INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

KHARAGPUR

NPTEL
ONLINE CERTIFICATION COURSE

On Industrial Automation and

Control

By Prof. S. Mukhopadhyay
Department of Electrical Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

Topic Lecture – 36
Hydraulic Control Systems - II

Keywords: Cylinder, flow control valves, pilot pressure, pressure difference, loop feedback
control, servo valves.
Welcome to lesson 27 of industrial automation and control.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:28)

In this lecture we will first look at pressure and flow control valves, something which spilled
over from the last lecture, then look at hydraulic cylinders, proportional valves and servo valves
and finally we will look at the structure of a full, you know hydraulic actuation system, so we
look at the instruction objectives.
(Refer Slide Time: 00:57)
Describe the principles of operation of pressure and flow control valves and cylinders, basic
components of proportional valves, learn about basic components of servo valves and be familiar
with the typical, you know control architecture of hydraulic actuation systems, these are the
instructional objectives of this lesson.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:29)

So coming over from the last lesson, pressure relief valves, these are, these valves are typically
mounted, so you have, these are not, valves where, these are connected in parallel, in general that
is, you have a pipe through which the main flow takes place and this valve is going to be
connected in parallel okay, so in a hydraulic circuit, you will have the main line and you will
have a pressure relief valve connected to, typically to tank, so this will be the valve symbol as
shown and there is an adjustable spring.

So the main power line through which the main fluid flows will be this, if the pressure at this
point goes high then this valve is supposed to operate, so this point A is connected to the inlet A
and this point B is connected to the drain B okay, so if the pressure goes high here, this is a
simply a poppet like thing, this one, which is loaded by this spring, this is a spring you can see
the cross section, so the spring actually presses it down, the spring presses it down, so when it
presses it down this is closed but if the pressure at this point, pressure goes high then this will be
pushed up, this will be pushed up and the fluid will flow through this to the drain, it will flow
through this to the drain.

So, that is the path, this path, this is the operation of the pressure relief valve, now sometimes
you need to operate these relief valves in various modes using a pilot.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:33)
That is a pilot is, a pilot is a line from using which by applying pressure from a remote place, you
can operate a valve, so there may be some normal operation mode of the valve but you may
sometimes the operator may like to override that mode and get into a different mode and that you
can do sitting in the control room while the valve may be at the field somewhere near the
machine, so here we have a pilot operated valve see the operation.

So this is the pilot port, right, suppose first of all we keep it closed, so if you keep it closed,
suppose it is sealed, so normally fluid is flowing through this, going out through this or rather
opposite, it is going yeah, it is going through this and not because of this, it will actually what
happens is that, the fluid is flowing through this tank and going out okay, now sorry, this is, yeah
actually right, correct, so this fluid is going through this, like this is the inlet port and this is the
outlet port and there is a, you see that this is all, this is actually Hollow but so and there is a
slight hole here, slight capillary like opening, which is not shown, I am making it full. So, what
happens is that, the pressure here is generally in the steady state, it is the same as a pressure here,
so on this pool, on this pool the net force is zero.

So, but there is a spring, this is a spring, so the spring is pushing it down, so this edge, these two
edges they are actually pressing against here and closing, so there is no leakage to tank, directly
the fluid is passing, this is the normal scenario, now suppose the pressure goes, starts going high
here, so what will happen is that, slowly because of the capillary it will take some time but the
pressure here and pressure here, after some time are maintained because of this opening.
So, the pressure here will also go up, in this way at some time the pressure here will go so high
that it will push this poppet on this direction and there will be a leakage flow, this is actually a
hollow, can you see these dotted lines this indicates that it is hollow and there is an opening, so
the fluid will start flowing through this hollow and it will flow out to the tank.

So, the pressure cannot increase beyond a certain level, now suppose you want to, at some points
of time due to the operational requirements, you want to open this valve.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:49)

Before that, if you, if you now, if you try to make it flow through this, it will not flow because it
will close, so there cannot be any tank to pump flow, on the other hand if you now apply a pilot
pressure here, if you apply a pilot pressure here for example you see you can apply pilot pressure
using a directional valve, so in this position of the valve pump is connected to B. So, in this, this
is, so in this position what is going to happen is that.

Because you are applying pressure here, so you are pushing this, so you are pushing this down,
so you are pushing this down, so the pump can be, pump will flow to tank, this will flow to tank,
so you can now have, you can, by applying a certain amount of pressure, you can decide the
level of pressure at which this will drain to tank. So, the relief level can be programmed, so such
things can be done using pilot operated reading valves.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:14)

Going over to the next one, flow control valve. These are valves which are made such that the
flow across them, irrespective of, irrespective of the pressure variation, irrespective of the
pressure variation at the inlet,

(Refer Slide Time: 08:30)

The flow through the outlet is going to be constant and this can be adjusted by this, there can be
different settings of flow and one can adjust that setting, so how is that achieved?
(Refer Slide Time: 08:50)

This is achieved basically by the fact that, this is the inlet port, so what is the fluid path, the fluid
path is through this, through this, through this, through this, through like this, this is the fluid
path okay. So there are two obstructions, so one obstruction is this one, this one, this is actually a
cross-sectional view. So, the actual thing is like this, it is a, it is a cylinder with a notch, with a v-
shaped notch in the middle.

So you can see that the amount of, because the notch is V shaped, so if this is rotated, if this is
rotated then the ends of the V will come here, it will become like this, this Crescent will become
like this, then the fluid has to flow through this much of opening, right now it is flowing through
this much of, so actually because the cross-section varies, here the cross-section is low, here the
cross-section is more, here the cross-section is maximum.

So, as you rotate it this cross-sectional area through which this flows can be determined, this is
the first thing. So, i say, flow setting can be adjusted by moving this valve, moving this notch,
now what happens is that, suppose the pressure here goes up, if it goes up, then because it is
flowing at a certain across a particular notch, there is a particular pressure drop at a particular
flow, so this pressure will immediately tend to rise here, now if the, when the pressure rises, this
will apply a force, if this applies a force then, no, actually what will happen is that, if the
pressure rises here.

Then first the pressure will rise here, now this means that this pressure will act, the pressure will
also, so the flow will tend to because of that the flow will tend to increase here but because the
pressure rises here, so the flow will, this pressure will pressurize it here and here, so that this
spool will move this side, now if this spool moves this side, you can understand that this opening
will close, once this opening closes then there is going to be a greater pressure drop here and
naturally since this pressure drop is fixed, it has gone up.

But at this level it is fixed then if you increase the pressure drop here then the pressure here will
fall, so in this way the pressure is going to be adjusted there is going to be, this will stay a
particular flow will take place, when the pressure difference between these two, what is the
pressure difference between these two, why is this in equilibrium, because there is an upward
pressure here, there is a downward pressure here and there is a spring force which is downward,
so it will, so the difference between this pressure and this pressure in any steady state is always
going to be equal to the spring.

Therefore the spring sets the pressure difference across the throttle, it is set by this spring, it is
always be equal to the spring force and so now so what is going to happen is that, at a particular
opening of the v-notch, if you have the pressure difference fixed and if you have the opening
cross section fixed then the flow is going to be fixed, so this is the way that, so the moment the
pressure goes up, the, this through this pool will adjust.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:45)

And control the pressure here such that the flow will flow to the load is going to be remain the
same, so this is the principle of flow control valves.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:56)

(Refer Slide Time: 12:58)
Now we look at, so finally, so now we have studied a number of valves right, so we have first
studied pumps and motors, which deliver the fluid and finally use the fluid motor is rotary
actuator then we have seen how the fluid can be, it's directions can be changed and on it's path,
how flow and pressure can be controlled, so now finally that fluid will go to a, go to an actuator,
so one of the actuators, can be a rotary actuator motor which you already studied, now we are
going to see a linear actuator which is a cylinder.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:37)

So, cylinders are generally of two types, one type is called single-acting the other type is called
double acting, so single acting means that, by force it moves only in one direction, then it, then it
generally comes back either by gravity or by spring force etc. while double-acting means that by
force it can be moved in both directions, so for single acting generally the return stroke is not
loaded, while the forward stroke is loaded, while for double acting both strokes can be loaded, it
is very simple.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:15)

Single acting, this is a, this is a single acting cylinder, so if you put some pressure from the
pump, it will go up, it will create a force, so it will go up, so that is the power stroke going up, on
the other hand if you connect it to tank, in this case it is by gravity, so because of the load, this,
this thing will come up and the fluid will be pushed out to the tank, so if you want to have the
power stroke you to connect it to pump, if you want to have the retraction stroke here we have to
connect it to the tank.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:50)

(Refer Slide Time: 14:52)
For double acting cylinders are also very simple devices, so here you can see that, you can, you
have two ports one is pump, another is tank. Yeah, actually you have two ports, so one of the, so
if you connect this one to pump and this one to tank then the fluid will enter here and will go out
here and will be pushed in this direction. On the other hand, if you reverse that if you take this
one to pump and this one to tank then fluid will enter here and will go out through this direction.

Only one thing to note is that, for the pressure that you will be required to move this, that is the,
we want to mention that this cross-sectional area are different on the two sides, if you have, this
is called a single rod, that is the rod to which the load is connected, is connected only on one
side. So therefore, this area is going to be less than this area, A1 and A2, so A2 is greater than A1.
If you have a double rod cylinder where you have a rod on this side also, then it may be that A2 =
A1 or even A2 can be less than A1, so this is a very simple device.

Now, so far we have, we have mostly seen apart from pressure control and flow control, we have
mostly seen valves, where the direction of the fluid is changed, so we have seen mainly
directional valves. Now we are going to look at some valves where the flow or pressure can be
controlled in a continuous or a step less manner, okay.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:35)

So, it is, so therefore we use, what are known as proportional and servo valves. So, you have
here, what at the, I mean the advantage is that you have a step-less control of position, force,
velocity etc,

(Refer Slide Time: 16:52)

And you can drive these, these are typically electro-hydraulic valve, so that you can drive them
accurately using, mainly using current, and so that you can sometimes of computing interfaces,
one of the major areas of application is avionics. So, the onboard flight computer will drive these
actuators such that the plane can flow, can fly.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:23)

So, obviously, you use hydraulics for high power weight ratio, sometimes you can improve the
power weight ratio and drive very high loads using multiple stages of hydraulics.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:36)

And they use open, partially open or partially closed and sometimes full closed loop control. So,
these are generally very precise devices, quite expensive, difficult to make, manufacture and
mainly use for moving for precision motion of very high power loads, so we will start with
proportional valves.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:07)

So we can have open loop technology where we, when can you use open loop control, you can
use open loop control when, this we have studied in control theory that, why do you need
feedback, you need feedback when you know that the system model can change and there are
lots of unknown disturbances, so if you have this sort of situations then you use closed loop
feedback control, but in a situation, but for closed loop feedback control, you need, you may
need an expensive feedback arrangement.

So if you can sometimes do away with that, if you know that your system is highly stable, does
not change, there is little uncertainty, very well characterized, and you know the load, so there is
not going to be an unexpected kind of load, in such a situation you can use open-loop control,
and typically in a in a control system there will be multiple loops, so you, if you have some of
the loops closed and the, maybe the final, these are generally used for creating motion, so maybe
the, the final motion of the final element is not sensed then I call it a partial closed-loop control.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:26)

So, proportional valves use this open or partial closed-loop control and they are very highly
characterized devices. So, basic idea is to create flow or pressure proportional to spool stroke, so
basically there is a, it is like a directional valve only, only thing is that in directional valves,
when you switch on one side of the solenoid it comes and sticks at one end, when you energize
the other side of the solenoid it comes and sticks at the other end. Here you are not going to do
that, here you are going to make continuous motion of the spool and so all these openings are
going to open to various extents and there by you are going to control the flow or the pressure, so
you are basis, so basically the structure is the same, so it creates flow or pressure proportional to
spool stroke, so it is so the flow or pressure will be proportional to the motion of the spool.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:24)

And this will in turn create proportional force or speed at the actuator, depending on what the
actuator is, let us consider a linear actuator at this point of time and as we have seen that in the,
as you said that in the pilot operated relief valve, you can, you can control the pressure at which
the valve will vent, so how do you do that, you do that by controlling the pilot pressure, how do
you control the pilot pressure, you can put a proportional valve at the, from the pump.

And then connect the outlet of that pump of that valve to the pilot port of the relief valve and
then by using computer or using, I mean using manual operation you can control the relief
pressure.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:10)

(Refer Slide Time: 21:11)
A typical proportional valve will have these elements, so it is operated by a control voltage
which can be given manually or which can come from a computer then there is usually a set of
electronic circuits which do various kinds of things, which do filtering, which will do
amplification, which can do, sometimes if part of it is digital they will do digital-to-analog
conversion and there can, there is a main thing is that, it must add some power.

That is there will be a servo amplifier and there will be a voltage to current converter, so finally
from this control voltage

(Refer Slide Time: 21:54)

which does not any power, you are going to drive some current, this current will be applied to a
proportional solenoid, so the characteristic of the proportional solenoid is such that at a particular
current, it can create a particular force, so if it can create a particular force.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:11)

Or it can create a particular stroke, as we shall see the proportional valves can be either force
controlled or stroke controlled, so if you control the stroke then the Hydra, this is the, this is the
coil part of it, these are, that is why these are called electro hydraulic, so this part is electrical,
electrical, this is the hydraulics, so if you create a force or stroke on the spool, you will get a
corresponding flow or pressure and that flow or pressure can be applied to us, to that, this is
actuator finally.

Which is connected to the actual load, which you want to move, machine, so this is the cylinder
or the motor, so these are the, this is a typical structure of a proportional valve.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:07)

(Refer Slide Time: 23:10)
So, proportional solenoids are typically made, if you want to have a force controlled proportional
solenoid, proportional valve then what you do is that you do, actually how do you do, force
control, you do current control and you do current control and then you have made the solenoid
such that it is, this is force stroke characteristic, so you see that for a good range of the stroke the
force remains constant at a given current.

So, by changing the current, you can take the force up and it will stay, it will, it will stay constant
over a length of the stroke, in fact it should be mentioned that these valves, the stroke length is
actually very small, it is of the order of millimeters, full stroke length, so therefore, generally the
stroke length is not large and therefore the valve is actually expected to operate only in this zone.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:08)

So you have a constant current to force ratio, so therefore, if you want to have, if you want to
control the force, it is equivalent to control the current.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:22)

Which is very simple, as we have, as we will see later also that, current feedback is very much
preferred because it is very easy to get that feedback, for example a typical very cheap hall effect
sensor can give you a very good current feedback, sometimes the current sensing resistant, you
can drive the current through a small resistance and then take the voltage drop that will give you
a very good current value. So, that brings down the cost if you really wanted to.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:48)

On the other hand, remember that this force control strategy will is essentially dependent on this
force current characteristic of this valve, so that must be insured and if it is not good enough then
your force is not going to stay constant.

(Refer Slide Time : 25:07)

On the other hand, if you have, when you have a stroke control, we have not drawn the stroke
control, let me just go ahead, actually I, on the other hand, yeah, ok, so go back, okay, so you see
that this is a, I am sorry, yeah, so typically, typical construction of a force controlled proportional
valve, so what you are happening is that, you see here you are giving the electrical connection,
that is the servo amplifier current has to be driven here, that will, this is, this is the torque, so
called torque motor, so what will happen is that, it will, this is the connector.

So if you drive the current then what will happen is that, say this will move, this magnet system
will pull it and it will tilt slightly, so it will push it, it will push it here, once it pushes, this is
actually connected, this is, this is actually connected, so once this pushes, this valve will shift,
this is the spool, you can see the spool, this is the spool shaft, so once this moves this side, this is
the pump which gets connected to this port and this is that, this port gets connected to the tank.

Okay, on the other hand if you connect, if you move it this way then this will get connected to
this port and this will get connected to this port, so this will make the spool shift, in this case
because of this feedback it will move a certain, only a certain distance, in the case of, so you see
that in the case,
(Refer Slide Time : 27:13)
of force control, in the case of stroke controlled solenoid, you actually put a position transducer,
so you actually put a position transducer and see the stroke and you give feedback, in that case
you can see that this characteristic of the, because of the feedback system, so therefore the
characteristic of the valve will not be very closely controlled but the position transducer accuracy
is very important and the characteristic of the overall proportional solenoid is going to be still,
still going to be fairly constant.

(Refer Slide Time : 28:15)

So now, so this is, you know this is a typical application circuit, what we are trying to do is, this
is a, this is a single acting cylinder, so you can see that if it is in this position then the, then the
cylinder is locked, you can see that this is a cylinder so the cylinder is locked, why the cylinder is
locked, the cylinder is locked because of this relief valve, see this is a check valve, so flow
cannot take place from this place to this place, if flow has to take place through this path then a
certain pressure difference is required, so unless the weight, so the cylinder cannot come back by
its own weight because the fluid cannot go out of this chamber.

So if you put it in the central position of this four-way valve, 3-position four-way valve then the
cylinder is locked and it does not slowly come down because of its own weight, on the other
hand if you connect it to this position, this means that, these symbols mean that this is that, these
are proportional directional valves, so it is not only that the, it’s not only that the position of the
valves can be shifted to one of the three, as is commonly known in directional valves the flow
rate or can also be changed by using proportional control.

So the rest is simple, if you connected this place the fluid will flow into this and will flow
through the valve, on the other hand if you connect it to this position then the fluid will flow
through this, to the check valve and go to this and come back to the tank, to the tank, so this is,
so you see that here, you, by using this proportional directional valve, using only one element
you are able to not only control the direction but also control this velocity or the speed by using
the proportional valve that is sometimes an advantage.