Co-Simulation of Flow Force in High Speed Solenoid Valve of Automatic Pressure Regulator in Electropneumatic Brake of Commercial Vehicles

Flow force is generated when fluid flows through a valve. Flow force has an influence on response of valves. In order to study how flow force influences the response characteristics of a high speed solenoid valve used in automatic pressure regulator for electropneumatic brake in commercial vehicles, this paper proposed an electromagnetic and computational fluid dynamics co-simulation approach to analyze the behavior of the valve. First, the electromagnetic force and magnetic flux of the solenoid under variant current and air gap was calculated in ANSYS Maxwell by means of finite element method. Then, the dynamic analysis model of the valve was established in Amesim and the force and flux data were imported to the model to calculate the transient behavior of the solenoid which drives the valve. Next, the flow area of the valve was modeled in STAR-CCM+ to calculate the transient flow force on the spool of the valve. Finally, a co-simulation platform provided by Amesim and STAR-CCM+ was used to study the transient behavior of the solenoid valve under voltage excitation and work load. The result of the co-simulation showed that flow force helps to accelerate the closing process. To optimize the response characteristics, a modified valve structure has been proposed to reduce the delay.