Investigating the Design Parameters’ Influence in a Fast Switching Valve – An Approach to Simplify the Design Process

Designing Fast Switching Valves (FSVs) for digital displacement units is a complicated process pushing the technology to the limit. The system dynamics and the interaction of the fluid, mechanical structure, actuator and control hence calls for advanced modelling, including CFD and FEA, to capture, e.g. fluid sticlion effects, end-damping and impact contact stresses. Unfortunately, this essentially renders optimization processes infeasible due to the computational burden involved, although this is precisely what is required for this type of complex multi-domain problem. Therefore, the focus of the current article is on how a complex mechatronic design problem, like designing an FSV, may be aided by considering decomposing and simplification through sensitivity analysis and analyzing correlations between the design and output parameters. This is done to significantly reduce the original design problem without compromising the investigated design space. The paper focuses specifically on the results related to an FSV and the flow delivering part of this, showing the influence of the various design parameters. However, the approach and considerations may be generalized to an other areas as well.