• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1483-1490
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• 2011

Electro-hydrostatic actuators(EHAs), which are usually composed of a direct motor-driven hydraulic pump and a cylinder, have been widely adopted as aircraft actuation systems because of their benefits in terms of improved efficiency, weight savings and the fact that they use a standalone power source. Since the recent trend in construction vehicles has been focus on energy savings in their hydraulic systems, EHAs are expected to be potential substitutes for conventional power transmission, since they are capable of energy recovery as well as highly efficient pump control. In this paper, the start and stop characteristics of EHAs were investigated through cracking pressure analysis of the pilot-operated check valve(PCV), which enables the cylinder to standstill against an external load with no holding effort from the hydraulic pump. A mathematical model that includes the load dynamics and the EHA's internal hydraulic circuit was derived for simulation with the MATLAB Simulink package. This model verified the PCV's opening and closing sequence, which in turn affects the EHA's start and stop characteristics.