An integrated load sensing valve-controlled actuator based on power-by-wire for aircraft structural test

The traditional loading system, for the full-sized aircraft structure test, requires the centralized hydraulic power supply and the distributed valve-controlled cylinder, which leads to complex and large pipeline systems. The layout reconfiguration process of the test platform is quite laborious. Moreover, the loading system efficiency is quiet low because of both the huge overflow loss and the huge throttling loss of the traditional valve-controlled system. In order to conduct the structure test more efficiently, this paper proposes a novel integrated Load Sensing Valve-Controlled Actuator (LSVCA) with high efficiency and low energy consumption, which can reduce the overflow loss by the intermittent operation of the motor and reduce the throttling loss by the variation of the supply pressure. It also simplifies the test platform reconfiguration due to its high-level integration and Power-By-Wire (PBW) feature. In this paper, the hydraulic working principle and the energy-saving analysis of the LSVCA is proposed. In order to verify the feasibility of the new principle and the effectiveness of the high efficiency, the mathematical model of the LSVCA is established. Furthermore, an experimental prototype of the LSVCA is tested. Test results indicate that the LSVCA is adequate to satisfy the criteria for full-sized aircraft structure test. The throttling efficiency of the LSVCA loading system is 1.75 times of the efficiency of the traditional loading system under the low-level load pressure condition.