Personal Computer Design Software for Magnetic Analysis and Dynamic Simulation of a Two-Valve Solenoid Actuator

To improve the performance of solenoid valves, it is essential to understand the effect of magnetic material properties and geometry in their design. A computer program is developed for simulating and predicting the performance of two-valve solenoid actuators. In order to make the software applicable to personal computers, special attention is paid to finite element mesh generation and computational efficiency. The program is composed of two modules: a finite element module for magnetic field analysis and force calculations, and a dynamic simulation module which predicts the effects of specific magnetic designs on solenoid opening and closing dynamic performance. Major assumptions in modeling are axial symmetry and geometrical smoothing of the solenoid and neglecting dynamic magnetic effects. The magnetic field calculations include magnetic nonlinear saturation specified by a material's B-H curve. Force and inductance as a function of plunger position and coil current are tabulated for later use in the dynamic simulation. Calculated results include magnetic field strength, flux density, and force as well as time histories of coil current, plunger position and velocity for both valves. The computed results of the program were in reasonable agreement with experimental data. The results indicate that the design of magnetic solenoid valves can be considerably facilitated by the personal computer calculation model presented in this paper.