Design of Semi-Physical Simulation Platform for Hydraulic System of Working Device of Excavator

Background: Hydraulic excavator as important engineering machinery plays an extremely significant role in engineering construction. Multi-way valve is the core element of hydraulic system of excavator, which is used for controlling the flow of oil and the flow distribution of actuators, its performance has important implications for the whole machine. Objective: In order to guide the design and optimization of spools of main valve of a medium hydraulic excavator quickly, a numerical simulation model of hydraulic system of working device was built based on AMESim. But it is impossible to simulate the ever-changing load accurately just with numerical simulation method. Methods: To make up the shortage, a real-time testing system for excavator based on CompactRIO was built. Then the simulation model was embedded into the testing system through interface modules to establish a semi-physical simulation platform for hydraulic system. The platform was used to test and simulate the hydraulic system of the excavator’s working device. Results: It shows that the simulation results are in good agreement with the measured data, which means the platform performs well. Conclusion: The platform has great significance to accelerate the design and development of main valves, and it also can provide strong support for analysis and research of hydraulic system of excavator. It could be of great significance both in designing multi-way valve and reducing the debugging cost. Keywords: AMESim, CompactRIO, excavator, hydraulic, LabVIEW, multi-way valve, semi-physical simulation.