A Novel Piezoelectric Double-Flapper Servovalve Pilot Stage: Operating Principle and Performance Prediction

This paper proposes a novel architecture for the pilot stage of electro-hydraulic two-stage servovalves that does not need a quiescent flow and a torque motor as well as a flexure tube to operate. The architecture consists of two small piezoelectric valves, coupled with two fixed orifices, which allow variation of the differential pressure at the main stage spool extremities in order to move it with high response speed and accuracy. Each piezoelectric valve is actuated by a piezoelectric ring bender, which exhibits much greater displacement than a stack actuator of the same mass, and greater force than a rectangular bender. The concept is intended to reduce the influence of piezoelectric hysteresis. In order to assess the validity of the proposed configuration and its controller in terms of spool positioning accuracy and dynamic response, detailed simulations are performed by using the software Simscape Fluids. At 50% amplitude the −90° bandwidth is about 150Hz.