Optimal design and dynamic optimization of the main pressure regulating valve for heavy-duty automatic transmission using GA and PSO algorithms

The main pressure regulating valve (MPRV) is a critical component for automatic transmissions, controlling the pressure regulating of the complex hydraulic control system. Its performance is directly related to the automatic transmissions' operational performance and service life. However, few studies have focused on the optimal design and dynamic optimization of MPRV in the main oil pressure regulating system (MOPRS) for automatic transmissions. This work focused on the MPRV used in the heavy-duty automatic transmission (HDAT) for the hydraulic system nonlinearities and the parameters uncertainties of the MOPRS for pressure regulating capability. The idea is to improve pressure regulation performance from the structural parameters optimization and control methods. Firstly, based on the MOPRS working principle analysis of HDAT, the mathematical models of the design and calculation of the MPRV and the pressure regulation system were established. Then, a genetic algorithm (GA) was used to optimize structural parameters of MPRV using AMESim. Finally, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm was used to adjust the PID parameters, and comparative with the other PID parameters, the main pressure regulation (MPR) was investigated in MATLAB/Simulink. As a result, the simulation results indicated that the optimized structural parameters of MPRV were significantly better than the original parameters. Compared to the "cut and try" PID control, the proposed PSO PID control method results significantly improved the pressure regulation characteristics of MOPRS and further ensure the shift quality during the shift operating. Therefore, this work provides a general and systematic approach to hydraulic valves theoretically on the design, performance analysis, and optimization of the valve are investigated based on its working principle. Furthermore, the critical problems involved in the valve were comprehensively revealed theoretically, and finally, which will lay a solid foundation for designing and developing the HDAT's hydraulic control block.