Evaluation of Non-Cavitating Steady State Performance of an Aero-Engine Gear Pump by Numerical Methods

External gear pumps are typically used in aero-engines for the fuel and lubrication system due to its simplicity in construction. The design of the gear pump has been considerably improved over several years by including design features to improve its overall performance and reliability. In this paper, three-dimensional numerical analysis of an external gear was carried out by including design features such as scallops at the inlet and outlet, radial and axial clearances, journal bearing clearances and the axial tilt of the supporting bushes. The Immersed Solid Method (ISM) is used to analyze the gear pump at different operating conditions. The applicability of different turbulence models to the Immersed solid method is discussed. The internal flow features are discussed and compared with the results available in the literature. The Pump characteristics curve developed from the numerical analysis using the Immersed solid method (ISM) is compared with the experimental test results.