371 Course Project
Name: Hüseyin Emir Yılmazcan
ID: 20210701048
Name: Gökay Bozkurt
ID: 20190701084
Goal Of The Project
The goal of our project is to find the dynamic response of a cylindrical solenoid that controls the gas
flow. We aim to find the change of plunger position and the behaviour of current in a time interval
when two different voltages are applied to the system.
Introduction
Solenoid is a very useful electromechanical energy conversion device. It has copper wire wrapped
around a core. A plunger is placed inside the core so it can move down and up. When a voltage is
aplied to the coil , it creates an field force that moves the plunger up and down depending on the
direction of the currrent . The main application of the solenoid is to be used as an electrically
controlled [Link] is commonly used in valve and lock applications.
In this project, we have an cylindrical solenoid system that allows the gas flow in the pipe by moving
the plunger upwards when the switch is closed .The plunger will go down due its mass and prevent
the gas flow when the switch is on. A plastic guide with a permeability of air is placed in the side of
plunger between the plunger and the core. Two plastic rubbers are placed at the upper and lower
limits of the plunger motion to the core and pipe so that they can stop the plunger smoothly. The
applied voltage to the coil is DC. What allows electromechanical energy conversion in this system is
the time changing inductance that results from the position(x) dependent reluctance between the
plunger and the upper part of the core. Firstly we will find the dynamic equations of the system for
the electrical and the mechanical terminals. Then we will solve the equations using a computer based
simulation tool. The simulation will be done for a time 0<=t<=1s .There will be two voltages applied.
First being 6 volts for 0.2s<=t<=0.5s and second being 12 volts for 0.2s<=t<=0.5s. We will acquire the
graphs of the state variables position (x) and current(i) in the simulation. This graphs will allow us to
understand the dynamic response of our system. We will evaluate the behaviour of the solenoid
system under different voltages .
Theoretical Work
Our first step in finding the state equations is to determine the reluctances in the [Link] the
permeability of the core is assumed infinite, we will only account for the gap [Link]
reluctance denoted by Rg represents the reluctance between the side of the plunger and the core.
The permeability of the plastic guide is equal to free air permeability. So we can find the Rg as shown
in Equation 1 below:
𝑅𝑔 = 𝑔 ÷ (𝜇0 × 2𝜌 × 𝑟 × ℎ) (Eq.1)
The reluctance between the plunger and upper side of the core denoted Rx is dependent of the
position of the plunger and is shown in Equation 2 :
𝑅𝑥 = 𝑥 ÷ (𝜇0 × 𝜋 × 𝑟^2) (Eq.2)
The equivalent reluctance denoted by Req is found as shown in Equation 3 below:
𝑅𝑒𝑞 = 1 ÷ (𝜇0 × 𝜋 × 𝑟) × (𝑔 × 𝑟 + 2 × ℎ) ÷ (2 × ℎ × 𝑟) (Eq.3)
To find the inductance denoted L, we will use the formula in Equation 4 :
𝐿 = 𝑁^2 ÷ 𝑅𝑒𝑞 = (𝑁 2 × 𝜇0 × 2 × 𝜋 × ℎ × 𝑟 2 ) ÷ (𝑔 × 𝑟 + 2 × ℎ × 𝑥) (Eq.4)
We can simplify the equation of inductance by denoting the constant as L’ shown below:
𝐿′ = (𝑁 2 × 𝜇0 × 2 × 𝜋 × ℎ × 𝑟 2 ) (Eq.5)
Now that we have the formula for the inductance, we can write the dynamic equation for the
electrical terminal as such:
𝑑𝑖 𝑑𝐿 𝑑𝑥
𝑉𝑡 = 𝑅 × 𝑖 + ×𝐿+ × ×𝑖 (Eq.6)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑡
Solving for derivatives results in the Equation 7 shown below:
𝑑𝑖 𝑑𝑥
𝑉𝑡 = 𝑅 × 𝑖 + 𝐿 × − 𝐿′ × 𝑖 × 2 × ℎ ÷ (𝑔 × 𝑟 + 2 × ℎ × 𝑥)^2 × (Eq.7)
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
Before formulating the mechanical dynamic equation , we must calculate the magnetic field force
denoted ffld. This how we can find it:
𝑑𝐿
𝑓𝑓𝑙𝑑 = 𝑖 2 ÷ 2 × = −𝑖^2 × 𝐿′ × ℎ ÷ (𝑔 × 𝑟 + 2 × ℎ × 𝑥)^2 (Eq.8)
𝑑𝑥
Now we can find the mechanical dynamic equation shown in Equation 9 below:
𝑑 2𝑥 𝑑𝑥
−𝑀 −𝐵 + 𝑓𝑝 + 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑀 × 𝐺 + 𝑓𝑓𝑙𝑑 = 0 (Eq.9)
𝑑 2𝑡 𝑑𝑡
In Equation, 9 fp and fc denotes the rubber forces acting on the plunger depending on the position(x).
The rubber force of pipe fp would act on the plunger for x>=0.009. The rubber force of core fc would
act on the pipe for x<=0.001. Substituting the rubber forces would result is the Equation 10 shown
below:
𝑑 2𝑥 𝑑𝑥
−𝑀 −𝐵 + 𝐾 × (𝑥 − 0.009) + 𝐾 × (𝑥 − 0.001) + 𝑀 × 𝐺 + 𝑓𝑓𝑙𝑑 = 0
𝑑 2𝑡 𝑑𝑡
(Eq.10)
Our state variables are i and x. As we can see from the Equation 10 and Equation 7, dynamic
equations are not linear. The derivative of L respect to x in Equation seven introduces a term with
square of x, which makes the nonlinearity. In Equation 10, ffld has a term with square of i which is a
state variable. Second order of a state variable or multiplication of two seperate state variables
causes dynamic equations to be nonlinear.
The constants that we use in the dynamic equations are given like this; B=40 N/s, M=0.2kg, N=500
turns, g=0.001 m, r=0.01m, h=0.02m, R=2 Ohm, G=9.8m/s^2
Analysis
In this part we were not totally [Link] first tried to use the simulink to solve the dynamic
equations. We used the examples given in the textbook to form our system.
(1) Simulink System (Figure1)
This is the system we have built in simulink shown in Figure 1.
(2) Mechanical Equation Model (Figure 2)
In Figure 2 we have modeled the mechanical equation of our system.
(3) Electrical Equation Model (Figure 3)
In Figure 3 we have modeled the Electrical equation of our system.
(4) Graph of Position(x) (Figure 4)
Figure 4 shows the graph of x between the time interval 0<=t<=1s when 6v is applied between
0.2<=t<=6s.
(5) Graph of Current(i) (Figure 5)
Figure 5 shows the graph of i between the time interval 0<=t<=1s when 6v is applied between
0.2<=t<=6s.
These were not the expected results from the graphs of x and [Link] graph of current(i) seems closer
to the expected behaviour of the system but the graph of position (x) seems to be completely
[Link] have changed the system many times but we could not attain the expected graphs.
So we have changed the simulation program. We have written matlab code using ode45 ordinary
differential solver of matlab.
(6) Function For Dynamic Equations (Figure 6)
Figure 6 shows the function for our dyamic equations.
(7) Solution Of Dynamic Equations Using Ode45 (Figure 7)
Figure 7 shows the code which we solve our dynamic equations using ode45.
İn this code provided in Figure 6 and Figure 7, we define our dynamic equations in a different script as
a function. In this function, we define our state variables and derivatives as elements of an array.
Than we solve the these equations in a different script, passing the defined function as an argument
to ode45. y0 is the vector defined for the initial values of the state variables and timespan is the time
interval that we want our equations to be solved. This code plots the graphs of state variables x and i.
(8) Graph Of X In Matlab (Figure 8)
(9) Graph Of Currrent(I) in Matlab (Figure 9)
Figures 8 and 9 are the graphs plotted using the matlab code. They are nearly
same with the graphs of Figure 4 and 5. This shows that the error we have
comes from the theoretical work or the way we model the system because we
have the same graphs even though we use different simulation environments.
Conclusion
We were not able to attain the expected results for the graphs. We would expect the plunger to go
upwards after time 0.2s. İt would reach to the core rubber and stop where x is 0.001m. When the
switch is on at time 0.5s , it would start falling and reach the pipe rubber where x is [Link] our
graphs, the current rises to three ampers very fast when the switch is closed at time 0.2. It falls very
fast to zero with a high slope when the switch is open at time 0.5. The expected behaviour of the
current is not consistent with our result. Current in our analysis behave accordingly to Ohm’s [Link]
voltage we apply is 6 volts and the equivalent resistance of the electrical part of the circuit is 2 ohms.
We used a square pulse between 0.2s and 0.5s for modelling the [Link] shows that our
simulation was not succesfull in the modelling of inductance and induced voltage in the [Link]
theory, we would expect the plunger to move faster when applying 12 volts compared to 6 volts but
since our simulation has errors, we were not able to observe this.
Sharing the Work With Group Members
Hüseyin Emir Yılmazcan: Theoretical part (deriving the dynamic equations), Matlab code with ode45,
Report Writing.
Gökay Bozkurt: Solving the circuit in Simulink, Research about Solenoids, Report Writing.
Opinion About The Project
I believe this Project was very useful in understanding the subjects that were introduced in
the subject class because we had a chance to model and observe the behaviour of device
that works with the main principles that we have learned about electromechanical energy
conversion. Even that we were not able to model the system accurately, we can later learn
what we have done wrong and use the knowledge we have acquiered in this Project to
model other devices.
References
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
• A. E. Fitzgerald, C. Kingsely, S. D. Umans, “Electric
Machinery”, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2014. 7 th edition.