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Double-Acting Hydraulic Cylinder - Simulate hydraulic actuator exerting force in both directions

Library

Hydraulic Cylinders

Description

The Double-Acting Hydraulic Cylinder block models a device that converts hydraulic energy into mechanical energy in the form of translational motion. Hydraulic fluid pumped under pressure into one of the two cylinder chambers forces the piston to move and exert force on the cylinder rod. Double-acting cylinders transfer force and motion in both directions.

The model of the cylinder is built of Simscape™ Foundation library blocks. The schematic diagram of the model is shown below.

Connections R and C are mechanical translational conserving ports corresponding to the cylinder rod and cylinder clamping structure, respectively. Connections A and B are hydraulic conserving ports. Port A is connected to chamber A and port B is connected to chamber B.

The energy through hydraulic port A or B is directed to the appropriate Translational Hydro-Mechanical Converter block and Hydraulic Piston Chamber block. The converter transforms hydraulic energy into mechanical energy, while the chamber accounts for the fluid compressibility in the cylinder chamber. The rod motion is limited with the mechanical Translational Hard Stop block in such a way that the rod can travel only between cylinder caps. The Ideal Translational Motion Sensor block in the schematic is introduced to determine an instantaneous piston position, which is necessary for the Hydraulic Piston Chamber blocks.

The block directionality is adjustable and can be controlled with the Cylinder orientation parameter.

Basic Assumptions and Limitations

The model is based on the following assumptions:

No leakage, internal or external, is taken into account.
No loading on piston rod, such as inertia, friction, spring, and so on, is taken into account. If necessary, you can easily add them by connecting an appropriate building block to cylinder port R.

Dialog Box and Parameters

Piston area A: Chamber A effective piston area. The default value is 0.001 m^2.
Piston area B: Chamber B effective piston area. The default value is 5e-5 m^2.
Piston stroke: Piston maximum travel between caps. The default value is 0.1 m.
Piston initial distance from cap A: The distance that the piston is extended at the beginning of simulation. You can set the piston position to any point within its stroke. The default value is 0, which corresponds to the fully retracted position.
Dead volume A: Fluid volume in chamber A that remains in the chamber after the rod is fully retracted. The default value is 1e-4 m^3.
Dead volume B: Fluid volume in chamber B that remains in the chamber after the rod is fully extended. The default value is 1e-4 m^3.
Specific heat ratio: Gas-specific heat ratio for the Hydraulic Piston Chamber blocks. The default value is 1.4.
Contact stiffness: Specifies the elastic property of colliding bodies for the Translational Hard Stop block. The greater the value of the parameter, the less the bodies penetrate into each other, the more rigid the impact becomes. Lesser value of the parameter makes contact softer, but generally improves convergence and computational efficiency. The default value is 1e6 N/m.
Contact damping: Specifies dissipating property of colliding bodies for the Translational Hard Stop block. At zero damping, the impact is close to an absolutely elastic one. The greater the value of the parameter, the more energy dissipates during an interaction. Keep in mind that damping affects slider motion as long as the slider is in contact with the stop, including the period when slider is pulled back from the contact. For computational efficiency and convergence reasons, The MathWorks recommends that you assign a nonzero value to this parameter. The default value is 150 N*s/m.
Cylinder orientation: Specifies cylinder orientation with respect to the globally assigned positive direction. The cylinder can be installed in two different ways, depending upon whether it exerts force in the positive or in the negative direction when pressure is applied at its inlet. If pressure applied at port A exerts force in negative direction, set the parameter to Acts in negative direction. The default value is Acts in positive direction.

Restricted Parameters

Global Parameters

Fluid bulk modulus: The parameter is determined by the type of working fluid selected for the system under design. Use the Hydraulic Fluid block or the Custom Hydraulic Fluid block to specify the fluid properties.

Ports

The block has the following ports:

A: Hydraulic conserving port associated with the cylinder chamber A.
B: Hydraulic conserving port associated with the cylinder chamber B.
R: Mechanical translational conserving port associated with the cylinder rod.
C: Mechanical translational conserving port associated with the cylinder clamping structure.

Examples

The Double-Acting Hydraulic Cylinder with Flexible Clamping demo (sh_cylinder_da_flexible_clamping) illustrates simulation of a cylinder whose clamping is too flexible to be neglected. The structure compliance is represented with a spring and a damper, installed between the cylinder case and reference point. The cylinder performs forward and return strokes, and is loaded with inertia, viscous friction, and constant opposing load of 400 N.

The Closed-Loop Circuit with 4-Way Valve and Custom Cylinder demo (sh_closed_loop_circuit_4_way_valve_cust_cyl) demonstrates the use of a 4-way valve in combination with a double-acting cylinder in a simple closed-loop actuator. The demo shows how to connect the blocks and set the initial orifice openings for the 4-way valve to model the forward and return strokes of the cylinder under load.