideration, the input power into is the product of the rotational speed and torque of

the prime mover, and input energy Win is its time integral. The change of energy stored in hydraulic accumulator(s) must also be considered. Thus, energy loss is:
N acc N act

Wloss

Win
i 1

Wacc ,i
j 1

Wact , j

(1)

where Wacc,i is the change of energy in the i:th accumulator and Wact,j is work done by j:th actuator. It is important to consider complete work cycle when calculating energy losses. For example, analysis of the digging motion only gives all too small losses because return movement is neglected. 1.2. General Features of Energy Efficient Systems The theoretical principle of the energy efficient hydraulic system is simple: losses must be small in all actuators. This means instantaneous power matching in all situations including negative actuator power. As hydraulic power is the product of flow and pressure, the possibilities for power matching are constant pressure plus variable displacement actuator, variable pressure plus fixed displacement actuators, and variable pressure plus variable displacement actuators. Important features of power matching are fast and accurate control of pressure and/or actuator displacement, and ability to handle negative flow rates. Matching of negative actuator power implies that the system must have energy sink. This is preferably hydraulic accumulator because the transformation of energy into another form is avoided. Another option is to move power to other actuators having positive power requirement. Third option is to move power into the prime mover. Hydraulic actuators can have very high peak power while the average power is much smaller. In order to avoid over-sizing of components, a good design slogan is mean power from prime mover, peak power from energy storage. Again, hydraulic accumulator is preferred energy storage component because energy transformations can be avoided and power density is good. Further features of energy efficient hydraulic systems are that good components are used and throttling is avoided as far as possible. Valve control may be necessary in many applications because sufficient stiffness and controllability is difficult to achieve without any throttling. However, surprisingly small pressure differential is enough to introduce stiffness and good controllability [2]. If system pressure is 35 MPa and valve losses are 0.5 MPa per notch, the valve induced power losses remain below three percent. The general features of energy efficient hydraulic system are summarized in Figure 1.

Hydraulic energy storage HP

Consumer A

Consumer B

PHP=pHPQHP

PA=pAQA

Prime mover

Pmech=

Hydraulic Power Management System

Figure 1. Power flow in energy efficient hydraulic system. Essential features are possibility for two directional power flows, hydraulic energy storage, exact power matching according to consumer demands, and small losses in all power paths (denoted by red bend arrows). 1.3. Alternatives for Energy Efficient Systems Lets start from the constant pressure systems where the well known example is secondary controlled motors. Losses are relatively small and controllability is nowadays good also near zero velocity. Up to 70 percent energy recuperation has been demonstrated in the active wave compensation [3]. The approach has recently been extended to hydraulic cylinders having discretely adjustable force [4]. The challenges of the secondary control are that it does not work properly with small or unknown inertia and that large accumulators are needed for energy storing due to constant pressure approach. A new variant of the constant pressure systems is the combination of the multi-chamber cylinder and distributed valve approach, in which about 50 percent reduction of losses has been demonstrated when compared to traditional load sensing system [5]. Throttling control is used but valve losses are minimized by adjusting effective piston area stepwise. The best known variant of the variable pressure systems is Load Sensing (LS). It is not energy efficient approach, because it does power matching for one actuator only and because traditional valves and pumps cannot handle energy recuperation, i.e. negative flow rate. Better approach is electric LS system with bi-directional distributed valve system where valves can be traditional [6] or digital [7]. Typical reduction of power losses is 3040 percent when compared to traditional LS [6, 7] and losses can still be reduced by using pressurized tank line [8]. The fundamental drawback of any LS approach is that energy cannot be easily stored into hydraulic accumulator because high-bandwidth pressure control is needed. Thus, energy recuperation requires special pump with Mooring function. Pump controlled actuators is another class of variable pressure systems. Each actuator has its own pump, which can be driven by common prime mover or by individual electric motors. The common prime mover approach yields long hosing and reduced performance. Pump losses are also significant because they work at partial displacement most of the time [9]. If each pump has its own electric motor, the benefit high power

PB=pBQB

density of hy ydraulics is lost. The general g chal llenge is th hat each pum mp and its electric mo otor must be e dimension ned accordin ng to the pe eak power of o the actuat tor. Hy ydraulic tran nsformers mix m the con nstant press sure and variable press sure approa ach. The tuator has its own transformer, wh system has a c constant pre essure rail and a each act hich fits the e pressure according to t the load d. Again, b both analog gue [10] an nd digital [ [11, 12] sol lutions ex xists. Hydr raulic ener rgy recupe eration is straightfor rward, but t large es seem acc cumulators are needed d because of f the consta ant pressure rail. Transf former losse als so to reduce e the degree e of energy recuperation r n quite muc ch [9, 13]. Th he newcome er is digital hydraulic power p man nagement sy ystem, which has been studied former in [1416]. In n the basic form, the solution co onsists of on ne pump-m motor-transf ha aving a num mber of ind dependent outlets. o This s eliminates s the need for several l pumpmo otors or tra ansformers and simplif fies the me echanical de esign. Press sure and flo low rate (in ncluding di irection of flow) of each outlet t can be controlled c independen i ntly and pre essure trans sformation happens h aut tomatically. . There is practically no limitation n for the pre essure amplification, which w allow ws the full u utilization of o accumula ator energy y storing cap pacity. It has been rec cognized tha at the funct tionality of f the machin ne is very v versatile wh hen compar red to the earlier e solutions. It can n satisfy all the conditi ions for the e highly eff ficient hydr raulics inclu uding optim mal utilizatio on of accum mulators. Th hus, the new w name D Digital Hyd draulic Pow wer Manage ement Syste em (DHPMS) is int troduced an nd used hereafter. A drawback d of f the machine is its cen ntralized na ature, which h means lon ng hoses in many appli ications. Th his may requ uire valve co ontrol, whic ch increases s losses. Th his paper an nalyses DH HPMS appro oach in gen neral level. The opera ation princi iple and fun nctionality of the ma achine are first discu ussed follow wed by th he analysis of the controllability y and losses s. Several ap pplication a alternatives are also pre esented.

2. OPERATI ON PRINC CIPLE OF DIGITAL D H HYDRAULI IC POWER R MANAGE EMENT SYSTEM 2.1 1. General l Functional lity Th he Digital Hydraulic Power Management M System (DHPMS) has h a num mber of ind dependent outlets. On ne of them m is low-p pressure (L LP), which h is norma ally the pre essurized ta ank line. Sec condly there is an optio onal outlet for high-pre essure accu umulator (H HP), which is used as the energy y storage. F Finally, the ere is pre-d defined num mber of act tuator outle ets (A, B, C, D, etc.) de epending on n the design n of the mac chine. The d drawing sym mbol is sho own in Figur re 2.

symbol of DHPMS. D Figure 2. Drawing s

The machine is rotated by the prime mover having sufficient inertia in order to suppress torque ripple caused by the machine. Rotational speed can be constant or variable. The machine has certain maximum time-averaged flow rate Qmax, which depends on rotational speed, geometrical displacement and volumetric losses as in normal pumps or motors. The average flow rates have following constraints (outflow positive): 1) Absolute value of flow at each outlet is smaller than or equal to Qmax 2) Sum of positive outlet flows is smaller than or equal to Qmax 3) Sum of negative outlet flows is bigger than or equal to Qmax The most important feature of DHPMS is that each outlet (excluding LP port) can be controlled independently. Pressures at outlets have practically no effect on losses and transformation of pressure happens automatically. This means, for example, that it is possible to take energy from the HP accumulator to load even if pressure in accumulator is smaller than load pressure. Also, the accumulator can be charged from any load pressure independently on accumulator pressure. This feature allows best possible utilization of the energy capacity of the accumulator. Figure 3 shows some possible power flows of DHPMS.

From prime mover to outlet

From outlet to prime mover

From outlet to another

Any combination

Etc.
Figure 3. Some possible power flows of DHPMS. 2.2. Detailed Operation Principle of DHPMS

Etc.

The DHPMS consists of several units each having two states: Pump oil to exactly one of the outlets or receive oil from exactly one of the outlets. So far, two different implementations have been presented, reciprocating piston [14] and fixed displacement unit (e.g. gear pump-motor) [15]. Figure 4 shows one unit of the piston type DHPMS. If the pre-compression and pressure release phases are neglected, exactly one valve is open at each time instant. When the piston moves in the extending direction, oil is pumped into LP, HP, A, B or C outlet depending on, which valve is open. When the piston moves in retracting direction, oil is sucked or motored from one outlet. The

pri inciple is exactly e the same as in digital p pump-motor rs [17], but t the DHPM MS has additional val lves for extr ra outlets.

Fig gure 4. On ne unit of th he piston typ pe DHPMS. Th he state of valves v is ch hanged at bo ottom dead centre and top dead ce entre of the e piston. Pro oper seque encing of valve v openings allows s pumping to or moto oring from any of ou utlets. Idle mode is al lso possible e by keepi ing LP valve open co ontinuously y. Some examples of control c sequ uences are: Suctio on phase fro om LP, pum mping phas se to A: Pum mp to A po ort, power i is taken from p prime move er Suctio on phase fr rom A, pu umping pha ase to LP: Motor fro om A port,, power recupe eration to pr rime mover Suctio on phase fr rom HP, pu umping pha ase to A: Hydraulic power p flow ws from accum mulator to po ort A. Addi itional pow wer is needed from prim me mover, i if pHP < pA. Power recuper ration to pri ime mover exists if pHP P > pA. Suctio on phase from A, pum mping phas e to B: Hy ydraulic pow wer from A to B. Additi ional power r is needed from prime e mover if pA < pB. Pow wer recuper ration to prime mover exis sts if pA > pB. It is importan nt to note th hat suction and pumpin ng phases happen h at different d tim me. This me eans that above a discu ussion is valid v for a average pow wers only. Energy is s stored tem mporarily in nto the iner rtia of the prime p move er and big inertia is ne eeded if the e system ha as one unit o only. Th he piston ty ype DHPMS S is achieve ed by conne ecting sever ral units in parallel. A simple example is sh hown in Fi igure 5. On nly one act tuator outle et is shown n because o of space lim mitations, bu ut additiona al outlets can be added by simply adding a more e valves.

Figure 5. . A piston type DHPM MS with fou ur units and d one actuato or outlet. Anothe er type of DHPMS D is based on fixed displacement un nits, such as a gear pum mpmotor. One unit is s shown in Figure 6 an nd parallel connection c can be mad de similarly y as in the piston p type machine m as shown in Figure F 7. Th his system h has the same e functional lity than pi iston type unit u with th he exceptio on that flow w is smooth th and that pumping and a motorin ng of each unit u happen ns at the sam me time. Im mportant ben nefits of this s approach are smooth h flow, relax xed valve r requirement ts, faster re esponse and d easier con ntrol [15]. The T challen nge may be efficiency o of the machine. In both h types of DHPMS D the hydraulic power p at ou utlets is tran nsformed in nto mechani ical power at common n axis. Thu us, the pow wer flows of Fig. 2 go oes through h the comm mon mechan nical axis.

Figure F 6. F Fixed displa acement uni it as a unit o of DHPMS. .

Figure 7. DHPMS based on th hree fixed displacemen d nt units. 2.3 3. Controllability of Flow F Rate Th he sum of all a outlet flows of DH HPMS is ze ero if extern nal leakage is neglecte ed. This me eans that on ne outlet is uncontrollab u ble and it si imply provi ides or recei ives oil used d by the oth her outlets. This specia al outlet is LP L in the no ormal case. 2.3 3.1. Pisto on Type DH HPMS

s is true It is i claimed t that any flo ow rate is po ossible with h digital pum mp-motor [17], but this for r the averag ge flow only. If only one o piston p pumps once e per second d, for exam mple, the res sulting flow w rate is ver ry irregular r and unsuit table for mo ost applicat tions. Accu umulator can n be used to o smooth th he pressure ripple, but it results in n slow press sure dynami ics. The hig gh bandwid dth pressur re control is essentia al in variab ble pressure energy e efficient systems and therefore the t dampin ng element must be small s and flow f rate m must be sm mooth. Smoo oth flow rat te reduces also a torque p pulsation at the cranksh haft. Co onsider mac chine with following fo fe eatures: al stroke an Machi ine has N pi istons each having equa nd diameter N is in nteger of thr ree Piston ns follow sin nusoidal traj jectory The ph hase shift b etween pistons is equal l Th hen each out tlet has at le east the foll lowing relat tively smooth flows [14 4]:

3M Qmax , M N

N ,M 3

(2)

We ca all these p principal fl lows. There are also o several o other smoo oth flow ra ates oth especia ally, if the number n of p pistons is big. However r, the 3Qmax / N is the sm mallest smo x flow ra ate and (N-3 3)Qmax/N th he biggest below b Qmax. If N =15, then princi ipal flow ra ates are 0, 20 %, 40 %, 60 % %, 80 % and 100 % of Qmax, for examp ple. These are obtaine ed by follow wing control l sequences:

u0 u1 u2 u3 u4 u5

0 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 1

0 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 1

0 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 1
(3)

where one o means that t piston p pumps to th he outlet in question an nd zero mea ans pumping g to some other o outlet. . The good property of f principal flow rates i is that they y can be fre eely mixed. If we use u2 to get 40 % of maxi imum flow to outlet A,, then it is possible p to use u shifted version of u2 (0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 etc.) to pump 40 0 % of max ximum flow w to outlet B, B for exam mple, and the ere is still 20 2 % of flow w available to some oth her outlet. The T only lim mitation is that t each pis ston pumps s to exactly one outlet.

Fi igure 8. Po ossible flow w combinations of two outlets whe en princip pal flows of f the 15-pist ton machine e are used. As the pump and d motor mo odes of eac ch piston un nit are com mpletely ind dependent, the above discussion d is i valid for motoring also. a It is po ossible to fr reely mix an ny of negat tive princip pal flow rat tes as well . The con ntrollability map of a 15 piston n unit for two t actuato or outlets is shown in Figure 8. Each E dot sh hows one po ossible flow w combination and it is assumed that t HP flow w is zero. The T map is different d for r each HP flow f value, but it does not have h holes.

2.3 3.2.

DHP PMS Based on Fixed Units U

An n additional l feature of DHPMS based on fix xed units is that each unit can easi ily have dif fferent displ lacement, which w allow ws us to improve contro ollability. When W displac cements are e different, it is also po ossible to use u differenc ce of flow rates r as wel ll. These ad dditional degrees of fre eedom lead d to question that what t the optim mal displacem ments of un nits are. Th his optimal coding depends d on the numbe er of actuator ports as discussed in [15]. Fib bonacci cod ding (1:1:2:3:5:8 ) is s good for s systems hav ving HP por rt and two a actuator po orts. The co ontrollabilit ty maps fo or some nu umber of units u are sh hown in Fi igure 9. Co ontrollability y improves rapidly wh hen the numb mber of units s increases

Figure 9. Controlla ability map s for DHPM MS based on n fixed dis splacement units when n Fibonacci coding is used. 2.4 4. Controllability of Pressure P ected to As ssume that pipeline p dyn namics can be neglecte ed and the actuator a out tlet is conne a hydraulic h ca apacitance. It follows from the pr ressure buil ld up equati ion that the e rate of pre essure is pr roportional to the diffe erence betw ween inflow and outflow. As only y certain flo ow values are availab ble, it can be conclu uded that exact contr rol of pres ssure is pressure av im mpossible. There T are ce ertain discre ete rates of p vailable and d zero rate d does not towards generally exis st, if outflo ow is nonze ero. Thus, it t is possibl le to contro ol pressure t tar rget value (with ( differ rent rates) but b it is no ot possible to t keep pre essure at th he target va alue. This re esults in seesaw type pr ressure beha aviour aroun nd the targe et value.

3. POWER MANAGEM M MENT Th his chapter discusses power man nagement s strategies of o DHPMS in genera al level. glected in order Lo osses are neg o to keep p the analys sis simple. 3.1 1. Controllability of Hydraulic H Power at Out tlets Di iscussion in n Chapter 2 shows that pressure at t each outle et of DHPM MS can be w whatever bu ut the flow rate r has only y certain di iscrete value es. As the hydraulic h po ower is the product of flow and pressure, p the e exact pow wer matchin ng is imposs sible with DHPMS. D Th here are at least follow wing approa aches to tack kle this prob blem:

1) Increase the resolution of the flow rate such that power matching is accurate enough. This means bigger number of pistons or fixed displacement units. 2) Use hydraulic capacitance to decrease pressure gradient caused by inexact flow rate. Correct average flow rate and pressure are achieved by repetitive switching between two closest flow rates. This approach was successfully used in [14, 15]. 3) The next bigger flow rate is selected and the excess flow is drained to tank. This approach is possible when distributed valves are used together with DHPMS, but it slightly increases losses. 3.2. Control of Power Balance The hydraulic power of actuator outlets is:

PH , act

QA pA QB pB QC pC

(4)

where subscript H refers to hydraulic power. Now the total hydraulic power is:

PH

PH ,act QHP pHP QLP pLP

(5)

As the LP flow is not controlled, the hydraulic power can be balanced by selecting suitable HP flow. The boundary conditions are: Hydraulic power must not exceed the maximum or minimum power available from the prime mover. Minimum power can be negative. Accumulator pressure must stay within predefined limits Too big transients should be avoided in order to reduce torque ripple. Prime mover should work at its optimal operation range when possible. 3.3. Control of Torque of Prime Mover Torque control is closely related to the control of hydraulic power, because their relation is
PH

(6)

The average torque must not exceed the minimum or maximum torque of the prime mover. Short over torque is allowed if the system has sufficient inertia. An example of this is simulations presented in [14, 15] where flywheel was used together with very small prime mover. This approach requires careful and active control of hydraulic power. It is important to use smooth flow rates only in order to keep torque ripple at acceptable level.

3.4. Control of HP Accumulator The purpose of the HP accumulator is to satisfy peak power requirements of the system and to allow the prime mover to produce mean power only. This downsizing of the prime mover reduces weight and losses, especially if Diesel engine is used as the prime mover. The selection of the control strategy of the HP accumulator is not trivial, because it depends on the system and its work cycle. The future actions should be known for the optimal control and some simpler approaches must be used in practice. The control problem is analogous to hybrid cars. One option is to control the state of the accumulator such that it is charged to about half of its maximum energy. Then it is possible react on both big positive and big negative power demands without running out of pressure range allowed. A big benefit of the DHPMS approach is that it can fully utilize the energy storing capacity of the accumulator. Much smaller accumulator is enough than in constant pressure systems. This difference is highlighted by an example. The ideal gas equation of the accumulator is:

p0V0

p V0 Voil

(7)

where V0 is size of the accumulator, p0 pre-charge pressure and Voil is the volume of oil inside the accumulator. The energy stored in the accumulator is:
Voil

W
V 0

p dV

p0 V0

V0 Voil

V0

V0 Voil

V0 Voil

(8)

Assume now that maximum pressure is 35 MPa and accumulator volume is 10 l. We assume for the constant pressure system that minimum pressure is 29 MPa. Energy storing capacity is maximized by using as high pre-charge pressure as possible and it is selected to be 26.1 MPa according to 0.9 pmin rule. The pre-charge pressure can be selected freely in the DHPMS and the optimal value is about 9 MPa (pmin = 10 MPa). Assuming = 1.4 gives energy capacity of 37 kJ for the constant pressure system and 100 kJ for the DHPMS, i.e. 270 percent more.

4. LOSSES OF DHPMS In order to be competitive with electromechanical systems, the losses of DHPMS should be very small. As the piston type DHPMS is similar to digital pump-motor, its losses are also similar. Total efficiencies over 95 percent have been demonstrated by Artemis Intelligent Power by their radial piston digital pump-motor [17]. The efficiency remains good in very wide operation range. Merrill et al. [18] compared losses of the traditional swash plate unit and digital pump by simulations and found that digital machine has much better efficiency at low displacements and rotational speeds. These results are consistent with results demonstrated by Artemis. Heikkil et al. [16] studied efficiency of a six piston boxer DHPMS. The system suffered from internal leakage and too small flow capacity of the control valves. The

efficiency was about 80 percent and an important result was that efficiency does not drop in the power transfer mode. There are several reasons for very good efficiency of the piston type digital machines: 1) Pre-compression can be optimized according to load pressure while the traditional valve plate can be optimized for one pressure only. 2) Pressure release function allows recuperation of the energy stored in the compressibility of fluid. 3) Displacement is adjusted by setting pistons into idle mode. Idle losses are very small. 4) Zero leakage seat valves can be used. Load holding is possible without any extra components. It is important to remember that electrical losses can be big and they must be considered because the piston type machine requires continuous switching of valves. DHPMS based on fixed displacement units utilizes traditional fixed displacement pump-motors and efficiency is similar, but control valves cause some extra losses. Losses also increase, if differences of flows are used to improve controllability. However, it is important to remember that total losses of the complete system can still be much smaller because of optimal power management.

5. APPLICATIONS OF DHPMS 5.1. DHPMS and Distributed Valves Figure 10 shows some possible ways to connect DHPMS and a cylinder actuator via a distributed valve system. The small accumulator symbol means the damping element. The idea in each version is that DHPMS dynamically produces optimal supply pressure for each actuator and valves are used to achieve good controllability. Pressure losses of valves are minimized at each control edge in each case. Version (a) uses common LPline for all actuators. Good properties are that differential connection is possible and that only one actuator outlet is needed per actuator. Version (b) has two adjustable pressures for one actuator. This may have more versatile controllability and improved stiffness in certain load conditions, but the cost is that two outlets are needed. Version (c) uses also two outlets for one actuator, but valve system is simplified. Differential connection is not possible with this version.

Figure e 10. Some possible wa ays to conn nect DHPMS S and cylind der actuator r via distributed d valve system. Connec ction to hyd draulic moto or is similar r. 5.2 2. Direct C Connection of DHPMS S and Actuat tor Fig gure 11 presents the di irect connec ction of DH HPMS and actuator. a Sym mmetric act tuator is the e easier case e and smoo oth velocitie es are achiev ved at least by using pr rincipal flow ws. The velocity resol lution is poo or in this ap pproach, but t this might be improve ed by some kind of sw witching con ntrol. Case (c) ( is more difficult as different flo ow rates are e needed at outlets. Th his case ma ay also be solved by y switching control. The T big ben nefit of the e direct connection is that losses are minimiz zed, but its functionalit ty is uncerta ain.

Figure e 11. Direct t connection n of DHPM MS and actua ator. 5.3 3. DHPMS S and Const tant Pressur re Systems DH HPMS can be used to t maintain n constant pressures needed in constant p pressure systems. Ver rsion (a) of Figure 12 uses u energy y storing accumulator and a active p pressure control at con be truly nstant pressu ure lines CP P1 and CP2 2. Benefits are a that pressures can b constant and t that energy storing cap pacity of acc cumulator is i much bigger as discu ussed in Se ection 3.3. The drawb back is that t power flo ows through h DHPMS from the c constant

pressur re lines to HP H accumul lator and vi ice versa, which w increa ases losses. Version (b) ) is closer to normal CP system ms and big accumulators are nee eded for en nergy stori ing. Importa ant benefit is that there e are hardly y any requir rements for smoothness of flow ra ates of DHP PMS outlets s.

Fig gure 12. Tw wo alternativ ve ways to implement constant pr ressure lines s by DHPM MS. 5.4. DHPMS D as Transforme T er A new idea is to use DHPM MS without prime mov ver. Then th the torque balance b of the machin ne determin nes its rotat tional speed d. Inertia lo oad may be e needed in n order to get sufficie ent control llability of f the rotati ional speed d. The dif fference to o the norm mal transfor rmer is that t DHPMS c can have any y number of o outlets as shown in Figure F 13. The T control l problem is to contro l rotational l speed acco ording to fl flow deman nds and torq que balance e such that target t speed d is achieved d.

Figure e 13. DHPM MS as hydra aulic transfo ormer.

6. PRA ACTICAL CONSIDER C RATIONS 6.1. Piston P Type DHPMS The cur rrent valve technology y causes that t the easiest t machine ty ypes are rad dial piston and a inline machines. m Both B have s sufficient sp pace for con ntrol valves s and are ea asy to modi ify. They have h also go ood efficien ncy although h inline ma achines are seldom use ed in hydrau ulic applica ations. A dif fficulty in b both types is s that the nu umber of pis stons is usua ally too sma all.

The valve requirements of the piston type DHPMS are very demanding as discussed in [14]. The requirements for the 15-piston machine with maximum flow of 100 l/min @ 1500 rmp are: durability of 109 cycles, response time below 2 ms, repeatability of 0.1 ms, flow capacity of 30 l/min @ 0.5 MPa, and energy consumption below 1 J per cycle. This kind of performance is very difficult to achieve and therefore it might be better to use several smaller valves in parallel. As discussed in [19], the replacement of one big valve with several smaller ones should yield faster response, smaller total size and smaller energy consumption. Additional benefits are that the valve system becomes fault tolerant and it is possible to control the opening profile. Recent research results show that one big and very fast valve is not the optimal way to control DHPMS and proper selection of the opening profile reduces pressure ripple [20]. 6.2. DHPMS Based on Fixed Displacement Units The easiest way to implement this type of DHPMS is to use machines with through axis. This rules out bent axis machines, for example. Valve requirements are much less demanding as shown in [15]. It might be good idea to use parallel connected valves in this solution also. As each machine has different displacement, the sufficient flow capacity can be achieved by increasing the number of parallel connected valves in bigger units, which allows the use of one valve type only.

7. CONCLUSIONS Digital Hydraulic Power Management System is a newcomer for highly efficient hydraulic systems. Two different solutions have been presented so far: piston type DHPMS and DHPMS based on fixed displacement units. The prototype of the piston type DHPMS has already been implemented and the fixed displacement version works according to simulations. It is expected that losses of the piston type DHPMS will be significantly smaller than in traditional transformer solutions. Even more important feature is its versatile functionality, which allows optimal power management. This means big potential in reducing losses in hydraulic systems. This is true for DHPMS based on fixed displacement units also even if losses of the machine itself are slightly bigger than in traditional machines. Yet one benefit of the DHPMS is that it can fully utilize energy storing capacity of accumulators, which means 2-3 times bigger energy storing capacity than in constant pressure systems. The technology is at its infancy and lot of research is needed. The implementation of DHPMS based on fixed displacement units should be straightforward because commercial pump-motors can be used. The optimization of the switching between states needs further research. Also, losses should be measured and compared to other solutions. The difficulty in the piston type DHPMS is that it is difficult to find suitable base machine. The optimal machine is obtained by designing completely new one, but this is very demanding for universities. Implementing the machine is the first step only. Control methods play very important role in DHPMS technology as in all digital hydraulic systems. These topics were only scratched in Chapters 2 and 3. The easiest version is the combination of DHPMS and

distributed valves (Figure 10). The direct connection (Fig. 11) is probably much more demanding. The transformer idea (Section 5.4) is new and its properties are no fully understood yet. The proper control of power and torque balance, and energy stored in the HP accumulator are challenging control problems as well.

REFERENCES 1 Virvalo T. & Vilenius, M. The Influence of Pumps and Valves on the Efficiency of a Hydraulic Boom. In: Garbacik, A. & Stecki, J. (eds.) Developments in Fluid Power Control of Machinery and Manipulators, pp. 183208 (Fluid Power Net Publication, Cracow, 2000). Linjama, M., Huova, M. & Vilenius, M. On Stability and Dynamic Characteristics of Hydraulic Drives with Distributed Valves. In: Johnston, D. N., & Plummer, A. R. (eds.) Power Transmission and Motion Control (PTMC 2007), pp. 297313 (Hadleys Ltd, 2007). Fischer, H., Steigerwald, T. & Godzig, M. Hydraulic Systems for Deep-Sea Applications. 7th International Fluid Power Conference, March 2224, 2010, Aachen, Germany, pp. 509522 (Vol. 3). Linjama, M., Vihtanen, H.P., Sipola, A. & Vilenius, M. Secondary Controlled Multi-Chamber Cylinder. Proceedings the 11th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, June 24, 2009, Linkping, Sweden, 15 p. Huova, M. & Laamanen, A. Control of Three-Chamber Cylinder with Digital Valve System. The Second Workshop on Digital Fluid Power, November 1213, 2009, Linz, Austria, pp. 94105. Eriksson, B., Larsson, J. & Palmberg, J.-O. Study on Individual Pressure Control in Energy Efficient Cylinder Drives. Proceedings of the 4th FPNI-PhD Symposium, June 1317, 2006, Sarasota, US, pp. 7799. Huova, M., Karvonen, M., Ahola, V., Linjama, M. & Vilenius, M. Energy Efficient Control of a Multiactuator Digital Hydraulic Mobile Machine. 7th International Fluid Power Conference, March 2224, 2010, Aachen, Germany, pp. 2536 (Vol. 1). Linjama, M. Energy Saving Digital Hydraulics. The Second Workshop on Digital F6luid Power, November 1213, 2009, Linz, Austria, pp. 520. Williamson, C. & Ivantysynova, M. Power Optimization for Multi-Actuator Pump-Controlled Systems. 7th International Fluid Power Conference, March 22 24, 2010, Aachen, Germany, pp. 91102 (Vol. 1). Vael, G., Achten, P. & Potma, J. Cylinder Control with the Floating Cup Hydraulic Transformer. Proceedings of the Eighth Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, May 79, 2003, Tampere, Finland, pp. 175190. Bishop, E. D. Digital Hydraulic Transformer Approaching Theoretical Perfection in Hydraulic Drive Efficiency. Proceedings of the 11th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power SICFP'09, Linkping, Sweden, June 2 4, 2009, 19 p.

8 9

10

11

12

Scheidl, R., Manhartsgruber, B. & Winkler, B. Hydraulic Switching Control Principles and State of the Art. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Digital Fluid Power, Oct. 3, 2008, Tampere, Finland, pp. 3149. Inderelst, M., Sgro, S. & Murrenhoff, H. Energy Recuperation in Working Hydraulics of Excavators. In: Johnston, D. N., & Plummer, A. R. (eds.) Fluid Power and Motion Control, FPMC 2010, pp. 551562 (Hadleys Ltd, 2010). Linjama, M. & Huhtala, K. Digital pump-motor with independent outlets. Proceedings of the 11th Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power SICFP'09, Linkping, Sweden, June 24, 2009, 16 p. Linjama, M. & Tammisto, J. New Alternative for Digital Pump-MotorTransformer. The Second Workshop on Digital F6luid Power, November 1213, 2009, Linz, Austria, pp. 4961. Heikkil, M., Tammisto, J., Huova, M., Huhtala, K. & Linjama, M. Experimental Evaluation of a Piston-Type Digital Pump-Motor-Transformer with two Independent Outlets. In: Johnston, D. N., & Plummer, A. R. (eds.) Fluid Power and Motion Control, FPMC 2010, pp. 551562 (Hadleys Ltd, 2010). Ehsan, Md., Rampen, W., Salter, S. Modeling of Digital-Displacement PumpMotors and Their Application as Hydraulic Drives for Nonuniform Loads. ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, March 2000, Vol. 122, pp. 210215. Merrill, K., Holland, M. & Lumkes J. Efficiency Analysis of a Digital Pump/Motor as Compared to a Valve Plate Design. 7th International Fluid Power Conference, March 2224, 2010, Aachen, Germany, pp. 313324 (Vol. 1). Linjama, M. & Vilenius, M. 2007. Digital Hydraulics Towards Perfect Valve Technology. Proceedings of the Tenth Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power, May 2123, 2007, Tampere, Finland, pp. 181196 (Vol. 1). Jaurola, M. & Huhtala, K. A Parameter Study of a Digital Pump. In: Johnston, D. N., & Plummer, A. R. (eds.) Fluid Power and Motion Control, FPMC 2010, pp. 203215 (Hadleys Ltd, 2010).

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20