Hydraulic machines are faced with increasingly severe performance requirements. The need to design smaller and more powerful machines rotating at higher speeds in order to provide increasing efficiencies has to face a major limitation: cavitation. The problem is inherently three-dimensional, due to the axial clearances, the relief and circumferential grooves, and to the circular pipes through which the fluid enters and exits the pump. A simplified two-dimensional numerical approach by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been developed for studying the effect of cavitation in the volumetric efficiency of external gear pumps. The assumptions employed prevent from predicting realistic values of the volumetric efficiency, but show to be valid to understand the complex flow patterns that take place inside the pump and to study the influence of cavitation on volumetric efficiency. A method for simulating the contact between solid boundaries by imposing changes in viscosity has been developed. Experiments of unsteady cavitation in water and oil performed by other authors have been numerically reproduced using different cavitation models in order to select the most appropriate one and to adjust its parameters. The influence of the rotational speed of the pump has been analyzed. Cavitation in the suction chamber very effectively damps the water hammer associated to the sudden change of the contact point position at the end of the gearing cycle. At high rotational speeds, the volume of air becomes more stable, reducing the flow irregularity. When cavitation takes place at the meshing region downstream from the contact point, the volume of air that appears acts as a virtual second contact point, increasing the volumetric efficiency of the pump.
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david.del.campo@upc.edu
castilla@mf.upc.edu
gustavo.raush@upc.edu
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ecodina@mf.upc.edu
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August 2012
Flows In Complex Systems
Numerical Analysis of External Gear Pumps Including Cavitation
D. del Campo
,
david.del.campo@upc.edu
D. del Campo
Department of Aeronautics, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
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R. Castilla
,
R. Castilla
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
castilla@mf.upc.edu
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
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G. A. Raush
,
G. A. Raush
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
gustavo.raush@upc.edu
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
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P. J. Gamez Montero
,
P. J. Gamez Montero
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
pjgm@mf.upc.edu
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
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E. Codina
E. Codina
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
ecodina@mf.upc.edu
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
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D. del Campo
Department of Aeronautics, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
david.del.campo@upc.edu
R. Castilla
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
castilla@mf.upc.edu
G. A. Raush
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
gustavo.raush@upc.edu
P. J. Gamez Montero
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
pjgm@mf.upc.edu
E. Codina
Department of Fluid Mechanics,
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa, Spain
ecodina@mf.upc.edu
J. Fluids Eng. Aug 2012, 134(8): 081105 (12 pages)
Published Online: August 9, 2012
Article history
Received:
March 15, 2012
Revised:
June 7, 2012
Online:
August 9, 2012
Published:
August 9, 2012
Citation
del Campo, D., Castilla, R., Raush, G. A., Gamez Montero, P. J., and Codina, E. (August 9, 2012). "Numerical Analysis of External Gear Pumps Including Cavitation." ASME. J. Fluids Eng. August 2012; 134(8): 081105. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4007106
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