Optimal Design of Solenoid Actuators Driving Butterfly Valves

Smart valves are used in cooling applications and are responsible for regulating and supplying the coolant, which is critical for safe and effective operation of many components on naval and commercial ships. In order to be operated under local power (for various mission-critical reasons) they need to consume as little energy as possible in order to ensure continued operability. This paper focuses on optimized design of a typical system using high fidelity nonlinear dynamic models for all the subsystems with full consideration of stability constraints. A simulated annealing algorithm is applied to explore optimal design using two sets of design variables. The results indicate that substantial amount of energy can be saved by an intelligent design that helps select parameters carefully, but also uses hydrodynamic loads to augment the closing effort.