A novel method of hydraulic valves design for additive manufacturing based on structural decomposition

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a design method for additive manufacturing (AM) hydraulic valves based on valve body structural decomposition. The method aims to achieve the design of a hydraulic valve with minimum mass or maximum stiffness or minimum pressure loss that also satisfies the structural strength requirements. Design/methodology/approach Decompose the hydraulic valve into typical feature structures and functional structures. Generative design (GD) tools are used to perform GD on the typical feature structures while considering loads and constraints. Based on the GD results, automatically design flow channels with variable wall thickness driven by fluid pressure. The GD results under different design objectives are combined with the automatically designed variable wall thickness channels to obtain hydraulic valves with different performance characteristics. Findings The case study section redesigned and manufactured a minimum mass fuel regulator valve. Compared to the conventional fuel regulator valve, the mass of the redesigned valve was reduced by 77%, the pressure loss was reduced by 40% and the flow rate was increased by 38%. Originality/value The value of this work is the combination of structural and flow optimization, as well as the design of flow channels with variable wall thickness. The proposed method contributes a novel solution to the design of AM hydraulic valves.