Modeling an Electronically-Controlled Magnetic Actuator Operating a Hydraulic Valve and Cylinder

A computer model is developed for a system consisting of an electronic chopper circuit driving a magnetic actuator, which in turn operates a hydraulic valve that controls a hydraulic cylinder. Here the entire system is modeled using SPICE, a widely used electric circuit simulation program. Besides the SPICE model of the chopper circuit, included are a model of the magnetic actuator obtained by electromagnetic finite element analysis and a model of the hydraulic valve and cylinder based on their hydraulic and mechanical equations. The complete model is used to compute typical system performance.