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The potential energy recovery of hydraulic excavators is very significant for improving energy efficiency and reducing pollutant emissions. However, the more common solutions for potential energy recovery require more energy conversion processes before these potential energies can be reused, which adds to the complexity and high cost of the system. To tackle the above challenges, we proposed a novel energy recovery system for hydraulic hybrid excavators based on the digital pump with an energy recovery function. The new system could operate in three different modes: pump, energy recovery, and direct reuse. Based on the descriptions of the working principle of the digital pump and the whole energy recovery system, the mathematical models of the digital pump, the excavator arm cylinder, and the accumulator were established and the AMESim simulation model (combining mechanics, hydraulics, and electrics) was developed. The dynamic characteristics of the energy recovery system were studied under no-load and full-load conditions. The simulation results showed that this scheme could achieve 86% energy recovery when the boom was lowered and reused the recovered energy directly when raised, which could decrease the system input energy by 78.1%. This paper can provide an optimized solution for construction machinery or off-road vehicles and presents a reference for the research on digital hydraulics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a permanent and strong need for energy recovery to improve the efficiency of the hydraulic system in the field of the construction machinery. In addition, the digital pump will become powerful and versatile by employing different configurations and intelligent control of the flow distribution valves. Considering this case, we have proposed a novel digital pump in which every plunger is equipped with two flow distribution valves. By controlling these two valves, external hydraulic energy can be directly reused without other components. Based on the structure and working principle of the digital pump, the mathematical model is established and three working modes are detailed. To verify the feasibility and correctness of control methods, a performance simulation testing platform including a digital pump, load module, hydraulic energy to be recovered, and controller module was developed in AMESim R15 software. The pressure, flow rate, and torque simulations of the digital pump in three working modes were carried out. The simulation results have shown that the digital pump not only can be used as an ordinary pump but also has the function of recovery and immediate reutilization of another hydraulic energy. Meanwhile, the corresponding variable displacement control strategy is effective and the positive torque required to drive the digital pump can be reduced, which verified the energy-saving of this scheme. The ideas and contents in this paper can offer significant references for energy conservation technology of various engineering machineries and the intensive study of digital hydraulics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfect flow distribution is extremely important and essential for digital pumps. However, the fluctuation of motor speed and the change of valve dynamic characteristics cause the flow distribution flaw, which generates the backflow of the oil in the piston chamber and the decrease in pump volumetric efficiency. Based on the three-dimensional and mathematical modeling of the digital pump, the perfect distribution state of the digital pump is analyzed. Then, the adverse effects of the variations in motor speed and valve dynamic characteristics on the flow distribution of the digital pump were simulated and investigated by the software AMESim. To overcome the aforementioned problems, we proposed an adaptive control method for the flow distribution valve of a digital pump, which was realized by adopting the axis rotation angle and the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the flow distribution valve. The results show that the control signal of the flow distribution valve can be regulated automatically along with the motor speed and the valve dynamic characteristics, achieving the ideal flow distribution of the digital pump designed in this paper. The study can be used as a reference for the optimal design and prototype manufacturing of the digital pump. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital hydraulic technology as an emergent and important branch of fluid power offers good prospects for intelligence, integration, and energy saving of hydraulic systems. The high-speed on-off valve (HSV) that is a critical component of digital hydraulics has the drawbacks of specific design, narrow scope of application and high price compared to the commercial solenoid screw-in cartridge valve (SCV) widely used in the hydraulic industry at present. In this paper, a hybrid voltage control strategy composed of the preloading voltage, positive pulse voltage, holding voltage and negative pulse voltage is proposed to enhance the dynamic characteristics of the SCV, which makes it meet the demands of the digital hydraulics and achieve the end of replacing the HSV. Based on the structural analysis of the SCV, a mathematical model of the SCV is deduced. Subsequently, the simulation model of the SCV is developed in AMESim and validated by experimental measurements. The effects of the different duty ratios of the preloading voltage and holding voltage on the dynamic characteristics of SCV are studied, and the dynamic responses of the SCV under the normal voltage, positive and negative pulse and hybrid voltage control strategies are compared. The simulation results indicate that the increment of the preload voltage duty ratio and the reduction of the holding voltage duty ratio are conducive for decreasing the total opening and closing time of the SCV, especially the opening delay and closing delay time. The hybrid voltage control proposed has a better effect in dynamic characteristics than the other two strategies, using which the total opening time of the SCV reduces by 74.24% (from 29.5 ms to 7.60 ms), and the total closing time is drastically squeezed by 92.06% (from 136 ms to 10.8 ms). This provides a technical reference for improving the dynamic response speed of SCVs and popularizing digital hydraulic technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydraulic high-speed on/off valve (HSV)—the critical core component of digital hydraulic technology—has a special structural design and manufacture due to its fast opening and closing, which results in high prices and maintenance costs. The solenoid screw-in cartridge valve (SCV) is widely used in the hydraulic industry because of its merits, such as mature technology, reliable quality, and low cost. The contribution of this study is to replace the high-speed on/off valve with the SCV in some areas of application by introducing positive and negative pulse voltage control for the coil of the SCV, which only modifies the control circuit and needs no change in structure. Based on the analysis of the structure of the SCV, the simulation model was developed in AMESim and validated by experiments to investigate the effects of the pulse voltage duration on the open–close dynamic characteristics and find the optimal pulse voltage duration, so that the SCV can open or close in the shortest time to reduce energy loss as far as possible. The simulation results showed that the positive and negative pulse voltage could quicken the rising or declining speed of the coil current and dramatically decrease the opening and closing delay time. By the experimental comparison with the original control method, the opening time of the SCV decreased from 30 ms to 13 ms, and the closing time was reduced from 139 ms to 14 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An innovative wind turbine with a particular hydraulic transmission and energy storage system is proposed in this paper. The purpose of applying the hydraulic transmission is to remove the gearbox and power converter of traditional wind turbine and cooperate on wind resource storing with the energy storage system. To overcome the volatility and intermittence shortcomings of wind and improve the output power quality, hydraulic accumulators are used as the energy storage device for wind energy regulation. The original gearbox and generator in the nacelle of a Micon 600 wind turbine were removed and replaced with a hydraulic pump to make a test rig for the investigation into maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of this hydraulic wind turbine concept. The mathematical model of the entire test system is established according to the four function modules. The MPPT control strategy based on the tip speed ratio (TSR) is adopted and a control system containing three closed-loop controls is designed to achieve maximum wind power extracting and produce constant frequency power generation. Ultimately, the dynamic response of rotor speed control is revealed under step change of wind speed and the maximum power tracking performance of the 600 kW hydraulic energy storage wind turbine test bench is simulated and analysed by subjecting to turbulent speed condition. The simulation results demonstrate that the rotor of the wind turbine can run at the expected optimal speed depending on wind speed, and the wind power utilization coefficient of the unit is stabilized at about the maximum value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the efficiency and convenience of wind energy storage and solve the reproducibility of the hydraulic wind turbine, we present a storage type wind turbine with an innovative hybrid hydraulic transmission, which was adopted in the development of a 600 kW storage type wind turbine experimental platform. The whole hydraulic system of the storage type wind turbine is mainly an ingenious combination of a closed loop transmission and an open loop one, which can also be divided into three parts: hydraulic variable speed, hydraulic energy storage, power generation. For the study focusing on the capture and storage of wind energy, the mathematical model of the wind turbine except for the power generation was established under MATLAB/Simulink. A double closed loop control strategy is proposed to achieve the wind wheel speed regulation and wind energy storage. The dynamic simulations of the 600 kW storage type wind turbine experimental prototype were carried out under two different input signals. The results show that the wind wheel speed achieves the desired value at fast response and high precision using the control method given in this paper, and the proposed new storage type wind turbine is reasonable and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy storage plays a major role in solving the fluctuation and intermittence problem of wind and the effective use of wind power. The application of the hydraulic accumulator is the most efficient and convenient way to store wind energy in hydraulic wind turbines. A hydraulic energy storage generation system (HESGS) can transform hydraulic energy stored in the hydraulic accumulator into stable and constant electrical energy by controlling the variable motor, regardless of wind changes. The aim of the present study is to design a constant speed control method for the variable motor in the HESGS and investigate the influence of the controller's main parameters on the resistance of the HESGS to external load power disturbances. Mathematical equations of all components in this system are introduced and an entire system simulation model is built. A double closed-loop control method of the variable motor is presented within this paper, which keeps the motor speed constant for the fixed frequency of electrical power generated by the HESGS. Ultimately, a series of simulations with different proportional gains and integral gains under the environment of changeless load power step are conducted. At the same time, comparison analyses of the experiment and simulation under variable load power step are performed. The results verify the correctness and the usability of the simulation model, and also indicate that the proposed control method is robust to the disturbances of changing load power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]