Digital Control of a Vane Pump

The progressive miniaturization in electronic system design allows us to implement digital controllers in an increasingly compact form, including installation directly in the hydraulic device. The control signals can be sent remotely from an external controller, or the built-in system can independently implement the control algorithm to some extent. The paper presents the results of numerical and experimental studies of a digital control system implemented in a variable displacement vane pump. It allows various control strategies to be implemented, including fixed value pressure control, constant power control, etc. The flow rate is set by controlling the position of the stator, while the pressure can be regulated using the built-in proportional valve. A mathematical pump and control system model was built as part of the work. Next, simulations were carried out in Matlab/Simulink environment, considering the dynamics of the system. To verify the mathematical model, a test bench was built for carrying out laboratory experiments with typical loads and changes in pump flow rate.