Pressure Control of a Pneumatic Actuator

Using On/O Solenoid Valves

MAISAM JEDDI TEHRANI
Masters Degree Project
Stockholm, Sweden May 2008
XR-EE-RT 2008:013
Abstract
Nowadays a very important aspect in heavy duty vehicles is the braking sys-
tem. The braking system can be divided into EBS brakes, exhaust brake and
retarder, where the latter is of interest in the present Masters Thesis. This
thesis presents an investigation whether it is possible to substitute todays
concept, i.e. controlling the air pressure to the retarder using a proportional-
valve, with two so-called on/o-valves and a pressure sensor, which will re-
duce expenses and contingently hysteresis phenomena seen in the current
system. A non-linear model of the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) electrical
drives, and the electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and pneumatic parts of the
valves, is designed. A Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID)-controller is
designed based on the derived model. Two dierent pulsing schemes have
been investigated. However, just one of the approaches together with the
results from the other one is presented in this thesis. In order to improve
the control performance non-linear control and prediction methods are used
so that required time response and robustness is achieved. Finally the mod-
elled current and pressure are validated against the measured data, and a
verication of the controller is done on the prototypes.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor,
Tomas Selling. His wide knowledge and his logical way of thinking have been
of great value for me. His understanding, encouraging and personal guidance
have provided a good basis for the present thesis.
I am also grateful to my supervisor, Professor Hakan Hjalmarsson, at the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, for his
detailed and constructive comments, and for his continuous support through-
out this work.
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Richard Riis and
Mr. Soren

Aberg for their assistance with the prototypes used for tests and
experiments.
Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to the rest of the members of
NEST at Scania, and friends and family that have supported me in doing
this thesis.
1
Contents
1 Introduction 11
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 Functional Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Actuation Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Retarder 17
2.1 Scanias Retarder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.1 Retarder system today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.2 Retarder System Using On/O Solenoid Valves . . . . 18
2.2 Dead Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 Solenoid Valves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Equipments In Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.1 ECU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.2 Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5 Retarder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.6 Pressure sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.7 Software Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.8 Oscilloscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9 Multimeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3 Modelling 25
3.1 System description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 ECU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 Valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.1 The Electrical Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.2 The Magnetic Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.3.3 The Mechanical Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.3.4 The Pneumatic Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.4 Regulating valve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2
3.5 Summary of state-space equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4 Model validation 39
4.1 Experiments on prototype one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.1 Duty Cycle Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.2 Filling characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.3 Ventilation characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Experiments on Prototype 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.1 Filling characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.2 Ventilation characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3 Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3.1 Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.2 Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5 Model Improvements 55
5.1 Parameter tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.1.1 Discharge coecient C
d
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.1.2 Air gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.2 System identication of electrical model . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.3 Time Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.4 Temperature dependent resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6 Control Design 63
6.1 Control Objectives and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.2 PID Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.2.1 Principles of PID Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.2.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.3 Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.3.1 Scheme 1-Fill Valve and Ventilation Valve activated
separately for lling and ventilation. . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.3.2 Scheme 2-Both Valves activated simultaneously for ll-
ing and ventilation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.4 Results-Scheme 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.4.1 Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.4.2 Test on Prototypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.5 Control Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.5.1 Anti-Windup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.5.2 Improved Control using Non-Linear Control . . . . . . 70
6.5.3 Improved Control using Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.6 Comparison between the two approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3
7 Conclusion and Future work 75
7.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7.2 Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
A Appendix 79
A.1 Linearizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
A.1.1 Fill valve and Ventilation valve are both activated . . . 80
A.2 Calculation of smallest outlet orice area, A
o
. . . . . . . . . . 84
4
List of Figures
1.1 Schematic gure showing the functional description of the
valve unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 A basic model describing the interior of a solenoid valve. . . . 19
2.2 Normally closed 3/2 valve - Principal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 Normally closed 3/2 valve - Unaected, where number 1 is the
pressure source, number 2 denotes the outlet port and number
3 is the air exhaust port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.4 Normally closed 3/2 valve - Aected, where number 1 is the
pressure source, number 2 denotes the outlet port and number
3 is the air exhaust port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Schematic presentation of the basics of a PWM signal . . . . . 22
3.1 System description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 The whole system represented with blocks . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3 The simplied model of ECU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.4 The dierent subsystems of a solenoid valve . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.5 The electrical circuit when the PWM is high . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.6 The electrical circuit when the PWM is low . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.7 A model of an ideal diode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.8 The model used for the electrical subsystem . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.9 The model used for the magnetic subsystem . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.10 The forces inicted upon the armature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.11 The model used for the mechanical subsystem . . . . . . . . . 33
3.12 The pneumatic subsystem model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.13 The pressure chamber model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.14 A schematic sketch of the regulating valve, showing the forces
acting on the piston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5
4.1 Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, the desired
pressure (26.2%P
sup
) is obtained within 10%T
req
. However
if time delay is taken into account, the time for lling up to
26.2%P
sup
is 7 samples i.e. higher than 10%T
req
, which doesnt
fulll the requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2 Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, the desired
pressure (P
sup
) is obtained within 65 samples, which is too
slow and doesnt meet the requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.3 Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about 4
samples to empty the dead volume from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
,
which is too slow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.4 Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about
65 samples to empty the dead volume from P
sup
to 0 bars,
which is too slow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.5 Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume
of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, the desired pressure
(26.2%P
sup
) is obtained within 10.5 samples, which is too slow. 45
4.6 Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume
of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about 5.3
samples for lling up to 26.2%P
sup
, which is near the required
time (10%T
req
). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.7 Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume
of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, it takes approx-
imately 75 ms to go from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
, which is too
slow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.8 Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume
of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes approx-
imately 26 ms to go from 7.4 bar down to 5.9 bar, almost
fullling the requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.9 Comparison between modeled and measured current, when
applying a PWM of 75%, where the frequency, time constant
and mean value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.10 Comparison between modeled and measured current, when
applying a PWM of 40%,where the frequency is the same.
However the amplitude diered quite a lot. . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6
4.11 The upper gure shows the lling process on prototype 1, when
a PWM of 82% is applied to the valve. The lower gure indi-
cates the ventilation of the dead volume, when a 82% PWM
is applied. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.12 The gure shows the lling and ventilation process on proto-
type 1, when a PWM of 50% is applied to the valves. The
lower gure is the error dierence between the modeled and
measured pressure, shown in percentage. . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.13 The gure shows the lling and ventilation process on pro-
totype 1, when a PWM of 82% is applied to the valves. The
valves are active one at the time, where the modeled and mea-
sured pressure coincides quite well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.14 The upper gure shows the lling process on prototype 2, when
a PWM of 82% is applied to the valve. The lower gure indi-
cates the ventilation of the dead volume, when a 82% PWM is
applied. In both cases a dead volume of 75cm
3
and an orice
diameter of 1 mm was used. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.15 The upper gure shows the lling and ventilation of the pres-
sure for dieren PWM values, and the lower gure indicates
the various duty cycles applied on each of the valves. . . . . . 52
5.1 Applying a PWM of 82% to the ll valve, using dierent
discharge coecient values. Where the results indicate, the
greater the discharge coecient is the faster is the valve. . . . 56
5.2 Applying 82% PWM to ventilation valve, and altering the
value for Cd
vent
, a faster system is achieved when bigger value
for Cd
vent
is used. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.3 The gure indicates the change in air gap due to the armature
movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.4 The gure shows how big the magnetic force is compared to
other forces, i.e. spring-, viscous-, and pre load-force. . . . . . 58
5.5 System identications circular ow. The rectangles are the
computers main responsibilities, and the ovals are users main
responsibilities. [3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.6 The two plots show the current and duty cycle for 40% (lower
gure), and 75% (upper gure). In both of the gures the
delay time between when the PWM goes on until the current
moves is recognized, which is about 15 ms. . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.7 The temperature dependent resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7
6.1 The structure of a basic feedback control loop, where r denotes
the reference signal, u is the control signal, and y is the output. 64
6.2 Traditional Pulsing Scheme (left) and Pulsing Scheme 1 (right) 66
6.3 Pulsing Scheme 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
6.4 The above gure shows the simulated pressure and its refer-
ence signal, when using an orice diameter of 1.3 mm and
a dead volume of 75 cm
3
, where the eects of prediction and
boosting action are concluded, moreover the lower gure shows
the control signal for each of the valves. . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.5 Resulting PID-controller on prototype two with orice diame-
ter of 1.3 mm, including boosting action and prediction.(Scheme
2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.6 The dead volume pressure for a reference change when a PID
controller has been applied, where slow PID reaction can be
observed for certain cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.7 The algorithm of the non-linear control, where it is illustrated
how the integration of the control signal is activated or deac-
tivated depending on the pressure change in the dead volume. 71
6.8 Block diagram illustrating a controller based on feedback prin-
ciple with an additional non-linear control. . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.9 An illustration of how the extra control signal, u
N
, behaves
when non-linear control is applied to the system . . . . . . . . 72
6.10 Resulting PID-controller on prototype two with orice diam-
eter of 1.3 mm. (Scheme 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
A.1 The left gure shows the structure of the valve when the ar-
mature is at its start position, and the right one indicates the
valves structure when the armature has moved. . . . . . . . . 84
8
List of Tables
4.1 Duty cycles for opening the ll valve and keeping it fully
opened, when the system is supplied with air pressure, where
DC
min,fill
and DC
max,fill
are minimum and maximum duty
cycles for the ll valve, respectively. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2 Duty cycles for opening the ventilation valve and keeping it
fully opened, when the system is supplied with air pressure,
where DC
min,vent
and DC
max,vent
are minimum and maximum
duty cycles for the ventilation valve, respectively. . . . . . . . 40
4.3 Duty cycles for opening the ll valve and keeping it fully
opened, when no air pressure is supplied to the system, where
DC
min,fill
and DC
max,fill
are minimum and maximum duty cy-
cles for the ll valve, respectively when no pressure is supplied
to the system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.4 Duty cycles for opening the ventilation valve and keeping it
fully opened, when no air pressure is supplied to the system,
where DC
min,vent
and DC
max,vent
are minimum and maximum
duty cycles for the ventilation valve, respectively when no pres-
sure is supplied to the system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.5 The ll and ventilation sample times for each of the valves,
with dierent dead volume and orice diameter. . . . . . . . . 47
A.1 Table showing calculation of A
o
with two dierent methods
for a specied value of x
p
, where the smallest A
o
is chosen. . . 85
9
Chapter 1
Introduction
This Masters Thesis was conducted at the department of Powertrain Control
System Development Scania CV AB in Sodert alje, Sweden, from November
12, 2007 to April 6, 2008.
Scania is a large and global company operating in Europe, Latin America,
Africa, Asia and Australia, and is one of the leading manufacturers of heavy
trucks, buses, and industrial and marine engines in the world. Each year
Scania oers students Masters Thesis work at the department of research
and development. Modeling and control of retarder is a thesis work provided
by Scania as a part of the development and optimization of Scanias Retarder
system. The work aims at investigating a new method for regulating the
braking torque using two on/o valves instead of a single proportional valve
used in Scanias Retarder system today.
1.1 Background
The Scania Retarder is an integrated component of Scanias truck braking
system, mounted directly on the shaft at the end of the gear box. The
retarder is an aid for reducing the speed without constant use of the regular
service brake and the exhaust brake. The actual retarder system uses a
proportional valve to control an air ow that determines an oil pressure
in the retarder, which results in a braking torque. The proportional valve
is constructed in such a way that it is very sensitive to temperature and
vibrations, and has a strong inuence on the internal friction and calibration.
Proportional valves are quite expensive and experience has shown that they
are aected by so called hysteresis. The cost can be reduced and some of the
disadvantages aecting the dynamics can be eliminated by using two on/o
valves, a ll and ventilation valve, to regulate the braking torque. A former
11
concept study [16] performed at Scania, investigating dierent approaches
for controlling the retarder, conrms the advantages with the valves and
concludes that a concept using on/o valves would be the most convenient
and robust method. This thesis is based on the former research.
1.2 Objectives
A system using two On/O valves to control the air pressure will be modeled
and it will be investigated, whether it is possible or not to make a controller
that fullls Scanias requirements specication. The valve unit used in both
the current Retarder Control and this Masters Thesis should be capable of
applying, removing and regulating the braking torque created by the retarder
and is therefore divided into three actuating functions; an accumulating func-
tion, an emptying function and a regulating function. The main objective in
this Masters Thesis is to investigate the regulating function. Elements that
will be included in this Masters Thesis are summarized in the following list:
Modelling of the system and an implementation in Simulink containing
Electrical Drives
Two on/o valves electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties
A pressure chamber and its pneumatic properties
A regulating valve that balances air and oil pressure
Investigation of how pulse-width-modulation can be applied in the con-
trol
Design and implementation of controllers based on the model
Recommendations on parameters in the system
Verication of model and controller by measurements in prototypes and
truck.
Code Generation in real-time workshop
1.3 Functional Description
The valves convert the electrical signals provided by the Electronic Control
Unit (ECU) to a pneumatic pressure. Figure 1.1 shows the three actuating
functions i.e. the Accumulating function, the Emptying function and the
12
Regulating function. The Emptying function consist of an on/o valve for
quickly emptying the pressure in the system. The Regulating function is com-
posed of two on/o valves, a pressure chamber and a regulating valve. The
pressure build up by the two valves inside the chamber is balanced against
the oil pressure in the regulating valve, contributing to a braking torque.
The Accumulator is active when additional air is needed to be injected into
the system. Figure 1.1 is schematic sketch of how the components in the
Retarder system are connected.
Figure 1.1: Schematic gure showing the functional description of the valve
unit
Due to security reasons, the ventilation valve is designed as normally open,
which will be the case in a real implementation. The valve is seen down
to the right in the regulating function. For experiments and tests on bench
during this Masters Thesis, a valve that is normally closed is used, and will
be handled in Chapter 2.
1.4 Actuation Requirements
To obtain the desired performance and robustness there are several require-
ments the system has to fulll. Among these are general requirements for
13
the retarder system as well as requirements for all three actuation functions
in the retarder valve unit. Only the general and regulating requirements will
be considered.
General Requirements
A change in the input (control signal) must result in a change in the
output (air pressure)
Filling and ventilation should not aect each other
A pressure supply, P
sup
, should be used as input to the ll
Included in the general requirement list are requirements of endurance, mark-
ing, deviations, resistance to oil in drainage air, ambient temperatures, avail-
able outputs from ECU, diagnostics, reliability, and testability, but will not
be included in the report since they are not of importance to this work.
Regulating Function
The function shall include one pressure sensor and two 2/2
1
on/o
valves where the lling valve shall be normally closed and the ventila-
tion valve normally open
2
.
The regulating valve has a maximum actuating volume of V
r,max
for
maximum stroke.
An output volume, including the volume in the chamber and the ac-
tuator volume in the regulating valve, has to be decided ( 50 - 125
cm
3
).
Pressure regulating tolerance: the desired pressure P
Tol
bar shall
be reached within T
req
during all valid conditions.
Pressure sensor tolerance: P
Tol
bar at 0-100

C temperature range.
Filling from 0 to 26.2%P
sup
shall happen in less than 10%T
req
when
pressure supply is P
sup
.
Ventilation from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
shall happen in less than 5%T
req
when output relative pressure is 0 bar.
1
A 2/2 valve has an inlet- and an outlet-port and operates in two states (on or o)
2
A normally closed ventilation valve will be used in the modeling and experimenting
14
1.5 Notation
Notation
ECU
R
M
Measured Resistance
U
PWM
Pulse Width Modulation Signal Volt
Power Supply Volt
D Duty Cycle -
Valve
Electrical
L
c
Inductance in coil H
R
c
Resistance in coil
i Current in coil A
Magnetic

0
Permeability in air Vs/Am
N Number of turns in coil -
A
a
Area of armature m
2
l
g
Length of air gap in valve m
x
p
Position of armature in valve m
x
off
Air gap length when the valve is closed m
x
on
Air gap length when the valve is opened m
d Inlet and outlet diameter of valves m
P
s
Supply pressure Bar
P
atm
Atmospheric pressure Bar
P
ch
Chamber pressure Bar
P
u
Upside pressure Bar
P
d
Downside pressure Bar
Mechanical
m
a
Mass of armature kg
k
s
Spring coecient N/m
b Viscous friction coecient Ns/m
F
prs
Pressure force N
F
pld
Preload force N
F
k
Spring force N
F
b
Force, viscous friction N
F
f
Static friction N
15
Notation
Pneumatic
C
d
Discharge coecient -
C
d,fill
Discharge coecient ll valve -
C
d,vent
Discharge coecient ventilation valve -
k = C
p
/C
v
Specic heat ratio in air -
C
v
Specic heat capacity at constant volume JKg

1K

1
C
p
Specic heat capacity at constant pressure JKg

1K

1
R
gas
Gas constant -
A
o
Area of orice m
2
T
air
Temperature of supplied air K
M Mach number -
m
ch
Mass of air in chamber kg
m
fill
Mass of lling air kg
m
vent
Mass of ventilating air kg
V
ch
Chamber volume m
3
16
Chapter 2
Retarder
In this chapter the retarder is described further, and the equipment used for
experiments are presented and explained.
2.1 Scanias Retarder
The Scania Retarder is used to create a braking torque to slow down the
speed of the vehicle, and with a maximum braking power up to 500 kW the
Retarder is one of the most powerful components in Scanias braking system.
The Retarder is placed on the outgoing shaft on the gear box. Oil is pumped
in between a xed stator and a movable rotor, and as a result of the high
oil pressure caused between the two components a braking power is created.
One of the main benets of the Retarder is the reduced requirement of the
wheel brakes, which results in less brake wear o. In this way, the wheel
brakes remain cool and unused, and thus are more ecient and powerful
in the need of additional braking. The Retarder can be used manually or
in automatic mode. Using the Retarder in automatic mode allows even for
maintaining a steady speed on descents. [1].
2.1.1 Retarder system today
The current Retarder system uses a proportional valve to control the oil pres-
sure between the rotor and stator. The inlet port of the proportional valve is
connected to an air pressure supply and has two outlet ports, one connected
to a cylinder containing a plunge and another to a drain. The valve is a
solenoid valve and can be activated by applying an analogue current to its
coil. Inside the valve there is a movable armature. If current is applied, a
magnetic eld will appear between the armature and the iron core in the
17
valve. This will result in a magneto motive force which will aect the ar-
mature causing it to move proportional to the current. Air will pass to the
cylinder or to the drain depending on the armatures position. According to
the air in the cylinder the plunge will move, and an oil pressure causing a
breaking torque will be created.
2.1.2 Retarder System Using On/O Solenoid Valves
As described in the introduction, a new concept using on/o-valves is to be
examined in the current Masters Thesis. The cylinder is substituted by a
chamber with constant volume
1
. Two on/o solenoid valves are introduced,
one for lling and one for ventilating the chamber. How they are connected
can be seen in Figure 1.1. The inlet port of the lling valve is supplied with
air pressure, while the outlet port is connected to the chamber and to the
venting valve. To the outlet port of the ventilation valve there is a drain to
the environment where there is atmospheric pressure.
By applying current to the valves, one can ll or vent the chamber. Ba-
sically the on/o valves can either be open or close, but by using pulse width
modulation (PWM) as input signal, it might be possible to manipulate their
behavior so that the armature in the valves can switch between the on and o
position for one single PWM period, resulting in a limited air ow through
the valve. A change in the air pressure due to air ow into the chamber
aects on the regulating valve in the Retarder. The plunge in the regulating
valve will move from its initial position when the air pressure increases, and
will eventually result in a higher braking torque in the Retarder that brakes
down the truck. If the pressure decreases, the regulating valve will move in
the opposite direction back to its initial position, and the braking torque will
be reduced. Mounted on the chamber is a pressure sensor. In this way the
pressure can be directly measured, and a controller based on the closed-loop
principle, with pressure as the feedback, can be designed.
2.2 Dead Volume
From Figure 1.1, it can be seen that the actuating volume in the regulation
valve, the extra volume in the chamber and the volume in the housing are
connected. This volume is denoted the dead volume and will be used as a
1
Due to movement in the regulating valve there will be a varying volume in the chamber.
However these changes are suciently small compared to the total volume of the chamber
so that the volume can be considered constant.
18
reference to the total volume in the retarder through the thesis. The little
amount of air capacity in the actuating volume (21cm
3
), makes it dicult for
the controller to regulate the pressure. To increase the performance of the
controller, extra chamber volume has been inserted. The total volume has
yet not been decided, but is a part of the parameters that will be investigated
and decided in the Masters Thesis, in order to fulll the requirements on
lling versus venting time and control performance.
2.3 Solenoid Valves
An On/O valve is an example of a solenoid valve, which will be described
in this section. A solenoid valve is an electro mechanical valve where its dy-
namic behavior has an inuence on uids (liquid or gas), and can be divided
into two main parts: a solenoid and a movable armature.
The solenoid consists of a coil of wire wounded in the form of a cylinder. The
coil covers the movable armature that is mounted on a spring that keeps the
valve in its initial position. The valve can be activated by applying current
to the coil, and the armature will move away from its initial position.
As it appears from Figure 2.1, the interior of a solenoid valve has a complex
technical system. It contains four subsystems that all are related to each
other; electrical, magneto-dynamic, mechanical and uid dynamical. When
current is applied to the system, a magnetic eld is induced around the coil
contributing to a magnetic force. The magnetic force tries to overcome the
counteracting forces, i.e. spring force and friction forces, resulting in opening
or closing of the valve, depending on if the valve is normally open or closed.
Valves are divided into dierent groups, according to their function and use.
Armature
Pressure supply 8.4 bar
Positive
x-direction
Figure 2.1: A basic model describing the interior of a solenoid valve.
19
The most common valves are 2/2 valves, 3/2 valves and 5/2 valves. As seen
in Figure 2.2,a 3/2 valve has three ports (inlet port, outlet port, and a drain)
and two states (on and o). The valves used in the present Masters Thesis
are 3/2 valves where the drain (port 3) has been sealed and therefore operates
as a 2/2 valve. It is important to note that Figure 2.2 shows a valve that
opens or closes by pressing a button. The principles are the same for solenoid
valves, but they are activated when a current is used. As mentioned earlier,
Figure 2.2: Normally closed 3/2 valve - Principal
a valve can be normally open or normally closed. Figure 2.3 shows a valve
that is normally closed and not aected by external forces, the ow path 1-2
will be closed while the ow path 2-3 will be open. If the valve is aected
3
1
2
Figure 2.3: Normally closed 3/2 valve - Unaected, where number 1 is the
pressure source, number 2 denotes the outlet port and number 3 is the air
exhaust port.
by external forces, see Figure 2.4, the drain will close and the path 1-2 will
open. Only in this case a ow from the inlet port to the outlet port can take
place. For a normally open valve, in the unaected case, path 1-2 is open
and 2-3 is closed. Aecting the valve with this construct, the drain will open
and path 1-2 will close.
20
3
1
2
Figure 2.4: Normally closed 3/2 valve - Aected, where number 1 is the
pressure source, number 2 denotes the outlet port and number 3 is the air
exhaust port.
On/O-valves
Another kind of solenoid valve is an on/o-valve. The valve uses the same
ow principles as the valves already described, but it is activated by passing
a current through the coil. In contrast to the proportional valves that can
be partly open, the On/O-valves can basically be only open or closed.
2.4 Equipments In Experiments
Modeling of the complete system requires an understanding of the systems
behavior and its characteristics. To get a satisfying model which is similar
to the real system experiments have been performed on two prototypes, one
containing a chamber with xed volume and the other in which the volume
in the chamber can be adjusted. In both prototypes an electronic control
unit (ECU) was used to generate input signals to the valves, and a laptop
containing real-time software was used to acquire data from the pressure
sensor and current outputs in the ECU.
2.4.1 ECU
To control the time at which the valves open or close, the electronic control
unit (ECU), is used. The operating conditions of the valves are established
by a pulse width modulated (PWM) scheme generated by the ECU. Available
outputs from the ECU relevant for the work are current and pressure. The
ECU can also be used to control other electrical systems for the trucks.
Pulse Width Modulated Signal, PWM
The pulse width modulated signal is a periodic square form signal in which
the frequency and the duty cycle can be selected. The PWM is shown below
in Figure 2.5.
21
Figure 2.5: Schematic presentation of the basics of a PWM signal
The duty cycle, D, is dened by the ratio, D = T
d
/T, where T
d
is the time for
which the signal is high and T is the period time. T
d
is limited to be in [0, T].
The duty cycle is also referred to as percentage, D [0%, 100%]. Unless the
current in the coil is not at its maximum, it will continue to increase as long
as the PWM is high. If the PWM goes low, the current will start to discharge.
When experimenting on the two prototypes, the duty cycle and the frequency
for the lling and ventilation valve can be selected separately, and is available
as variables in the real-time software used
2
. This is an advantage since the
choice of the duty cycle and the frequency of the PWM signal for the two
valves will probably aect the lling and ventilating times in dierent ways.
Two other important factors aecting the lling respectively ventilating time
are the inlet and outlet diameters in the chamber and the chamber volume,
and will be discussed later.
2.4.2 Prototypes
During the Masters Thesis two prototypes have been available for experi-
ments and validation purposes. The rst prototype is only usable for early
tests and verication of the model. It has a xed volume and can only be
used on bench. Prototype 2 can be mounted on the real Retarder in a truck,
connecting the outlet pressure to the regulating valve, also making it possi-
ble to verify the controller and its performance in the real system. For both
prototypes Norgren Herion, normally closed 3/2 valves with a sealed drain,
as described in Section 2.3, have been used.
2
Gredi KleinKnecht is a calibration software.
22
Prototype 1
Prototype 1 consists of a pressure supply inlet, a chamber with a xed vol-
ume, V = 100cm
3
, two on/o valves, one for lling and the other one for
ventilation, and a pressure sensor. A given PWM signal can be used as in-
put to the valves, which will partly or fully open the valves depending on
the duty cycle and frequency of the PWM signal. Experiments can be done
either with pressure supply or without. If only the electrical, magnetic and
mechanical part of the valve are to be studied, it is convenient to start with
experiments in which no pressure supply is connected. When the pressure
supply is connected, the complete dynamics can be studied. The valves are
equipped with a xed orice of 1.9 mm.
Prototype 2
Prototype 2 consists of the same valves as in prototype 1. The xed volume
of the chamber is 51cm
3
. Taking into account the volume in the regulating
valve (21cm
3
) and the connecting channels (2.8cm
3
) the total dead volume is
approximately 75cm
3
. However, in prototype 2, extra volume can be added
to the chamber manually. This is convenient when the regulating require-
ments are to be examined. The volumes available for use are then 75cm
3
,
100cm
3
and 125cm
3
. A large volume takes longer time to ll with air or
empty than a small volume.
When a controller is used to regulate the air pressure in the volume, be-
cause of the limited pressure sensor accuracy and response and the reaction
time for the ECU, it will take a certain time for the chamber to be regulated.
The time delay will give the following result: if the chamber has to be lled
before the control unit is able to react, there will be a pressure drop in the
chamber. In a control context it is therefore convenient to have as large vol-
ume as possible so that the pressure drop will be as small as possible. To
fulll the time requirement of lling the entire chamber with air or emptying
it, it is more convenient to have a small volume.
2.5 Retarder
A full scale retarder has been available for experiments on prototype two.
Included in the retarder is the rotor and stator, and the regulating valve. It
has on the other hand not been connected to the gear box and no oil has
been present in the retarder. The oil pressure has therefore been neglected
and some model simplications have been done.
23
2.6 Pressure sensor
To measure the air pressure in the dead volume a pressure sensor manu-
factured by Denso Corporation with part number 1491406-4990007670 was
used. The operating pressure, denoted in absolute pressure, is 0.06 to 2.1
MPa, but is represented by the ECU in relative pressure related to the at-
mospheric pressure, i.e 0 bar on the output corresponds to 1 bar in absolute
pressure. Durability of the pressure sensor and the surrounding temperature
aect its precision. Operating temperature is -40 to 135

C and the sensor
requires a supply voltage of V
sup
V
Tol
V to work properly. The pressure
sensor is assumed to fulll Scanias pressure sensor tolerance requirement of
P
Tol
bar for the required operating environments.
2.7 Software Program
Gredi Kleinknecht is a calibration tool for use with the ECU. It includes
functions to display, record and evaluate simultaneously acquired ECU inter-
nal and process data [2]. In this Masters Thesis Gredi Kleinknecht has been
used in experiments to acquire data such as current and pressure. The data
has been exported to Matlab where it can easily be examined. From Gredi,
internal parameters in the ECU can be set, such as input to the valves used
in the prototypes. Among the inputs that have been possible to change are
the PWM duty cycle and the frequency.Matlab and Simulink has been used
in the modeling and simulation of the system.
2.8 Oscilloscope
A Fluke 45 Dual Display Multimeter was used to examine the dynamics of
the ECU and the electrical part of the valves.
2.9 Multimeter
To examine the electrical circuit dynamics, a basic multimeter, Fluke 75,
manufactured by John Fluke has been used.
24
Chapter 3
Modelling
In order to build a model, it is very important to know how dierent subsys-
tems in a system work. By investigating each parts behavior a greater knowl-
edge about that specic part will be gained, contributing to enhancement of
achieving a model with desired specications. There are two approaches for
building a model.
The most common way is by experimenting and gathering information.The
experimental method is a scientic principal, however it has some limitations.
Sometimes it is unsuitable or even impossible to carry out an experiment.
The aspects causing these kinds of problems could be that it is too expensive
to investigate random congurations, or dangerous. It may also be the case
that one does not have access to the system. A cheaper and more practical
approach could be to build a model, which is a tool answering dierent sys-
tem characteristics without conducting an experiment. Matlab and Simulink
are powerful model building programs. In this way the system can easily be
modelled and simulated without costing so much.
Two approaches to modelling are Blackbox- and Whitebox-modelling.
These two types of modelling methods are very important in modelling per-
spective. Whitebox-modelling is based on physical models or more precisely,
mathematical equations describing the physical phenomena. This type of
modelling requires that the physical characteristics for all subsystems are
known. If not, another approach has to be considered. In order to get an
idea on how the unknown part works, the relations between the inputs and
outputs, also called Blackbox-modelling, is studied.
In this chapter the physical relations contributing to each of the subsystems
and how they are modelled is discussed. After deriving the mathematical
25
equations, a state-space model of the whole system is presented.
3.1 System description
The main parts of the system consist of two on/o- valves, a pressure chamber
and a regulating valve. On/O-valves used in this project are two solenoid
valves one of which acts as a lling valve and the other as a ventilation valve.
The inlet-port of the lling valve is supplied by air pressure(P
sup
) and the
outlet-port conducts airow to the pressure chamber and also to the inlet-
port of the ventilation valve. The net airow, resulting from the valves,
builds up pressure in the chamber, leading the air pressure to the regulating
valve. The regulating valve balances the oil pressure in the valve, generating
the desired torque. An overview of the system is shown in gure 3.1, which
consists of two on/o valves, one for lling the pressure chamber and the
other one for emptying the chamber. The ll valve is provided with a supply
pressure of P
sup
and the regulating valve balances the air pressure inside the
chamber with oil pressure giving the desired torque. In this Masters Thesis
Supply valve
Ventilation valve
8.4 bar
1 bar
chamber
+
-
+
-
Regulating valve
Figure 3.1: System description
the whole system has been divided into several blocks, see gure 3.2, where
each block will be discussed separately in the up coming sections.
Valve Chamber ECU
Regulating
valve
Figure 3.2: The whole system represented with blocks
26
3.2 ECU
Recall from Section 2.4.1 that the ECU is an Electric Control Unit, which is
an embedded system controlling one or more of the electrical subsystems in
a vehicle. A simplied model of the ECU, which generates a PWM
1
signal,
with a freewheeling diode inserted at the output for safety reasons, is shown
in Figure 3.3.
As stated before the output signal from the ECU, which drives the valves
can be expressed as:
U
PWM
=
_
high for t < DT
low for DT < t < T
where D is the duty cycle and T is the time period of the pulse width modu-
lated signal. Due to the switching characteristic of the PWM signal there are
two dierent electrical circuits for the respectively generated voltage. The
electrical circuit is discussed in more detail in Section 3.3.1.
When the PWM is low the already charged inductance (see Section 3.3.1)
begins to discharge, causing the current to ow through the circuit. The
freewheeling diode placed at the output of the ECU keeps the current from
discharging instantly, and prevents it from short-circuiting any components
in the ECU.
Figure 3.3: The simplied model of ECU
1
Pulse Width Modulation is a square wave whose pulse width is modulated resulting
in the variation of the average value of the waveform.
27
3.3 Valve
The main parts of a solenoid valve consist of Electrical, Magnetic, Mechanical
and Pneumatic sections which are depicted in Figure 3.4.
Electrical
Mechanical
Magnetic
Pneumatic
U
PWM
i
F
M
x
p
m&
Figure 3.4: The dierent subsystems of a solenoid valve
The upcoming sections give more insight on how each of the subsystems
work.
3.3.1 The Electrical Subsystem
The electrical part of the solenoid valve can be modeled as a resistance in
series with an inductance. Because of the altering characteristic (switching
between high and low values) of the PWM signal, two dierent cases have
to be investigated. The rst case handles the situation where the PWM is
high, and the second case gives more insight on the circuit when the PWM
is low.
Case 1:
The electrical circuit corresponding to the rst case is modeled according
to Figure 3.5. Studying the schematic sketch in Figure 3.5, the power source
(24 vols), , drives the electrical circuit. By applying Kirchhos voltage law
(KVL) [4] that states,The directed sum of the electrical potential dierences
around a closed circuit must be zero, there is a voltage drop over the resis-
28
tance, R, also a voltage drop throughout the energization of the inductance,
L, giving the following mathematical relation:
Ri
L
= 0 (3.1)
where
L
, is the voltage drop over the inductance. Due to the armatures
movement (back and forth) inside the coil, during the magnetization, an
electro motive force (emf) is induced. The emf is expressed by:

L
= N
d
B
dt
=
d
dt
(Li) = L
di
dt
+ i
dL
dt
(3.2)
The nal equation describing the voltages around circuit 1 can be obtained
by inserting (3.2) into (3.1),
Ri L
di
dt
i
dL
dt
(3.3)
Figure 3.5: The electrical circuit when the PWM is high
Case 2:
As mentioned above, during the circumstances when the PWM is low i.e.
0 volts, the power supply, , is neglected from the circuit. Studying Fig-
ure 3.6 it can be observed that the energized inductance in Case 1 acts as
the power source. In this case the freewheeling diode, involved in the circuit
for reasons stated in Section 3.2, has been modeled as an ideal diode depicted
in Figure 3.7. The gure shows that when the diode is active, it will result
in a voltage drop (V
d
) of 0.7 volts. Thus applying Kirchhos Voltage Law
gives the following equation:
L
di
dt
i
dL
dt
Ri V
d
= 0 (3.4)
where
di
dt
< 0 due to the constant discharge of the energized inductance.
29
Figure 3.6: The electrical circuit when the PWM is low
0.7
Current (i)
Voltage (V)
Figure 3.7: A model of an ideal diode
Note that the armatures displacement in the solenoid will cause a change
in the magnetic eld in the coil, resulting in a change of inductance (L(x
p
))
value. The varying inductance has a direct relation with the position of the
armature, where the values of the inductance when the armature is at its
on (L
on
) or o (L
off
) position is provided by the valve manufacturer. The
inductance as a function of armature position,x
p
, is described by:
L(x
p
) = L
off
+
L
off
L
on
x
on
x
off
x
p
(3.5)
Equation (3.5) shows that the value of inductance, L, is dependent on the
armatures position, therefore the emf derived in (3.2) has to be modied,
using the chain rule, before implementation. The modied (3.2) will thus be
expressed as:
30

L
= L(x
p
)
di
dt
+ i
dL(x
p
)
dt
= L(x
p
)
di
dt
+ i
dL(x
p
)
dx
p
.
dx
p
dt
(3.6)
= L(x
p
)
di
dt
+ i
dL(x
p
)
dx
p
. v
where v denotes the armatures velocity during displacement. Having gone
through the two cases in the electrical part, a model (see Figure 3.8) was
designed with the PWM signal as input and the current as output.
Electrical
U
PWM
i
Figure 3.8: The model used for the electrical subsystem
3.3.2 The Magnetic Subsystem
When the current determined from the electrical subsystem ows through the
coil, a magnetic eld is created in the solenoid and the magnetic ux-density
is given by [5]
B =

0
iN
l
g
(3.7)
where l
g
= x
off
x
p
denotes the length of the airgap, N denotes the number
of turns, and
0
is the permeability in air. The magnetic eld provided,
results in a magnetic force described by [5]
F =
B
2
2
0
A (3.8)
Combining (3.7) and (3.8), and considering the fact that the cross sectional
area(A
p
) of the armature in the solenoid is constant, the magnetic force can
be expressed by ([5])
F
M
=

0
A
p
i
2
N
2
2(x
off
x
p
)
2
(3.9)
The magnetic section of the valve has been modeled as shown in Figure 3.9,
where current and position are inputs and magnetic force(F
M
) is output.
31
Magnetic
i
F
M
x
p
Figure 3.9: The model used for the magnetic subsystem
3.3.3 The Mechanical Subsystem
As discussed in earlier sections, the magnetic force (F
M
) helps to move the
armature. However, there are other forces involved in the mechanical move-
ment of the armature, which are depicted in Figure 3.10. When supplying the
valves with air pressure, a pressure force F
prs
is provided, resulting from the
pressure dierence between the upside
2
and downside
3
pressure, see ([10], [7]),
and is given by
F
prs
= (
d
2
)
2
(P
u
P
d
) (3.10)
where (
d
2
)
2
is the area of the armature that pressure is directly inforced. P
u
and P
d
are upside and downside-pressures respectively.
F
M
F
prs
Positive
x-direction
Armature
F
b
F
k
F
pld
Figure 3.10: The forces inicted upon the armature.
As seen in Figure 3.10 the armature is connected to a spring that counteracts
the forces mentioned above. The spring has the spring constant k
s
and is pre
loaded with a force F
pld
, both given by the manufacturer. The spring force
(F
k
) and the pre load force is given by ([10], [7])
_
F
k
= k
s
x
p
Spring force
F
pld
= k
s
x
0
Pre load force
(3.11)
2
The upside pressure is at the point where higher pressure is located.
3
The downside pressure is at the point where lower pressure is located.
32
where x
0
is the length of the spring at the start position. Due to the ar-
matures connection to the valve house, static and viscous friction, F
f
and
F
b
respectively, are present. The static friction aects the system when the
armature is at its start (x
p
= x
off
) and end (x
p
= x
on
) positions i.e. x
p
= 0,
where x
p
is the armatures velocity. When the armature is in motion ( x
p
= 0),
the viscous friction (F
b
) aects the movement, where the friction forces are
presented by ([10], [7])
_
F
f
for x
p
= 0
F
b
= b x
p
for x
p
= 0
(3.12)
where b is the damping coecient. After going through all the forces aected
on the armature, the equation of motion can be written as
m
p
x
p
= F
M
+ F
prs
F
b
F
k
F
pld
F
f
(3.13)
Note that the armature movement is physically limited, 0 x
p
x
p
max
, due
to the valve structure, and is dened positive for x
p
> 0 (see Figure 3.10).
The mechanical part of the valve has been modeled as a box shown in Fig-
ure 3.11, having the magnetic force, pressure supply (P
s
) and the pressure
from the chamber (P
ch
) as its inputs and the armature movement (x
p
) as
output.
Mechanical
F
M
x
p
P
ch
P
s
Figure 3.11: The model used for the mechanical subsystem
3.3.4 The Pneumatic Subsystem
As explained in Section 3.3.3, when the armature starts to move, it will result
in the opening of the valve which in its turn results in a certain amount of
airow. From thermodynamics ([8], [9]), the mass ow through an orice can
be written as
m =
P
u
C
d
A
o
_
R
gas
T
air
(
P
d
P
u
) (3.14)
where
33
=
_
k(
2
k+1
)
(
k + 1)/(k 1)
and
(
P
d
P
u
) =
_
_
_
1 for
P
d
P
u
P
cr
_
(
P
d
P
u
)
2/k
(
P
d
P
u
)
(k+1)/k
k1
2
(
2
k+1
)
(k+1)/(k1)
for 1
P
d
P
u
> P
cr
where k 1.4 denotes the specic heat ratio in air, A
o
is the smallest outlet
orice area, R
gas
is the gas constant, T
air
is the temperature in the dead
volume, C
d
is the discharge coecient, and m is the air mass.
The outlet orice area depends on the armature position. If the armature
is in its start position, no air will ow through the valve. As soon as the
armature moves, the inlet orice area gets bigger, which is the same area the
air will ow out through. The smallest outlet area can be expressed as
A
o
= dx
p
(3.15)
It is important to note that the outlet orice cannot be bigger than the inlet
orice. Thus, when the outlet orice is bigger than that of the inlet orice
then the outlet orice area is calculated from the formula
A
o
=
_
d
2
_
2
(3.16)
Appendix A.2, explains this phenomenon in more detail.
The critical pressure ratio, which is the ratio between the upside and down-
side pressures, can vary from one component to another, depending on the
shape of the orice. For pressure ratios lower than the critical pressure ratio,
the ow is called critical ow, and for those higher than the critical pressure
ratio it is called under critical ow. The critical pressure ratio P
cr
is given
by
P
cr
= (
2
k + 1
)
k
k1
0.528 (3.17)
The pneumatic part of the valve has been modeled according to Figure 3.12,
having pressure supply, pressure from the chamber and the armature move-
ment as its inputs, and the mass airow as output.
34
Pneumatic
x
p
m&
P
ch
P
s
Figure 3.12: The pneumatic subsystem model
The pressure chamber inserted at the outlet port of the supply valve, and
the inlet port of the ventilation valve, gathers the net airow
m
ch
= m
fill
m
vent
(3.18)
from the valves. According to the Ideal gas law the pressure in the chamber
is expressed by
P
ch
=
m
ch
R
gas
T
air
V
ch
(3.19)
Looking at the derivative of (3.19), the pressure variation can be evaluated
as
d
dt
(P
ch
) =
d
dt
(
m
ch
R
gas
T
air
V
ch
) =
R
gas
V
ch
( m
ch
T
air
+m
ch

T
air

V
ch
m
ch
T
air
V
ch
) (3.20)
where
{T
air
constant

T
air
= 0}
and
{V
ch
constant

V
ch
= 0}
resulting in

P
ch
=
m
ch
R
gas
T
air
V
ch
(3.21)
The temperature is chosen constant due to little compression time, resulting
in small changes in temperature, moreover in Section 3.4 the reason for using
a constant volume is described in details. The modeled pressure chamber
with net airow and pressure from the chamber as its input and output
respectively, is shown in Figure 3.13.
35
Chamber
m&
P
ch
Figure 3.13: The pressure chamber model
3.4 Regulating valve
The regulating valve is placed at one of the outlet ports in the pressure
chamber(see Figure 3.1). The channel attaching the chamber to the regu-
lating valve, leads the air pressure to a piston placed inside the valve. On
one side of the piston the pressurized air, and on the other side the oil pres-
sure, produced from an oil pump, are gathered. The air pressure is balanced
through the oil pressure, leading to a certain braking torque. Figure 3.14
shows a schematic sketch of the regulating valve.
F
prs,Pch
F
friction
F
prs,oil
Regulating valve
Positive x-direction
Oil P
ch
Figure 3.14: A schematic sketch of the regulating valve, showing the forces
acting on the piston.
By studying Figure 3.14, the pressures at each side of the piston will exert
a certain force. When the pressure force exceeds the magnitude of the coun-
teracting forces it will move the piston. The equation of motion is described
by
F = F
prs,ch
F
prs,oil
F
k
F
friction
F
pld
(3.22)
m
piston
x
piston
= P
ch
A
ch
P
oil
A
oil
k
s
x
piston
F
friction
F
pld
(3.23)
where
F
friction
=
_
F
sf
if x
piston
= 0
F
df
if x
piston
= 0
36
where x
piston
denotes the velocity of the piston during its movement, x
piston
is
the pistons displacement, A
ch
and A
oil
are the cross sectional areas where air
and oil pressure aects respectively. The maximum plunge stroke i.e. from
the start position until the end position, is about 9 mm, increasing the volume
with 8.7cm
3
. However during the control process the plunge displacement
would be 2 mm, increasing the volume with 1.92cm
3
. The increment of the
volume is so small, compared to the dead volume (see Section 2.2) which
is 100cm
3
, that it is neglected and the calculations are done for a constant
volume.
3.5 Summary of state-space equations
In this section the equations for the complete model have been summarized
in state-space form. First the input signals, output signals and the states are
dened, followed by the expressions for all the states.
Input signals:
u
1
= u
PWM,sup
u
2
= u
PWM,vent
Output signal:
y = P
ch
States:
x
1
= i
supply
x
2
= x
p,sup
x
3
= x
p,sup
x
4
= P
ch
x
5
= i
vent
x
6
= x
p,vent
x
7
= x
p,vent
States-Space equations:
37
x
1
=
u
1
Rx
1
L
(3.24)
x
2
= x
3
(3.25)
x
3
=

0
A
p
N
2
x
2
1
2
(
x
off
x
2)
2
+
_
d
0
2
_
2
(P
sup
x
4
) kx
2
bx
3
F
pld
m
p
(3.26)
x
4
=
R
gas
T
air
V
ch
( m
fill
m
vent
)
=
_
R
gas
T
air
C
d
d
0

V
ch
_
P
sup
x
2

_
x
4
P
sup
_
x
4
x
6

_
P
atm
x
4
__
(3.27)
where

_
x
4
P
sup
_
=
_

_
_
k
_
2
k+1
_k+1
k1
if
x
4
P
sup
0.528

2k
k1
_
_
x
4
P
sup
_2
k

_
x
4
P
sup
_k+1
k
_
if
x
4
P
sup
> 0.528

_
P
atm
x
4
_
=
_

_
_
k
_
2
k+1
_k+1
k1
if
P
atm
x
4
0.528

2k
k1
_
_
P
atm
x
4
_2
k

_
P
atm
x
4
_k+1
k
_
if
P
atm
x
4
> 0.528
x
5
=
u
2
Rx
5
L
(3.28)
x
6
= x
7
(3.29)
x
7
=

0
A
p
N
2
x
2
5
2
(
x
off
x
2)
6
+
_
d
0
2
_
2
(x
4
P
atm
) kx
6
bx
7
F
pld
m
p
(3.30)
38
Chapter 4
Model validation
Now that a model has been derived for the whole system, the next step is to
validate it. A model can never fully describe a system. It is a helping tool in
order to give a fairly good realization of the system characteristics. Verifying
if a model has the desired specications is called validation. In this chapter
the characteristics of the real system i.e. the two prototypes described in
Section 2.4.2 will be compared with the obtained simulink model. Experi-
ments are carried out on each of the prototypes, and the collected data are
presented here. The acquired data is compared with the simulated data for
validation.
4.1 Experiments on prototype one
Recall from Section 2.4.2 that the rst prototype is the one with a x volume
of 100 cm
3
, an orice diameter of 1.9 mm and it cannot be mounted on the
truck. During experiments it was shown that the valve reacts within a certain
range of duty cycles, causing the armature to move between its higher and
lower positions. It is important to nd the upper and lower duty cycle limits,
due to the fact that duty cycle values indicate also how long the valves are
active, meaning how much air will ow through the valves.
4.1.1 Duty Cycle Limits
Having used the same valves in prototype one and two, the duty cycle limits
are the same for both of the prototypes.
39
Throughout experiments it have been observed that the valves react dier-
ently at dierent duty cycles, whether pressure supply is connected or not.
During the circumstances when pressure is present, the pressure force will
help in moving the armature and less current is needed, therefore a lower duty
cycle is required in order to open the valve. Examining the pressure data
acquired,when the pressure starts to increase, it indicates that the armature
has moved. Using the described procedure, the lower duty cycle boundary
was attained. However the upper limit wasnt as easy to nd and not being
able to measure the armature position, the only way was to hear when the
valve stops to vibrate, indicating that the valve is fully opened. The duty
cycle limits for both of the valves are summarized in tables 4.1 and 4.2.
Table 4.1: Duty cycles for opening the ll valve and keeping it fully opened,
when the system is supplied with air pressure, where DC
min,fill
and DC
max,fill
are minimum and maximum duty cycles for the ll valve, respectively.
Fill Valve
DC
min,fill
28.5%
DC
max,fill
82%
Table 4.2: Duty cycles for opening the ventilation valve and keeping it fully
opened, when the system is supplied with air pressure, where DC
min,vent
and
DC
max,vent
are minimum and maximum duty cycles for the ventilation valve,
respectively.
Ventilation Valve
DC
min,vent
25.5%
DC
max,vent
80%
The duty cycle limits when no pressure is applied to the system is obtained
precisely the same way. However not having access to the pressure data, the
lower limit was attained through listening when the valve starts to vibrate.
The following tables show the duty cycle limits for ll and ventilation valve
during the circumstances where the system is not supplied by air pressure.
40
Table 4.3: Duty cycles for opening the ll valve and keeping it fully
opened, when no air pressure is supplied to the system, where DC
min,fill
and DC
max,fill
are minimum and maximum duty cycles for the ll valve,
respectively when no pressure is supplied to the system.
Fill Valve
DC
min,fill
54.5%
DC
max,fill
82%
Table 4.4: Duty cycles for opening the ventilation valve and keeping it fully
opened, when no air pressure is supplied to the system, where DC
min,vent
and DC
max,vent
are minimum and maximum duty cycles for the ventilation
valve, respectively when no pressure is supplied to the system.
Ventilation Valve
DC
min,vent
51.5%
DC
max,vent
80%
4.1.2 Filling characteristic
As a requirement, the ll valve has to ll the dead volume up to 26.2%P
sup
in less than 10%T
req
. By studying Figure 4.1, the specied behavior is seen.
The experiment is done for a xed orice diameter of 1.9 mm and a xed
dead volume of 100 cm
3
.
Figure 4.1, indicates that the desired specication is obtained. However if
considering the time delay from the time where the PWM is activated until
the pressure changes, the total time for the pressure to reach 26.2%P
sup
will
be 7 samples, which is too slow. The ll valve must also reach any reference
pressure in less than T
req
. Applying a PWM of 100% duty cycle, the pressure
chamber is lled up from 0 bar to P
sup
in approximately 65 samples, which is
higher than T
req
, including the time delay in the beginning. This is depicted
in Figure 4.2.
41
420 422 424 426 428 430 432
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


420 422 424 426 428 430 432
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
P
W
M

d
u
t
y
c
y
c
l
e

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Pch/Psup
PWM Duty Cycle
Tf = 5 Td = 2
Figure 4.1: Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume of
100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, the desired pressure (26.2%P
sup
)
is obtained within 10%T
req
. However if time delay is taken into account, the
time for lling up to 26.2%P
sup
is 7 samples i.e. higher than 10%T
req
, which
doesnt fulll the requirements.
420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
P
W
M

d
u
t
y
c
y
c
l
e

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Pch/Psup
PWM Duty Cycle
Figure 4.2: Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, the desired pressure (P
sup
) is
obtained within 65 samples, which is too slow and doesnt meet the require-
ments.
42
The results in Figures 4.1 and 4.2 show that the system is too slow. In order
to meet the requirements, one should either reduce the size of the pressure
chamber or increase the orice diameter.
4.1.3 Ventilation characteristic
The same kind of valves were used for both lling and ventilation. Through
analyzing the data gathered from each of the valves it can be seen that
during ventilation the valve opens and closes earlier than the ll valve (see
tables 4.1- 4.4). It is required that the ventilation valve empties the pressure
inside the dead volume from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
within 5%T
req
. The test
was carried out on Prototype 1 with similar specications (100 cm
3
in volume
and 1.9 mm in orice diameter), with a PWM of 82%, which is depicted in
Figure 4.3. The gure veries that the system is too slow.
784 785 786 787 788 789 790
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9


P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]
Tv ~ 4.2 samples
Figure 4.3: Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about 4 samples to
empty the dead volume from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
, which is too slow.
Figure 4.4 shows that using an orice of 1.9 mm, and a dead volume of 100
cm
3
it takes too long time to empty the pressure from P
sup
to 0 bars.
43
780 790 800 810 820 830 840 850 860 870
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


780 790 800 810 820 830 840 850 860 870
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
P
W
M

d
u
t
y
c
y
c
l
e

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Pch/Psup
PWM Duty Cycle
Figure 4.4: Applying a PWM of 100% on prototype 1, with a dead volume
of 100 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about 65 samples to
empty the dead volume from P
sup
to 0 bars, which is too slow.
Prototype 1 was mainly used for improving the model, and from the achieved
results, in order to fulll the requirements a smaller dead volume (75 cm
3
)
was chosen for the second prototype with adjustable orice diameters.
4.2 Experiments on Prototype 2
Due to adjustability of the dead volume capacity, orice diameter, and the
capability of being mounted on the retarder, the results presented in this
section of the report are of more interest than the ones obtained for Prototype
1.
Due to usage of the same valves, the ll- and ventilation-valves react exactly
in the same way as the valves used in Prototype 1.
4.2.1 Filling characteristic
Using a dead volume of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, the result
for obtaining a pressure of 26.2%P
sup
, is depicted in Figure 4.5.
44
364 366 368 370 372 374 376 378
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


364 366 368 370 372 374 376 378
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
P
W
M

d
u
t
y
c
y
c
l
e

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Pch/Psup
PWM Duty Cycle
Td ~1 sample
Tf ~9.5 samples
Figure 4.5: Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume of
75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, the desired pressure (26.2%P
sup
) is
obtained within 10.5 samples, which is too slow.
Studying the data shown in Figure 4.5, it takes 10.5 samples to achieve the
pressure of 26.2%P
sup
. With a dead volume of 75 cm
3
and 1 mm as the orice
diameter, the system became very slow. In order to speed up the process, the
only way was to increase the opening diameter, because the merest volume
at hand was 75 cm
3
. In this case increasing the volume of the dead volume
would make the process even slower, so by applying an orice diameter of
1.9 mm the results shown in Figure 4.6 were attained.
485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
P
W
M

d
u
t
y
c
y
c
l
e

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Pch/Psup
PWM Duty Cycle
Tf ~3.3 samples Td ~2 samples
Figure 4.6: Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume
of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes about 5.3 samples for
lling up to 26.2%P
sup
, which is near the required time (10%T
req
).
Using 82% PWM on prototype 2, with a dead volume of 75 cm
3
and an
orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes approximately 5.3 samples to ll the
45
dead volume from 0 to 26.2%P
sup
(see Figure 4.6). The results show that the
system is faster than when using a diameter of 1 mm. Comparing the results
from Figure 4.6 with results achieved from Figure 4.1, the system became
faster which is because of the smaller dead volume.
4.2.2 Ventilation characteristic
Applying the same experimental set-up, i.e. using a dead volume of 75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, the time it took to empty the dead volume
from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
was approximately 7.5 samples, which is quite slow
and does not fulll the requirements. The result is depicted in Figure 4.7.
869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d
]
Time [sample]


Tv ~7.5 samples
Figure 4.7: Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume of
75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm, it takes approximately 75 ms to go
from 88%P
sup
to 70%P
sup
, which is too slow.
Using an orice diameter of 1.9 mm the ventilation time improved and be-
came faster. Figure 4.8 shows the ventilation time when using an orice of
1.9 mm.
46
1178 1178.5 1179 1179.5 1180 1180.5 1181 1181.5 1182 1182.5 1183
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]
Time [sample]


Tv ~2.6 samples
Figure 4.8: Applying a PWM of 82% on prototype 2, with a dead volume of
75 cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1.9 mm, it takes approximately 26 ms to
go from 7.4 bar down to 5.9 bar, almost fullling the requirements.
The lling and ventilation times for both of the prototypes are summarized
in table 4.5
Table 4.5: The ll and ventilation sample times for each of the valves, with
dierent dead volume and orice diameter.
Prototype Dead Orice Filling: Ventilation:
Volume diameter 0 26.2%P
sup
bar 88%P
sup
70%P
sup
bar
P1 100 cm
3
1.9 mm 2+5 samples 4 samples
P2 75 cm
3
1 mm 1+9.5 samples 7.5 samples
P2 75 cm
3
1.9 mm 2+3.3 samples 2.6 samples
Analyzing the data in table 4.5, it is recommended to reduce the size of the
dead volume from 100 cm
3
to 75 cm
3
, and use at least an orice of 1.9 mm.
However in order to achieve all the requirements it is endorsed either decrease
the size of the dead volume or increase the orice diameter. Note that orice
diameters bigger than 1.9 mm have not been investigated due to lack of time.
4.3 Validation
Now that some knowledge is gained about the valves behavior, the derived
model was compared to the actual process, and validated. As mentioned in
previous chapters, due to limited equipment, only data for current and pres-
sure could be attained. Doing numerous experiments, results have shown
that the current is one of the key aspects. Therefore the model was vali-
dated by comparing the current from the model with the one obtained from
47
experiments on the prototypes. The pressure is of great importance for the
controlling part, therefore it was also validated.
4.3.1 Current
Recalling Section 3.3.1, considering case 1, the voltage throughout the circuit,
where the freewheeling diode is not present is expressed by (3.1). Solving
the dierential equation, the current can be expressed as
i(t) =
U
PWM
R
_
1 e

R
L
t
_
(4.1)
where t is the time. Equation 4.1 indicates that the current depends on time
and the PWM signal driving the valves. For example at t = 0 the current
is i(0) = 0mA, which is the lowest value that the current can maintain. On
the other hand when a PWM of 100% is applied to the system and the time
t , then the current would have the maximum value of i 292mA.
In Section 3.3.1, due to the complexity of the electronics involved in the
ECU, a simplied model of the ECU was introduced. As a consequence of
the simplied ECU model, some dynamics were not included in the model.
Applying dierent PWM signals to the model and comparing them with its
corresponding measured data clearly shows that the model behaves quite
similar (having the same frequency, time constant and mean value) to the
measured data for high PWMs, and not as good for low PWMs. This phe-
nomenon is illustrated in gures 4.9 and 4.10. Having modeled the current
as explained above will aect the system at dierent stages, e.g. controlling,
for more information the reader is referred to Chapter 6.
6.8 6.81 6.82 6.83 6.84 6.85 6.86 6.87 6.88 6.89
0
50
100
150
200
250
time [s]
d
u
t
y

c
y
c
l
e

[
%
]

a
n
d

c
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
m
A
]


Duty Cycle [%]
Measured Current [mA]
Modeled Current [mA]
Figure 4.9: Comparison between modeled and measured current, when ap-
plying a PWM of 75%, where the frequency, time constant and mean value.
48
5.76 5.78 5.8 5.82 5.84 5.86
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
time [s]
d
u
t
y

c
y
c
l
e

[
%
]

a
n
d

c
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
m
A
]


Duty Cycle [%]
Measured Current [mA]
Modeled Current [mA]
Figure 4.10: Comparison between modeled and measured current, when ap-
plying a PWM of 40%,where the frequency is the same. However the ampli-
tude diered quite a lot.
4.3.2 Pressure
The braking torque is decided by the air pressure going into the regulating
valve, therefore it is of great importance to have a good pressure model.
In this section the modeled pressure and the measured one, for both of the
prototypes, was validated by applying dierent PWM signals. Finally a
pressure sequence was used as a reference pressure to see how well the model
can follow the reference pressure.
Pressure with dierent PWM
Figure 4.11 compares the modeled pressure with the measured one, when
a PWM of 82% is applied for both ll valve and ventilation valve. The
experiment was carried out on Prototype 1.
Analyzing the characteristics of the ll valve, depicted in the upper gure in
Figure 4.11, it is observed that the simulated pressure has a faster dynamic
than what the measured pressure has. However in overall the modeled pres-
sure behaves quite similar to the measured pressure. The simulated pressure
was derived by tuning the discharge coecient (see Section 5.1.1 for more
information on the discharge coecient). In the same way, the lower gure
in Figure 4.11 describes the ventilation process of the dead volume, where
the modeled pressure acts very similar to the measured pressure. However,
the dynamics of the model is slow.
49
410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
1260 1270 1280 1290 1300 1310 1320
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
Figure 4.11: The upper gure shows the lling process on prototype 1, when
a PWM of 82% is applied to the valve. The lower gure indicates the venti-
lation of the dead volume, when a 82% PWM is applied.
As stated in Section 4.3.1, for low PWM values the measured current diers
signicantly compared to the simulated current. This would aect the clos-
ing and opening reaction time for the valve, inuencing the pressure which
is depicted in Figure 4.12.
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]
Pressure Validation


300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
20
0
20
40
60
Time [Sample]
E
r
r
o
r

[
%
]
Error


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
Error
Figure 4.12: The gure shows the lling and ventilation process on prototype
1, when a PWM of 50% is applied to the valves. The lower gure is the error
dierence between the modeled and measured pressure, shown in percentage.
50
Studying Figure 4.12, it is apparent that using a PWM of 50% to drive both
of the valves would result in an undesirable behavior, where the error could
increase up to 60%. In order to achieve a better result, more work should be
devoted to designing a better model for the ECU.
As discussed in Section 4.3.1 the simulated current coincides better with the
measured pressure for higher PWMs. Using a PWM of 82% for both of the
valves, the resulting pressure is shown in Figure 4.13.
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
D
u
t
y

C
y
c
le

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]


Dutycycle fill valve
Dutycycle vent valve
Figure 4.13: The gure shows the lling and ventilation process on prototype
1, when a PWM of 82% is applied to the valves. The valves are active one
at the time, where the modeled and measured pressure coincides quite well.
All of the results shown above were carried out on Prototype 1, where the
modeled pressure behaved more like the measured one for high PWMs than
low PWMs. The same model was also run on Prototype 2 for validation.
Applying a 82% PWM on ll and ventilation valves, where a dead volume of
75cm
3
and an orice of 1 mm was used. Figure 4.14 indicates the behavior
of the modeled pressure corresponding to the measured pressure.
51
360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
time [s]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]
Filling: Orifice 1.0 mm and Volume 75 cm3


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
860 880 900 920 940 960 980 1000 1020
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Time [Sample]
P
c
h
/
P
s
u
p

[
N
o
r
m
a
liz
e
d
]
Venting: Orifice 1.0 mm and Volume 75 cm3


Measured Pressure
Modeled Pressure
Figure 4.14: The upper gure shows the lling process on prototype 2, when
a PWM of 82% is applied to the valve. The lower gure indicates the ven-
tilation of the dead volume, when a 82% PWM is applied. In both cases a
dead volume of 75cm
3
and an orice diameter of 1 mm was used.
Pressure with a scheme of random duty cycles as input
Having validated the ll valve and ventilation valve, a sequence of random
duty cycles is tested to show how the model reacts at dierent PMW signals.
As discussed in Sections 4.3.1 and 4.3.2, the current model for low PWMs
diered extensive from the measured data, aecting the closing and opening
of the valves which in its turn inuenced the pressure. Figure 4.15 indicates
how the modeled pressure reacts compared to the measured pressure for a
sequence of duty cycles.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
2
4
6
8
time [s]


Measured pressure
Model pressure
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
time [s]


Duty cycle fill valve
Duty cycle vent valve
Figure 4.15: The upper gure shows the lling and ventilation of the pressure
for dieren PWM values, and the lower gure indicates the various duty
cycles applied on each of the valves.
52
Analyzing Figure 4.15, it is noticeable that for some cases the pressure be-
haves quite alike the measured pressure, however the pressure building up
for a desired duty cycle will aect the pressure behavior for the upcoming
duty cycle. For example between 3.5-4 seconds, the modeled pressure is
higher than the measured one. In order to compensate for the high pressure
a higher duty cycle is needed for emptying the pressure to reach the expected
pressure. This is impossible due to the pre-dened PWM sequence, therefore
a poor result is achieved.
53
Chapter 5
Model Improvements
A models is an approximation of the real process. In a model there are several
factors which has to be considered in order to get a fairly good model. For
example disturbances or other parameters that have leading aect on the
systems behavior has to be taken into consideration. In this case the valves
have shown to react quite dierently from each other, regarding how fast they
ll or empty the air pressure. One of the parameters aecting the valves is
the discharge-coecient, C
d
(see (3.14)), the discharge coecient is further
discussed in Section 5.1. Other parameters shown to be quite important
throughout the project were: the air gap in the magnetic part of the valve,
and pre-load force from the spring in the mechanical part of the valve. Except
parameter tuning, physical disturbances, i.e. temperature and time delays,
acting on the system were also investigated in order to improve the model.
5.1 Parameter tuning
With parameter tuning, the aim is to build a model by considering various
behavior in the system. The discharge coecient and air gap is studied in
this section.
5.1.1 Discharge coecient C
d
In a nozzle or other restrictions for a compressible-ow, the ratio of the
actual mass ow rate to the isentropic
1
, adiabatic mass ow rate is known
as discharge coecient which is expressed by ([12])
1
An isentropic ow is a ow which is both adiabatic and reversible, meaning that no
energy aects the system or is taken from it.
55
C
d
=

M
actual

M
isen,adiab
=
_ _
A
2
(v n) dA

M
isen,adiab
(5.1)
where C
d
is the discharge coecient, n denotes the unit normal vector, v is
the velocity vector, describes the density and A
2
is the minimum cross-
sectional area of a converging nozzle.
The geometry of the orice aects the value of discharge coecient. In [12]
John C. Kayser and Robert L. Shambaugh, studied four types of geometries
i.e. sharp or knife-edge orices, straight-bore orices, quadrant or rounded-
entry nozzles, and elliptical-entry nozzles. During the study, the orice di-
ameters used varied in a range of 0.9-1.9 mm. The result showed that the
value of the discharge coecient varied between 0.6 and 1. C
d
= 1 occurs
during the circumstances where the actual ow is approximately adiabatic.
With the results in [12] as starting point, the values for discharge coe-
cient in this Masters Thesis were chosen. Figures 5.1 and 5.2 indicate how
dierent values of discharge coecient aect the ll and ventilation time of
the valves.
0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
x 10
5
Discharge coefficient fill valve
Time [s]
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


Cd 0.6
Cd 0.7
Cd 0.5
Figure 5.1: Applying a PWM of 82% to the ll valve, using dierent discharge
coecient values. Where the results indicate, the greater the discharge coef-
cient is the faster is the valve.
Figure 5.1 shows the lling process, using 82% PWM with dierent Cd
fill
values. Moreover the closer discharge coecient value is to 1, the faster the
valves behavior is. The ventilation valve behaves the same as the ll valve,
i.e. higher Cd
vent
value gives a faster system, which is depicted in Figure 5.2.
56
3.8 4 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5.2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
x 10
5
Discharge coefficient vent valve
Time [s]
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


Cd 0.5
Cd 0.6
Cd 0.7
Figure 5.2: Applying 82% PWM to ventilation valve, and altering the value
for Cd
vent
, a faster system is achieved when bigger value for Cd
vent
is used.
5.1.2 Air gap
Recall from Section 3.3.2 that the magnetic force produced depends on the
length of air gap where the magnetic ux passes. Due to limited access to
equipment, it is quite dicult to predict how the magnetic ux behaves,
therefore dierent cases were investigated. The three cases that were studied
are constant air gap, varying air gap depending on the armature position,
and small changes in the air gap.
The data acquired from the valve manufacturer indicates that the air gap
can vary up to 0.6 mm. Figure 5.3 shows how the armature position alters
the amount of air gap aected by the magnetic ux.
Armature
Positive
x-direction
System pressure 8.4 bar
Air gap
1
2
Figure 5.3: The gure indicates the change in air gap due to the armature
movement.
First of all a Simulink model was build in a way that the air gap could vary
57
up to 0.6 mm (which is the maximum amount of variation), depending on
the armature movement. The results showed a very strong magnetic force,
F
M
, overcoming all the other forces mentioned in Section 3.3.3. This behav-
ior made the valve to fully open at a very low PWM, which is not desirable
(see Figure 5.4). In order to overcome the magnetic force e.g. a very strong
spring force was needed, and the force could be achieved by using a spring
constant of k
s
= 80000N/m, which is unacceptable comparing it with the
data received from the valve manufacturer which indicates a spring constant
of k
s
= 1170N/m.
0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Time [s]
F
o
r
c
e

[
N
]


Magnetic Force [N]
Preload Force [N]
Viscous Friction [N]
Spring Force [N]
Figure 5.4: The gure shows how big the magnetic force is compared to other
forces, i.e. spring-, viscous-, and pre load-force.
Not having relevant information on the magnetic ux characteristic, a con-
stant air gap was assumed. The places where air gap is present in the valve
have been marked which is depicted in Figure 5.3. While the armature moves,
the air gap in both regions change proportionally, that is when air gap 1 in-
creases, the other one decreases and vice versa. Hence, a constant air gap was
used. By modeling the air gap as constant, the magnetic force, F
M
, ended
up in a reasonable magnitude compared with the other forces acting on the
armature. However it did not give a satisfying result so a third approach had
to be examined.
The third method changes the air gap with a factor of the armature dis-
placement, which resulted in a minimal change in the air gap. By having
a small change in the air gap a more appropriate magnetic force, consider-
ing its magnitude is achieved. Summarizing this section, the last option for
choosing air gap gave better result than the other two, therefore the nal
model was based on the third approach.
58
5.2 System identication of electrical model
One of the methods for creating a model is System identication. As men-
tioned in Chapter 3, a simplied model of the electronics in the ECU was
considered. This resulted in a poor model of the current. Using system
identication-toolbox
2
, the whole electrical circuit is assumed as a black-box,
where only the input (PWM signal) and the output (current) are of interest.
According to the circular ow representing system identication shown in
Figure 5.5, experiment is conducted and data for the input and output are
gathered, where a model is chosen and accommodated to the data and at the
end validated.
Construct
experiment and
gather data
Polish and study
data
Accommodate
model to data
Does data need to
be filtered?
Choose model
structure
Evaluate model
Can model be
accepted?
Data
Data
Model
No
Model structure
Not OK
Data
Not OK
Yes
Figure 5.5: System identications circular ow. The rectangles are the com-
puters main responsibilities, and the ovals are users main responsibilities. [3]
2
System Identication Toolbox software extends the Matlab computational environ-
ment for estimating linear mathematical models to t measured data from dynamic sys-
tems.
59
By following the circular ow presented in gure 5.5, an ARX
3
model of the
electrical part of the valve was created.
Applying the ARX model to the simulink model, did not provide satisfactory
result, because the identication was done on a specic PWM value. As dis-
cussed in previous sections the current behaves dierently for various PWM
signals, therefore just considering the identication based on a specic PWM
would most likely contribute to a poor model. However instead of using a
constant PWM signal, an altering one could be used, including both low and
high PWMs. Due to limited time, this was not implemented.
5.3 Time Delay
The data gathered from experiments indicate a time delay which has to be
taken into consideration to get more precise model. The time delay could
depend on three dierent aspects. First of all the sampling time of the ECU,
second the collected sample data by the pressure sensor and nally the time
it takes for the current to reach the desired value. By studying Figure 5.6,
where current plots and its respective duty cycle have been plotted together.
It can be seen that there is a time from which the PWM goes on until the
current starts to increase.
4.74 4.742 4.744 4.746 4.748 4.75 4.752 4.754 4.756 4.758
0
50
100
150
200
time [s]
d
u
t
y

c
y
c
le

[
%
]

a
n
d

c
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
m
A
]


Duty Cycle [%]
Measured Current [mA]
3.9 3.902 3.904 3.906 3.908 3.91 3.912 3.914 3.916 3.918 3.92
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
time [s]
d
u
t
y

c
y
c
le

[
%
]

a
n
d

c
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
m
A
]


Duty Cycle [%]
Measured Current [mA]
Time Delay
Time Delay
Figure 5.6: The two plots show the current and duty cycle for 40% (lower
gure), and 75% (upper gure). In both of the gures the delay time between
when the PWM goes on until the current moves is recognized, which is about
15 ms.
3
ARX model is a type of linear parametic model, which is described by:
A(q)y(t) = B(q)u(t) + e(t) (5.2)
60
The time delay appearing in the plots has been modeled as a constant delay
of 15 ms this does not represent the time delay in all cases, but is a fairly
good approximation of the time delay. The time delay is of great interest
when applying controller on the system. The reaction time of the valves
aect the opening and closing time, which could cause, e.g., the ventilation
valve to empty more than it should due to the valve reaction.
5.4 Temperature dependent resistance
When analyzing the measured data, a special phenomenon was observed.
The current passing through the coil behaved quite oddly, it decreased with
time (see Figure 5.7). This was due to increased resistivity() in the wires of
the coil. Resistivity is proportional to resistance(R) leading to increment of
resistance, when voltage is applied to the system.
10 20 30 40 50 60
270
275
280
285
290
295
time [s]
c
u
r
r
e
n
t

[
m
A
]


current [mA]
PWM dutycycle [%]
Figure 5.7: The temperature dependent resistance
This characteristic had to be taken into consideration in order to get a more
correct model. The resistance which appeared to be depending on the tem-
perature was derived accordingly:
By considering the rst law of thermodynamics [10], the change in internal
energy(E
int
) is expressed as
E
int
= Q + W (5.3)
where Q denotes the energy transfer represented by heat, and W is the
amount of work done. Internal energy changes of an ideal gas [6] is written
61
as
E
int
=
nR

T
1
(5.4)
where R is molar gas constant, n is number of moles and =
C
p
C
v
= 1.4
The equations for energy transfer and work done due to heat are
Q = C(T T
environment
) (5.5)
and
W = Ri
2
(t) (5.6)
Combining (5.4), (5.5), (5.6) and (5.3) the following relation is obtained

T =
1
nR
(Ri
2
(t) C(T T
environment
)) (5.7)
Over a limited temperature range, the resistance of a conductor varies ap-
proximately linearly with temperature according to
R = R
0
(1 + (T T
0
)) (5.8)
Note that the unit for is [Kelvin
1
].
A model for the resistance was made according to the equations in Section
5.5. Looking closer at Figure 5.7, it can be seen that the resistance changes
over a long period of time (100 s). In reality the valves will not be active in
such a long time. Because of this observation the model of the temperature
dependent resistance has been neglected.
62
Chapter 6
Control Design
As described in [13], controllers are designed such that the system outputs
are used to obtain the desired inputs, in order to achieve the system require-
ments. Often the purpose is to follow a reference signal.
There are various types of controllers to choose from, and the most common
one is the PID-controller. The PID-controller is often used for industrial
purpose, due to its simplicity. Because of satisfying results attained using
a PID-controller in other works such as [14] carried out by Klas Hakansson
and Mikael Johansson, the main focus has been on PID.
Two dierent PID methods has been investigated, whereof, the rst one
is implemented such that the acting valves (ll and ventilation) work one at
the time, this approach has been examined by Vidar Steinsland [15], and only
the results from that study will be presented here. However the main focus
in this report will be on the second method, which is based on controlling
the system while both of the valves are active simultaneously.
6.1 Control Objectives and Background
The aim of the Masters Thesis is to study what performance can be achieved
with this system conguration. In terms of acceptable control error and rise
time, the aim is to make the system as fast and accurate as possible. As
mentioned before, a PID-controller is using the pressure in the chamber as
feedback. Moreover, improving the controller using non-linear control and
prediction have also been investigated, and this is described in the upcoming
sections.
63
6.2 PID Control
The PID controller is the most common controller used on dierent kinds of
systems. With this simple controller, fairly good results can be achieved by
only tuning the PID parameters. The PID controller can be implemented
in various ways. However the most common ones are: error feedback and
output feedback. In this case error feedback shown in Figure 6.1 has been
used.
-1
y u error r
Plant Controller +
Figure 6.1: The structure of a basic feedback control loop, where r denotes
the reference signal, u is the control signal, and y is the output.
Tuning the parameters can be done in two ways. The easiest way is to
directly tune the PID parameters, while experimenting on the prototypes.
However by doing so the model derived in Chapter 3 would loose its relevance.
Therefore it is desired to develop a controller based on the model.
6.2.1 Principles of PID Control
As mentioned above an error feedback controller has been used. In continuos
time this controller is described as
u(t) = Pe(t) + D
de(t)
dt
+ I
t
_
t
0
e(t)dt
= K
_
e(t) + T
d
de(t)
dt
+
1
T
i
t
_
t
0
e(t)dt
_
(6.1)
where K denotes the gain, T
d
is the derivative time, and T
i
is the integration
time. In order to achieve a satisfying results, the rule of thumb for tuning
the parameters is to rst x the P-part, secondly the Derivative, and nally
the Integration part. There are other concepts for adjusting the parameters,
e.g. Ziegler-Nichols Tuning Rule [18]. We now provide brief description on
64
how each part aects the system.
Proportional action
The proportional part of a PID controller helps to make the system faster.
The main purpose of the P-part is to reduce the error so that the output sig-
nal can reach the reference value faster. However a very large proportional
part will end in a quite oscillative system.
Derivative action
When an oscillative system is present due to high proportional gain, a deriva-
tive action is recommended. The derivation part tries to dampen the system,
i.e. to reduce the oscillations, however it will slow down the process.
Integral action
If the system is stable there may be an error between the output and the
reference at stationarity. By inducing the integral part, this station error can
be removed.
6.2.2 Implementation
The controller is designed based on the derived model (see Chapter 3) and
hence the controller is in continuous time, which is acceptable if applied on
the simulink model. The intention is to implement the model on the proto-
types, and for this the controller has to be in discrete time. Equation (6.1),
can be written in discrete time as
u
n
= K
_
e
n
+ T
d
e
n
e
n1
T
s
+
T
s
T
i
n

k=0
e
k
_
(6.2)
where e
n
is the error in sample n, and T
s
denotes the sampling time.
6.3 Approaches
Looking back at (6.1), the control signal depends on the behavior of the er-
ror. When the pressure does not reach up to the reference value, a positive
65
error is obtained, contributing to a positive control value. However having
a pressure bigger than the reference pressure, gives a negative error followed
by a negative control signal. The control signal obtained from the controller
has to be distributed between the two valves. In this Masters Thesis two
dierent approaches are studied. The rst approach is to design a controller
where the control signal operates in a way that one of the ll or ventila-
tion valves are active at a time. This approach is investigated in [15] and
will not be investigated in depth, but the results are shown. The second
approach concentrates on using a control signal, where the valves are active
simultaneously, which is described in details.
6.3.1 Scheme 1-Fill Valve and Ventilation Valve acti-
vated separately for lling and ventilation.
The rst approach is designed in a way that the control signal from the
controller is resolved into two individual pulsing of the two valves. Figure 6.2
is a sketch of how the method works and how it distributes the control signal
between the two valves. However this approach is investigated through a
parallel work and will not be discussed in details here.
100 50 0 50 100
0
20
40
60
80
100
Control Signal u [%]
V
a
l
v
e

D
u
t
y

C
y
c
e
l

[
%
]
PWM Pulsing Scheme 1


100 50 0 50 100
0
20
40
60
80
100
Control Signal u [%]
V
a
l
v
e

D
u
t
y

C
y
c
e
l

[
%
]
Traditional Linear Scheme


Empty Valve
Fill Valve
Empty Valve
Fill Valve
Figure 6.2: Traditional Pulsing Scheme (left) and Pulsing Scheme 1 (right)
6.3.2 Scheme 2-Both Valves activated simultaneously
for lling and ventilation.
The pulsing scheme is based on results from former research [17], where
the aim was to design a method to completely remove the nonlinearities
and dead band over the entire range of control signal u. The algorithm
introduced in [17] was used as base line for building a distributer which is
able to distribute the control signal to ll and ventilation valve, in order to
66
keep both of the valves working simultaneously. The distributer is designed
according to
u
fill
= u(100%2dc
min
)/2u
i
+ 50%
u
vent
= u(100%2dc
min
)/2u
i
+ 50%
_
for u
i
u u
i
u
fill
= dc
i
+ (u u
i
)(100%2dc
min
)/u
i
u
vent
= dc
min
_
for u
i
< u 100% (6.3)
u
fill
= dc
min
u
vent
= dc
i
(u + u
i
)(100%2dc
min
)/u
i
_
for 100% u < u
i
where dc
min
is the minimum possible duty cycle where the valve will still
respond, dc
i
is the duty cycle corresponding to the inection point where the
duty cycle is increased by twice the slope to maintain a linear output/input
relationship and u
i
is the corresponding control output. Figure 6.3 gives
more insight on how the method works.
100 50 0 50 100
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
control signal: u [%]
d
u
t
y

c
y
c
l
e

[
%
]
Pulsing Scheme 2


Fill Valve
Ventilation Valve
di,vent
di,fill
ui,vent
ui,fill
Figure 6.3: Pulsing Scheme 2
The inection points in Figure 6.3 are placed at the specied positions, due
to the results obtained in a research done by R. van Varseveld and G. M.
Bone [17], showing that placing the inection points on positions which is
marked in Figure 6.3 would remove the nonlinearities over the entire range
of the control signal u. Equation (6.3) species that both the ll valve and
ventilation valve will not have a duty cycle value which undergoes dc
min
for
respective valve. Moreover both of the valves have an upper limit of 100%
duty cycle.
67
A modied version of the method was used, where the saturated control sig-
nal range [0%, 100%] is scaled into the active duty cycle range [dc
min,f
, 82%]
and [dc
min,v
, 80%] for ll valve resp. vent valve. This is depicted in Figure 6.3.
This is done due to the fact that in Chapter 4 it was seen that a duty cycle of
dc
max
was sucient to fully open the valves. Using a higher duty cycle over
magnetized the valves, causing the coil to discharge even slower, resulting
in a longer time to close the valves when needed. However having a dead
band for duty cycles beneath dc
min
, would increase the demagnetization time,
closing the valves later than they should. This phenomenon causes problems
during the controlling part, therefore a tolerance of 0.1 was added to the
designed distributor. Whenever the error signal is within the tolerance range
the control signal is set to zero.
6.4 Results-Scheme 2
Before applying the controller on the prototypes, the designed controller
was applied on the model. Simulating the model and investigating how the
controller acts on the model, the three parameters, i.e. proportional, integral
and derivative gains were tuned to achieve the desired behavior. Having
found satisfying parameters, they were used as initial values when controlling
the prototypes.
6.4.1 Simulations
A simulation is done on the model using an orice diameter of 1.3 mm and a
dead volume of 75 cm
3
, which is depicted in Figure 6.4, having concluded pre-
diction and boosting action. Studying Figure 6.4, the results are satisfying.
The control signals verify that both of the valves are working simultaneously,
which was the aim of the second approach. However taking into consider-
ation the complexity of the distribution algorithm (equation 6.3), a really
good PID-controller is achieved by the model.
68
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
2
4
6
8
10
Time [s]
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


Reference Pressure [Bar]
Simulated Pressure [Bar]
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
0
20
40
60
80
100
Time [s]
D
u
t
y

C
y
c
l
e

[
%
]


Fill Valve DC [%]
Ventilation Valve DC [%]
Figure 6.4: The above gure shows the simulated pressure and its reference
signal, when using an orice diameter of 1.3 mm and a dead volume of 75 cm
3
,
where the eects of prediction and boosting action are concluded, moreover
the lower gure shows the control signal for each of the valves.
6.4.2 Test on Prototypes
Having found initial values for the PID parameters, the following experiment
was carried out on Prototype 2, using an orice diameter of 1.3 mm and 75
cm
3
of dead volume. Both valves being active at same time makes it more
dicult for the controller stabilizing the pressure around the reference value.
This contributes oscillations in the system depicted in Figure 6.5.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
time [s]
p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
[B
a
r
]


Reference Air Pressure
Measured Air Pressure
Figure 6.5: Resulting PID-controller on prototype two with orice diameter
of 1.3 mm, including boosting action and prediction.(Scheme 2)
69
6.5 Control Improvements
As mentioned before, due to the delays corresponding to the valves reaction
time and the ECU, it is quite dicult to close the valve at a required time.
When the pressure approaches the reference pressure, it is desired to close
the valves so that the pressure will always stay around the reference value.
However having the delays in the system causes a late reaction from the valve,
forcing the controller to make the other valve stronger in order to compensate
for the rst valve, resulting in a oscillative signal. By using prediction the
problem could be solved. While experimenting with the controller in some
cases the control signal needed to be stronger. Instead of increasing the
proportional gain, which could give an oscillative system, a non-linear control
was introduced. In this thesis only control improvement using non-linear
control will be introduced in details, prediction is described in [15].
6.5.1 Anti-Windup
All actuators have physical limitations, a control valve cannot be more than
fully open or fully closed. The integral action of a PID controller is stable
during the time where the feed back loop is not broken. However due to
saturation the feed back loop would be broken because the output of the
saturating element will not be inuenced by its input. This would cause the
integrating part to integrate more than it should giving very large values,
which is not desirable. Since it will take the system a long time to recover,
having a negative eect on the controlling of the system. Therefore integral
anti-windup could be used in order to prevent this sort of behavior, this was
also implemented.
Integrator windup can be avoided, by making sure that the integral is kept
to a proper value when the actuator saturates, so that the controller is ready
to resume action, as soon as the control error changes.
6.5.2 Improved Control using Non-Linear Control
During simulation with tuned PID parameters, it could be seen that in some
cases the pressure is too slow when trying to reach the reference pressure,
this phenomena is depicted in Figure 6.6. The pressure has stoped increasing
between 2.89-2.94 seconds before reaching the reference value which is 6 bar.
In this case the control signal needs to be stronger (bigger). In order to speed
up the process a non-linear control was introduced.
70
2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 3.2
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
Time [s]
R
e
l
a
t
i
v
e

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


Pref
Pch
Figure 6.6: The dead volume pressure for a reference change when a PID
controller has been applied, where slow PID reaction can be observed for
certain cases
Figure 6.7 is a schematic sketch on how the non-linear control works. The
non-linear control is basically an additional integrator inserted in the sys-
tem. According to Figure 6.7 the whole process depends on the derivative
of the pressure inside the chamber. When there is no change in the pressure
the extra integrator is activated, generating an additional control signal, u
N
,
which is added to the control signal from the PID-controller, boosting up
the pressure to reach the reference pressure. However, during the integra-
tion if the pressure begins to change, u
N
will hold its previous value and
stop increasing. To prevent from boosting up the control signal too much,
whenever the error is within the tolerance interval i.e. 0.1 bar from the
reference value, u
N
is set to zero. If there is a change in the pressure then
the integrator will not be activated, resulting in u
N
= 0.
Is
P
chamber
= 0 ?
YES
NO P
chamber

Activate/Hold
integrator
Reset/deactivate
integrator
Is
|error|<=
tolerance
?
YES
NO

Figure 6.7: The algorithm of the non-linear control, where it is illustrated

how the integration of the control signal is activated or deactivated depending
on the pressure change in the dead volume.
The non-linear control uses output feed-back. The block diagram is shown
in Figure 6.8.
71
-1
y
uFB
error r
Plant Controller + +
uN
u
Non-
Linear
control
Figure 6.8: Block diagram illustrating a controller based on feedback princi-
ple with an additional non-linear control.
Figure 6.9 shows how the non-linear control method works when it is inserted
in the system. Analyzing the plot, in the beginning when the pressure is
constant the control signal u
N
is integrated up. Between the interval 2.5-2.9
seconds where the pressure changes, u
N
is held at its previous value and
when the pressure is within the tolerance the integrator resets and u
N
= 0.
2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 3.2
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
Time [s]
R
e
la
t
iv
e

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 3.2
0
2
4
6
Time [s]
B
o
o
s
t

a
c
t
io
n
:

u
n

[
%
]
Pref
Pch
Figure 6.9: An illustration of how the extra control signal, u
N
, behaves when
non-linear control is applied to the system
6.5.3 Improved Control using Prediction
The time delay resulting from the valve reaction times could cause the valves
to open and close later than they should. This will prevent the controller
from controlling the system properly. Having considered the time delays,
one way to overcome the phenomenon is the usage of prediction. By using
error prediction the controller is able to estimate in advance, when the error
will fall between the tolerance boundaries i.e. 0.1 bar from the reference
value, and being able to react in time to close the valve. Error estimation has
been applied as an improvement to the controller estimating the error, one
sample or even two samples in advance by calculating the error derivative
using Euler Backward for predicting when to close the valve.
72
For further information about prediction, it is referred to the parallel work [15],
where aects of prediction and results has been investigated more in details.
6.6 Comparison between the two approaches
The Scheme 2 approach turned out to give very poor result compared to
Scheme 1 which was investigated in [15]. The results obtained by Scheme 1,
using one valve at the time, is shown in Figure 6.10.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Time [s]
R
e
la
t
iv
e

P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e

[
B
a
r
]


Pch
Pref
Figure 6.10: Resulting PID-controller on prototype two with orice diameter
of 1.3 mm. (Scheme 1)
Comparing the results from both of the schemes, it is evident that Scheme
1, works much better and it is easier to control than Scheme 2. Another
advantage of using Scheme 1 may be the life span of the valves. By using
Scheme 1, one valve is activated at the time, increasing the durability of the
valves. Having both of the valves active at the same time making it dicult
to regulate the system near the reference signal, ending up in oscillations
such as those seen in Figure 6.5.
73
Chapter 7
Conclusion and Future work
7.1 Conclusion
The Masters Thesis is about investigating whether it is possible to replace
two On/O-valves and a pressure chamber with pressure sensor with todays
Proportional valve to control the air pressure that determines the braking
torque in the retarder. A model of a pneumatic actuator consisting of two
on/o solenoid vales, a pressure chamber and a regulating valve was derived.
The pressure and the current of the model were validated against the mea-
sured data. The results showed that the model has similar behavior (same
current and pressure) as the real system for high PWM values; however it
diered to a very great degree for low PWMs, which possibly is due to the
simplied model of the Electrical Control Unit (ECU) used in the Thesis.
Moreover, dierent size of dead volume (the volume in the chamber, regu-
lating valve and the housing) and orice diameter were investigated in order
to obtain the specied requirements. The results from the experiments indi-
cated that a dead volume of 60-75 cm
3
and an orice diameter bigger than
1.9 mm will fulll the desired requirements.
For controlling the pressure a Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) - con-
troller was introduced. A distributor was used to distribute the control signal
generated from the controller to each of the valves, which in this case two
dierent approaches were examined, denoted as Scheme 1 and Scheme 2.
Scheme 1 investigated the case where one valve was active at a time, which
was examined by Vidar Steinsland in [15]. In this Thesis Scheme 2, where
both valves were active simultaneously, was studied. Due to the time delays
present in the system, error prediction was applied to the controller for im-
proving its performance and being able to close the valves in time so that the
75
ll and ventilation valve would not ll or empty the pressure more than they
should respectively. Another phenomena seen in the measurements was the
slow reaction of the pressure when trying to reach the reference pressure in
some cases. An extra integrator was presented as a non-linear control to im-
prove the controller and boost up the process such that the pressure reaches
the reference value faster. By applying the controller on the prototypes,
having considered prediction and non-linear control as an improvement to
the controller, Scheme 1 gave better results than Scheme 2, which was quite
oscillative and dicult to control compared to Scheme 1.
7.2 Future work
Throughout the Masters Thesis some improvements have been discussed and
applied on the system. However there are other aspects which have not been
considered in the Thesis which would be worth to look into for further im-
provement of the system.
It is encouraged to obtain a good model as possible for the current, due
to its decisive eect on the other parts of the system. Therefore in the fu-
ture it is recommended to consider a better model for the electronics in the
ECU, which probably will results in a more satisfying current model. The
experiments applied during the project were carried out by a frequency of
f
freq
. Discussing with more experienced engineers within the subject they
suggested an investigation with lower frequency could be an option that may
improve the controlling of the system. An alternative approach for improv-
ing the current could be to design a black-box model of the whole electrical
system. Instead of using just one PWM signal, which is the case in this
Masters Thesis, a varying PWM signals is to be taken into consideration. A
model based controller is also suggested which would give more freedom in
using dierent types of controllers for controlling the valves.
76
Bibliography
[1] Scania CV AB, Sodertalje. 2008. http://www.scania.com
[2] Kleinknecht Automotive GMBH. 2008. http://www.kleinknecht.com/
[3] Lennart Ljung, Torkel Glad, Modellbygge och simulering,2004.
[4] Gunnar Petersson, Elkretsanalys, Alfvenlaboratoriet, Kungliga
Tekniska Hogskolan, Stockholm, 2003.
[5] G.Petersson. Teoretisk Elektroteknik - Stationara fenomen. 2004.
[6] C.Nordling, J.osterman. Physics Handbook for Science and Engineer-
ing. 1999.
[7] Christer Nyberg, Mekanik Grundkurs.Liber AB, 336, January 2003.
[8] Karl-Erik Rydberg, Basic Theory for Pneumatic System Design.IKP,
Fluid and Mechanical Engineering Systems, 1997.
[9] Clayton T. Crowe, Donald F. Elger, John A. Roberson, Engineering
Fluid Mechanics.
[10] Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett,Jr., Physics for Science and En-
gineering with modern physics. Californa State Polytechnic University-
Pomona,6th edition,2004.
[11] B.Eriksson, J. Wikander. Lecture notes in MF2007. Dynamics and Mo-
tion Control. 2007.
[12] Kayser, J.C.; Shambaugh, R.L.,Discharge coecients for compressible
ow through small-diameter orices and convergent nozzles. Chemical
Engineering Science, v 46, n 7, 1991, p 1697-1711.
[13] Lennart Ljung and Torkel Glad. Reglerteknik: Grundlaggande teori.
Preliminary edition, 2005.
77
[14] Klas Hakansson and Mikael Johansson, Modeling and Control of an
Electro-Pneumatic Actuator System Using On/O Valves. Masters
Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering, Linkoping 2007.
[15] Vidar Steinsland, Modeling and Control of Retarder using On/O
solenoid valves, Masters Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering,
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm 2008.
[16] Linda Krause and Jimmy Larsson, Konceptstudie: Tryckstyrning
Av Hydrodynamisk Broms, Masters Thesis, Linkoping University,
Linkoping 2004.
[17] Robert B. van Varseveld and Gary M. Bone, Accurate Position Control
of a Pneumatic Actuator Using On/O Solenoid Valves. IEEE/ASME
transaction on mechatronics, vol. 2, NO. 3, September 1997.
[18] Katsuhiko Ogata, Modern Control Engineering. Prentice Hall, New Jer-
sey, 4 th ed., 2002.
78
Appendix A
Appendix
A.1 Linearizing
According to [11] a nonlinear system x = f (x, u) can be linearized around
some operating point {x
0
, u
0
} by considering a neighborhood around the
operating point and approximating the nonlinear model with a truncated
Taylor series. This is done by setting x = x
0
+ x, u = u
0
+ u and
y = y
0
+ y, then
x = f (x, u) +
f
x

x=x
0
u=u
0
x +
f
u

x=x
0
u=u
0
u
y = g (x, u) +
g
x

x=x
0
u=u
0
x +
g
u

x=x
0
u=u
0
u
(A.1)
The system has been thought to be in equilibrium either when both valves
are deactivated, when only one of the valves is fully open, or when both
valves are fully open. The equilibrium when both valves are fully activated
has been considered. In this case the PWM signal is set to 100 % DC on
both valves, and the pressure will reach a constant pressure unless there are
any disturbances disturbing the valves. The steady position will correspond
to the current when the coil is fully charged, and will probably be outside
the physical position limitation in the valve, i.e. outside the walls. In this
equilibrium, the velocity will be zero.
79
A.1.1 Fill valve and Ventilation valve are both acti-
vated
Equilibrium points:
x
0
1
x
0
2
x
0
3
x
0
4
x
0
5
x
0
6
x
0
7
Linearized Model:

x = Ax +Bu

y = Cx +Du

x =
_

_
x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
x
5
x
6
x
7
_

_
and x =
_

_
x
1
x
2
x
3
x
4
x
5
x
6
x
7
_

_
(A.2)
A =
f
x

x=x
0
u=u
0
B =
f
u

x=x
0
u=u
0
C =
f
x

x=x
0
u=u
0
D =
f
x

x=x
0
u=u
0
(A.3)
80
A
=
_ _

f
1

x
1

x
=
x
0

f
1

x
2

x
=
x
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0

f
3

x
1

x
=
x
0

f
3

x
2

x
=
x
0

b
m
p

m
p
_
d
0
2
_
2
0
0
0
0

f
4

x
2

x
=
x
0
0

f
4

x
4

x
=
x
0
0

f
4

x
6

x
=
x
0
0
0
0
0
0

f
5

x
5

x
=
x
0

f
5

x
6

x
=
x
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0

m
p
_
d
0
2
_
2

f
7

x
5

x
=
x
0

f
7

x
6

x
=
x
0

b
m
p
_ _
B
=
_ _
1
x
0 2

L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f

L
o
f
f
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
x
0 6

L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f

L
o
f
f
0
0
0
0
_ _
C
=
_
0
0
0
1
0
0
0

81
w
h
e
r
e

f
1

x
1

x
=
x
0
=

R
x
0 2
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_

L
o
f
f

f
1

x
2

x
=
x
0
=

(
u
0 1

R
x
0 1
)
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_
_
x
0 2
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_

L
o
f
f
_
2

f
3

x
1

x
=
x
0
=

0
A
p
N
2
x
0 1
m
p
(
x
o
f
f

x
0 2
)
2

f
3

x
2

x
=
x
0
=

0
A
p
N
2
(
x
0 1
)
2
m
p
(
x
o
f
f

x
0 2
)
3

k
s
m
p

f
4

x
2

x
=
x
0
=
_
R
g
a
s
T
a
i
r
V
c
h
d
0

C
d
,
s
u
p
P
s
u
p

k
_
2
k
+
1
_
k
+
1
k

f
4

x
4

x
=
x
0
=

_
R
g
a
s
T
a
i
r
V
c
h
d
0

C
d
,
v
e
n
t
x
0 6
_ _
_
2
k
k

1
_
_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
_
2 k

_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
_
k
+
1
k
_
+
_
2
k
k

1
_

2 k
_
P
2 k
a
t
m
(
x
0 4
)
2
+
k
k
_
+
k
+
1
k
_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
k
+
1
k
_
_
2
_
_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
_
2 k

_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
_
k
+
1
k
x
0 4
_ _

f
4

x
6

x
=
x
0
=

_
R
g
a
s
T
a
i
r
V
c
h
d
0

C
d
,
v
e
n
t
x
0 4
_
2
k
k

1
_
_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
2 k
_

_
P
a
t
m
x
0 4
k
+
1
k
_
_
82

f
5

x
5

x
=
x
0
=

R
x
0 6
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_

L
o
f
f

f
5

x
6

x
=
x
0
=

(
u
0 1

R
x
0 5
)
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_
_
x
0 6
_
L
o
f
f

L
o
n
x
o
n

x
o
f
f
_

L
o
f
f
_
2

f
7

x
5

x
=
x
0
=

0
A
p
N
2
x
0 5
m
p
(
x
o
f
f

x
0 6
)
2

f
7

x
6

x
=
x
0
=

0
A
p
N
2
(
x
0 5
)
2
m
p
(
x
o
f
f

x
0 6
)
3

k
s
m
p
83
A.2 Calculation of smallest outlet orice area,
A
o
The amount of air mass ow partly depends on the outlet orice area, A
o
.
Due to the armature position, the size of A
o
varies. Figure A.1 shows the
dierent cases depending on the armature position.
Figure A.1: The left gure shows the structure of the valve when the arma-
ture is at its start position, and the right one indicates the valves structure
when the armature has moved.
As mentioned before depending on armature position, the smallest outlet
orice area is calculated dierently. E.g. the left gure in Figure A.1, the
smallest outlet orice area is computed through:
A
o
= dx
p
(A.4)
where d is the orice diameter. When the armature is in movement, at rst
A
o
is calculated by (A.4), however when the valve opens a certain amount
A
o
is attained through A.5.
A
o
=
_
d
2
_
2
(A.5)
Table A.1 shows how value of A
o
switches between the to cases, where d =
1.9mm, and x
p
: 0 0.6mm. Note that the values indicated in the table are
calculated for both of the cases for a specic value of x
p
, and the smallest
one is chosen. Hence, when x
p
= 0 A.4 is used.
84
Table A.1: Table showing calculation of A
o
with two dierent methods for a
specied value of x
p
, where the smallest A
o
is chosen.
x
p
[mm] A
o
= dx
p
[mm
2
] A
o
=
_
d
2
_
2
[mm
2
] chosen A
o
0 0 2.84 (A.4)
0.1 0.6 2.84 (A.4)
0.4 2.39 2.84 (A.4)
0.5 2.98 2.84 (A.5)
0.6 3.58 2.84 (A.5)
85