Failure Simulation of Reed Valve by Using Finite Element Method and Accelerated Testing

Air Supply Unit (ASU) serves as the pneumatic source for the air suspension system in the passenger car segment. The ASU is an electrically driven oil-free compressor with integrated air dryer to deliver dry air to the suspension system. Solenoid valve, Height Sensor and ECU adjusts the pressure in bellow based on the vehicle load condition. During the lab test, pressure was not building up in the compressor due to delivery valve failure. The type of valve in asu is reed valve type, it is mostly used in the micro compressors due to its low cost, simple structure and light weight configuration. The reed movement is based on the pressure difference between the inlet and the compression chamber. Failure analysis is carried out based on the finite element analysis to identify the root cause, the root cause identified is optimized to prevent the failure. An accelerated test condition is arrived based on the FEA and a tailored series of accelerated tests are carried out to reproduce the failure. The correlation between the test results and the FEA was found satisfactory. The significant factors that are responsible for the failure are identified with their respective control measures. This paper describes the reed valve failure simulation using finite element method and accelerated testing.