Method and systems for controlling a movable member

Abstract

 An hydraulic control system, for example for use in moving control surfaces of aircraft, comprises first and second actuators (12A, 12B) operating in tandem. The two actuators are supplied by independent hydraulic pathways (P1, P2), the fluid in each of these pathways being controlled by a plurality of direct drive control valves (4) connected across the two pathways. The system will therefore operate even if three of the control valves, and one of the hydraulic supplies are non-operational.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to methods of controlling a movable member and to control systems having a movable member.

[0002] The invention is particularly concerned with the control of movable members provided with first and second actuators which may be arranged in parallel or in tandem. The movable member may be a movable load of substantial value which requires to be positioned and moved with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. For example, the movable member may be a hydraulic control valve. A particular but not exclusive application of such hydraulic control valves is in the control of actuators for use in moving control surfaces of aircraft.

[0003] The methods and systems according to the invention are applicable for the control of high performance aircraft and the systems may be constructed to be of high integrity and to provide multi-redundant electro­hydraulic actuation.

[0004] In many applications of hydraulic actuators, it is desirable to position a movable load of some several tonnes with a high degree of accuracy while maintaining a high degree of protection against failure in the hydraulic system or its control system. Many such actuators are required to be controlled remotely by way of electrical signals from a remote control point and it is necessary to provide redundancy to accommodate the failure of various components in the hydraulic system itself or the electrical control system and hydraulic valves associated with it, so that control of the actuator may be maintained in the event of such a failure. One particular, but not exclusive example of such an actuator is a hydraulic actuator used to effect the movement of an aircraft control surface, particularly a high speed aircraft. It is well known to use hydraulic piston and cylinder actuators to move the various control surfaces of an aircraft, the actuators being arranged to operate under servo control in response to movement of the control column or pedals of the aircraft by the pilot. Electrical transducers associated with the pilot control input elements have been arranged to provide electrical signals which in turn are fed to the actuator as servo control signals to control the output position of the actuator. At the same time the pilot control input elements have been mechanically coupled to the control system and the actuator to provide a direct mechanical coupling by which control may be maintained in the event of failure in the electrical signalling system, allowing the pilot to maintain control of the aircraft. This has necessitated the provision of a mechanical linkage between the pilot control elements in the cockpit and the hydraulic actuator sited adjacent the control surface in question which, while not required to transmit the full control forces, has nevertheless involved precision of operation to provide accurate manual control.

[0005] With the need to develop aircraft having ever higher performance, and the development of electronics enabling sophisticated on-board computer systems to be employed, it has become desirable to take advantage of the greater aero-dynamic efficiency which can be achieved with an aircraft which is inherently unstable. With such an aircraft the aero-dynamic penalties associated with achieving inherent stability can be eliminated or minimised but such an aircraft has to be "flown" continuously and it would be beyond the capability of a pilot to fly such an aircraft under manual control. With the development of computer systems a computer may be used to continuously "fly" the aircraft and thus replace inherent stability.

[0006] In order to utilise such a computer system it is necessary to provide hydraulic control surface actuators which are electrically controllable under the influence of the computer and which provide sufficient reliability and redundancy in the control system to eliminate the direct mechanical linkage in the aircraft, since it would in any case be of no substantial use to the pilot as a fall-back system.

[0007] In order to provide the requisite degree of reliability and redundancy, it has become usual in such high performance aircraft to duplicate the hydraulic systems and to provide quadruplex control lanes. It would be possible in such approach to regard one hydraulic system and three electrical lanes as "back-­up" and only to switch over to these upon failure of the primary hydraulic system or control lane. This approach however would require means to detect failure and to effect the necessary switch over, thus introducing further possible sources of failure. The usual approach is therefore to employ both hydraulic systems and all four electrical lanes simultaneously, although this in itself brings certain disadvantages as will be explained.

[0008] The usual design philosophy in such a multi-­redundant system is to provide an arrangement which can survive at least two failures, one of which may be hydraulic. This requires at least three electrical lanes and duplex hydraulic systems. Two electrical lanes are insufficient because the requirement to survive two electrical failures could not be met, and also because it is desirable to be able to identify a faulty lane by comparing it with the remaining good lanes. With a total of only two lanes, the faulty lane could not be eliminated in this way. Two hydraulic systems are sufficient because a hydraulic failure will simply lead to loss of system pressure and no advantage is gained by comparing one hydraulic lane with another.

[0009] In the conventional approach having quadruplex electrical lanes two electrical lane failures may be survived provided they do not occur simultaneously. Following the first lane failure, the faulty lane may be identified by a comparison process and then eliminated from the system.

[0010] A potential disadvantage with multi-redundant systems of this type is the difficulty of correctly matching all the electrical and hydraulic lanes with each other to prevent "force-fighting" and parasitic loss as will be described hereinafter.

[0011] There are two types of force-fighting. The primary, potentially catastrophic type is where one electrical lane receives a large faulty signal and completely overpowers the remaining lanes.

[0012] The secondary type, more likely to occur but less serious, may arise from natural differences which will exist between the control lanes arising from tolerances of manufacture and assembly.

[0013] Parasitic loss may arise where two hydraulic control valves are connected in parallel between a source of hydraulic pressure and an actuator. If the zero or no flow positions of the valves are not exactly matched, one valve may be slightly open while the other is shut. This would lead to undesired actuator movement. In practice, because position feed-back is employed, the system sets itself so that the two valves are each slightly open in opposite senses. This results in a small flow of hydraulic fluid through the two valves to the return line. This is known as parasitic flow and represents a power loss.

[0014] A known control system is illustrated by European Patent Application No. EP-A-0092972 of the present applicants. This system proposes that, between the main valve which is to be controlled and the four electrical control lanes conventionally provided in a high performance aircraft, duplex hydraulic control systems are provided comprising first and second actuators for moving the main valve, each of which actuators is controlled by a pair of hydraulically parallel-connected electrohydraulic spool valves.

[0015] Parasitic flow is avoided by providing one valve of each pair with a significant overlap at the zero point, so that no flow is provided for a significant range of spool movement either side of the zero point.

[0016] Each electrohydraulic valve may comprise a so-­called "flapper" or a jet-pipe which in response to an electrical input moves between a pair of orifices or receivers and thus controls the flow through these orifices or receivers. This flow control is used to vary the pressure conditions at each end of the spool and thus controls the spool movement. In order to operate, the valve therefore requires a source of hydraulic fluid pressure, and commercially available valves are arranged also to control hydraulic flow, by means of the spool, from the same source as that required for valve operation. Thus, such an electrohydraulic valve will operate on and control a single hydraulic supply. Therefore, with only two hydraulic supplies available, it clearly is best to connect each supply only to two valves. If one hydraulic supply should fail, two valves would still be operational. But, if each valve were to be connected only to one electrical lane, this would automatically eliminate the effectiveness of two lanes, even although the electrical signals on the lanes might be functioning correctly. To avoid this difficulty in EP-­A-0092972 each lane is connected to two valves supplied by respective hydraulic supplies. To permit this, each valve needs two operating windings, resulting in a complex circuit arrangement. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that a fault in one electrical lane adversely affects two valves, so that, in the worst case, only two electrical lane failures could cause all four valves to malfunction. Another disadvantage of an electrohydraulic valve is that even in its null position there is a continuous flow through the valve causing a power loss of about 1/2 kilowatt. Also, the valve is not a particularly reliable component since it is susceptible to contaminants owing to the small size of the orifices or receivers controlled by the flapper or jet pipe and to the fact that a mechanical feed-back arrangement is employed using a wire.

[0017] In spite of their known disadvantages, electrohydraulic valves were previously employed because they require only a small operating current of about 10 mA and because they are well-known components whose properties are well investigated. It would of course have been possible to replace the electrohydraulic valves by torque motors directly driving respective first stage spool valves but the requirements of multi-redundancy would still have required two windings per valve and special steps would still have been required to avoid parasitic loss. In addition to this, the motors require a higher operating current.

[0018] It has been proposed however to control a main hydraulic actuator having duplex hydraulic systems and quadruplex electrical systems by means of a tandem spool valve directly driven by four high power electrical torque motors, thus eliminating the first stage altogether. The servo valves may alternatively in this system be connected side by side. A disadvantage of this proposal is that any force-­fighting of the first type which may occur between the torque motors may lead to a situation in which the system is unable to control the main actuator adequately.

[0019] A tandem spool valve directly driven by several high power electrical torque motors is particularly susceptible to this force-fighting problem owing to the fact that the output of each torque motor is not limited in any particular way and will increase in dependence upon the size of an input control current. Thus, if an abnormally high control current is supplied as a result of a system fault, one torque motor would, in the worst case, overpower the remaining three torque motors and lead to complete system failure. This type of failure is particularly associated with systems directly controlled by means of electrical current.

[0020] Having several torque motors acting together also incurs force-fighting of the secondary type when the system is operating normally, as a result of the unavoidable differences which will exist between the control lanes arising from manufacturing or assembly tolerances. Such secondary force-fighting either has to be accepted, in which case there will be an undesirable heating effect in the motor coils, or can be detected and neutralised by use of special circuitry which naturally adds to complexity and expense.

[0021] Thus, the above described system has serious practical short-comings.

[0022] An object of the present invention is to provide a simple and reliable method and system for controlling a movable member in response to multi-lane electrical control signals which can survive appearance of a spurious control signal in one lane substantially irrespective of magnitude of such signal.

[0023] Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system for controlling a fluid-operated movable member in response to multi-lane electrical control which permits use of direct drive without loss of redundancy, system integrity or reliability.

[0024] According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of driving a movable member having first and second actuators independently supplied with fluid pressure, in which the fluid supply to each actuator is taken from at least three parallel connected control valves each arranged for controlling a portion of the total fluid flow to each of said actuators and each provided with respective drive means arranged to respond to an electrical control signal.

[0025] Preferably, said fluid flow is hydraulic flow.

[0026] Preferably four said control valves are provided.

[0027] Said movable member may be a valve and in a preferred embodiment is a tandem valve. Preferably, the movable member is a spool valve.

[0028] Preferably each of the parallel connected control valves is provided with a respective electrical torque motor as drive means for direct drive thereof.

[0029] Preferably, each torque motor has a single winding.

[0030] Each control valve preferably is a spool valve arranged to control two independent fluid paths.

[0031] According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a valve driving system comprising a movable member having first and second actuators connectable to be independently supplied with fluid pressure, wherein the fluid supply to each actuator is connected via at least three parallel connected control valves each arranged for controlling a portion of the total fluid flow to each of said actuators, and each provided with a respective electrical drive means arranged to respond to a respective electrical control signal.

[0032] Preferably, said fluid flow is hydraulic flow.

[0033] Preferably four said control valves are provided.

[0034] Preferably, the movable member is a valve and in the preferred embodiment of the present invention is a spool valve which may be a tandem valve arranged for controlling two independent fluid paths.

[0035] Preferably the drive means for each control valve is a respective electrical torque motor for direct drive thereof. Preferably each torque motor has a single electrical winding and preferably each control valve comprises a valve spool arranged for control of two independent fluid paths.

[0036] The valve having first and second actuators, hereinafter referred to as a main valve, is preferably connected to a main stage actuator via two independent hydraulic paths. Each path will be controlled independently by separate control passages controlled by movement in response to the first and second actuators.

[0037] For better understanding of the invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a valve assembly;

Figure 2 shows a partially cut away view of the valve assembly of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a hydraulic system incorporating the valve assembly of Figures 1 and 2; and

Figure 4 is a more detailed system diagram corresponding to Figure 3.

[0038] Referring first of all to Figure 1, a valve assembly 1 comprises a main valve 2 arranged to be driven by first and second actuators 12a and 12b. Each actuator is connected to each of four control valves 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d having respective electrical torque motors 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d connected for direct drive of the respective control valves. The main valve 2 is a spool valve and connected to its spool are first and second position feed back transducer assemblies 6a and 6b each of which preferably comprises a pair of linear variable differential transformers (hereinafter LVDT). Thus, a total of four LVDT's is provided thus permitting quadruplex electrical feed back of the spool position for closed loop servo control. Electrical signals for this purpose are available at respective electrical connection sockets 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d the last of which is not visible in Figure 1.

[0039] Figure 2 is a cut-away version of Figure 1 thus enabling the spool 8 of main valve 2 to be seen and also permitting the individual LVDT's 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d to be seen. It will also be apparent from this Figure that each control valve 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d has a respective valve spool 9 and that each valve spool 9 is directly connected to the shaft of a respective one of the torque motors 4a to 4d which have respective coils 10a to 10d, and rotary feed-back transducers 20a to 20d for closed loop servo control of position.

[0040] Each torque motor operates through a limited angle in the range of 5 to 30° and thereby causes linear motion of the respective valve spool by means of a respective spherical ball joint 21a,21b,21c or 21d between the motor shaft and the spool which is offset from the axis of rotation of the motor. The spherical ball is not illustrated in the Figures.

[0041] As an alternative to the use of electrical torque motors, it is equally possible to operate the control valves by respective linearly moving force motors mounted on the axes of the spool valves 9.

[0042] Preferably, each spool valve 9 is provided with a return spring and in addition or as an alternative may have multi-redundant electrical positional feedback for closed loop servo control.

[0043] Such return spring and/or positional feedback is provided in the illustrated embodiment.

[0044] Referring now to Figure 3, the interconnection of the various components of the valve assembly may be seen schematically. In addition to the components of the valve assembly of Figures 1 and 2, Figure 3 also illustrates a second stage or main actuator 13 provided with quadruplex feedback transducers 17, preferably LDVT's, for closed loop servo control of position.

[0045] The control connections are indicated purely schematically and it may be seen that each of the four first stage valves 3a to 3d is connected to control the first stage actuator 12a via control lines C1 and is also connected to control the second actuator 12b via control lines C2 which are independent of control lines C1. The first stage actuators 12a and 12b directly control the second stage valves 8, which may be referred to as the main valves, which in turn control via two independent control lines C3 and C4 two independent hydraulic piston and cylinder assemblies of the second stage main actuator 13.

[0046] Reference will now be made to Figure 4 which shows further detail of the construction of the torque motors 4a to 4b, further detail of the connection of the hydraulic lines and further internal detail of the first stage valves, second stage valves and first and second stage actuators.

[0047] It may be seen from the Figure that two independent high pressure hydraulic supplies P1 and P2 are provided which have respective return lines R1 and R2. The hydraulic fluid pressure is preferably 27 MN/m² (4000 psi nominal).

[0048] It will be observed from Figure 4 that each of the control valves 3a to 3d provides two independently controllable hydraulic porting arrangements on a common spool. Each porting arrangement is connected to a respective one of the hydraulic supplies P1 and P2. In addition, each of the supplies P1 and P2 is connected to one side of a respective one of the first stage actuators 12a and 12b. The other side of each of the first stage actuators 12a and 12b is connected to a respective one of the hydraulic porting arrangements of each of the valves 3a to 3d.

[0049] Thus, displacement of the spool 9 of each of the valves 3a to 3d couples the controllable side of each first stage actuator progressively either to hydraulic high pressure or to hydraulic return pressure. In fact, each hydraulic porting arrangement of each of the first stage valve 3a to 3d is such as to reduce the system pressure by approximately half and to supply this to one side of each of the first stage actuators 12a and 12b when the spool 9 is in its undisplaced or central position. Thus, each of the actuators 12a and 12b is provided with system pressure on one side and 50% of system pressure on the other side in the neutral position. The actuators are balanced by arranging for the unequal pressures to be applied to unequal areas in the ratio of approximately 2:1.

[0050] When the first stage actuators are required to move, each first stage valve moves such that the pressure to the larger area (to which it is connected) is either increased or reduced thus providing a net force to move the main valve spool 8.

[0051] For the above described system, each of the control valves 3a to 3d requires two three-port configurations. It is equally feasible to use two four-port arrangements and in this case the first stage actuators will have equal piston areas and the two active chambers will be controlled differentially.

[0052] The main valves are arranged on a common tandem spool 8 and are each arranged to control a respective hydraulic piston 14a or 14b of the main actuator 13. In the illustrated case, a conventional 4-port arrangement is employed and as the spool 8 displaces pressure on one side of each piston 14a and 14b tends to increase whilst it tends to reduce on the other side.

[0053] The pistons 14a and 14b are connected on a common hollow shaft 15 in a housing 16.

[0054] Quadruplex feedback transducers 17, preferably LDVT's, are provided within the shaft 15 for position feedback control.

[0055] The main concept of the above described system lies in the fact that each first stage valve is a duplex arrangement and a multi-redundant system is obtained by the addition of several such duplex valves by flow summation to control the first stage actuators 12a and 12b. Thus, each of the torque motors 4a to 4d

[0056] Using this concept, force fighting between the tandem pair of first stage actuators may be substantially eliminated during manufacture of the first stage valves by accurate port matching control, since in each valve hydraulic porting arrangements for both first stage actuators are on a common spool. Mismatch between the electrical lanes 1 to 4 of the respective torque motors does not induce such force fighting, and no feed-back is necessary to achieve this.

[0057] It is intended that mismatch between the several first stage valves 3a to 3d will be minimized by accurate mechanical adjustment of the hydraulic and electrical datums to ensure that these are closely coincident. Furthermore, any residual electrical mismatch between the lanes may be minimized by an equalisation technique which reduces or eliminates the level of the steady state motor current.

[0058] If after these processes have been applied residual mismatch remains such as to cause parasitic leakage to occur between the several valves, such leakage will be of a secondary nature by virtue of the relatively low flow capability required for the first stage valves, since the total flow is shared by four valves.

[0059] Hydraulic integrity is provided by a duplex tandem arrangement throughout.

[0060] Integrity of the system is enhanced by the fact that the multi redundant electrical control systems are totally separated at the motors and the motors themselves are also physically separated. An electrical hardover of one motor leading to a hardover of the associated control valve cannot overpower the remaining motors because the motors are not connected to be force summing.

[0061] Mechanical integrity is provided at the first stage by a similar philosophy to that applied to the electrical integrity. If a first stage servo valve is mechanically jammed, the flow summation technique employed ensures that the remaining valves can overpower the jammed valve and that the system as a whole can continue to operate. Thus, the system can tolerate a single valve electrical or mechanical hardover without immediate corrective action being required. It is clearly a prerequisite for this advantage to be achieved that at least three first stage valves are provided.

[0062] Integrity of the second stage valve is ensured by the provision of a sufficiently large first stage actuator area and force to overcome any definable jam condition.

[0063] It will thus be appreciated that direct-drive techniques have been employed in a way which leads to no loss of system integrity or reliability and no loss of redundancy. The advantages of the direct-drive technique may therefore be achieved without suffering the disadvantages previously associated with this approach. It will also be appreciated that within the scope of the invention any electrically operated drive means may be used for the first stage valves 3a to 3d. Thus not only direct-drive torque motors and electrohydraulic valves providing indirect drive may be employed, but also linear motors or solenoid type actuation systems acting directly or indirectly on the valve spools.

Claims

1. A method of driving a movable member having first and second actuators independently supplied with fluid pressure, in which the fluid supply to each actuator is taken from at least three parallel connected control valves each arranged for controlling a portion of the total fluid flow to each of said actuators and each provided with respective drive means arranged to respond to an electrical control signal.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said fluid flow is hydraulic flow.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2 wherein four said control valves are provided.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said movable member is a valve.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said valve is a tandem valve.

6. A method according to claim 4 or 5 wherein said movable member is a spool valve.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein each control valve is arranted to control two independent fluid paths.

8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein each of the parallel connected control valves is provided with a respective electrical torque motor as drive means for direct drive thereof.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein each torque motor has a single winding.

10. A method of driving a movable member substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

11. A driving system comprising a movable member having first and second actuators connectable to be independently supplied with fluid pressure, wherein the fluid supplied to each actuator is connected by at least three parallel connected control valves each arranged for controlling a portion of the total fluid flow to each said actuators, and each provided with a respective electrical drive means arranged to respond to a respective electrical control signal.

12. A system according to claim 11 wherein said fluid flow is hydraulic flow.

13. A system according to claim 11 or 12 wherein four said control valves are provided.

14. A system according to any one of claims 11 to 13 wherein the movable member is a valve.

15. A system according to claim 14 wherein said movable member is a spool valve.

16. A system according to claim 15 wherein said spool valve is arranged for controlling two independent fluid paths.

17. A system according to claim 15 or 16 wherein said movable member is a tandem valve.

18. A system according to any one of claims 11 to 17 wherein the drive means for each control valve is a respective electrical torque motor for direct drive thereof.

19. A system according to claim 18 wherein each torque motor has a single electrical winding.

20. A system according to any one of claims 11 to 19 wherein each control valve comprises a valve spool arranged for control of two independent fluid paths.

Drawing