ANALYSIS OF AN ELECTROHYDRAULIC SERVO SYSTEM SUBJECT TO STRIBECK-TYPE FRICTION

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to study the phenomena of the electrohydraulic servo system under the influence of the Stribeck-type friction. Owing to the nonlinear nature of this friction, a sustained oscillation, or limit cycle, might appear in the system behaviour. The system is first divided into two parts, the linear and the nonlinear. For the nonlinear Stribeck-type friction, a flexible model is proposed to represent the whole friction family, and the describing function of this nonlinear friction is generated. The system characteristic equation is established by correlating the frequency response of the linear part and the describing function of the nonlinear part. The existence and stability of the limit cycle are predicted based on the characteristic equation. Finally, by using the sinusoidal, step and ramp input, respectively, the numerical simulation is adopted to observe the system response. All predicted limit cycles can be verified by the simulation results, and the effects of stable and unstable limit cycles are clarified. The dynamic characteristics obtained in this study help to bring insight into this important engineering configuration and throw some light on the possibilities for improvement.