A review of simplified servovalve models for digital twins of electrohydraulic actuators

Abstract

The development and detail design of complex electrohydraulic actuators for aircraft flight controls require the use of accurate, high fidelity fluid-dynamic simulations in order to predict the behaviour of the system within its whole operating envelope. However, those simulations are usually computationally expensive, and simplified models are useful for the preliminary design phases and real-time health monitoring. Within this context, this work presents a review of low fidelity models for the fluid-dynamic behaviour of an electrohydraulic servovalve. Those are intended to run in real time as digital twins of the physical system, in order to enable the execution of diagnostic and prognostic algorithms. The accuracy of the simulations is assessed by comparing their results against a detailed, physics-based high fidelity model, which computes the response of the equipment accounting for the pressure-flow characteristics across all the internal passageways of the valve.