Integrated And Intelligent Design Theory And Methodologies For Hydraulic Manifold Block

Hydraulic Manifold Block (HMB) is the key component of integrated hydraulicsystem. For the complexity and the strong coupling of external hydraulic componentslayout and internal flow paths connection, the traditional manual design method isdifficult to complete the design of complicated hydraulic manifold block, and unableto generate and optimize design plan automaticly. So it is the most urgent thing tostudy the design methodologies and develop design system of HMB. Orienting theintegrated and intelligent design problem of HMB, this paper established dynamicfeature model of flow path for HMB using object-oriented approach, and realized thehydraulic components layout and flow path connective design via multiobjectiveevolutionary algorithms. This paper achieved the following research results:(1) On the basis of expatiation of HMB design problems, a hierarchical decouplingstrategy and implementation method of HMB design are proposed including threelayers: the hydraulic components layout optimization design, the path intelligentplanning of flow paths, and the flow paths design based on dynamic features. Thesemethodologies realize the design from preliminary design to detailed design of HMB.(2) A dynamic feature modeling method of flow path for HMB is proposed includingthree layers: geometry layer, topology layer and parameter layer. The dynamic featuremodel is integrated with the path planning, regarding the conflict as obstacles andplanning the local conflict flow path using optimization algorithm, and to realize theadaptive changeability of flow path topology structure.(3) On the basis of the layout design of hydraulic components based on layout rules orlayout cases, the hydraulic components parameters are encoded, and an improvedNSGA-Ⅱ algorithm is proposed to optimize the design, and the flow path topologypatterns are called to quickly calculate the objective functions of flow path length andcross-drills quantity to complete the preliminary layout design of hydrauliccomponents.(4) On the basis of the environmental modeling of HMB via grid method, a novelapproach which is adapted from NSGA-Ⅱ is presented, and it is termed here asMA-NSGA-Ⅱ, and the maze algorithm is utilized to generate the connective path andinitial population of NSGA-Ⅱ, and the improved NSGA-Ⅱ is utilized to generate the optimal flow path. The multi-port flow path will be decomposed into several two-portflow paths and optimized calculation using the approach of combination encoding andsegmentation evolution to complete the detailed design of flow paths.(5) An optimization design system for HMB called HMB Designer is developed usingSolidWorks API, VB.NET and Microsoft Access, and the feasibility and effectivenessof the system is validated by an engineering case study.The research results can enrich the integrated and intelligent design theory andmethodologies for HMB, and the prototype system can effectively improve the designefficiency and quality of HMB.