Numerical simulation and experimental performance research of cylindrical vane pump

Abstract

This study presents a novel cylindrical vane pump based on the traditional working principle. The efficiency of the cylindrical vane pump was verified by experimental validation and numerical analysis. Numerical analysis, such as kinematics analysis, was performed in Pro/Mechanism and unsteady flow-field analysis was performed using ANSYS FLUENT. The stator surface equations were derived using the geometric theory of the applied spatial triangulation function. A three-dimensional model of the cylindrical vane pump was established with the help of MATLAB and Pro/E. The kinematic analysis helped in developing kinematic equations for cylindrical vane pumps and proved the effectiveness of the structural design. The maximum inaccuracy error of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was 5.7% compared with the experimental results, and the CFD results show that the structure of the pump was reasonable. An experimental test bench was developed, and the results were in excellent agreement with the numerical results of CFD. The experimental results show that the cylindrical vane pump satisfied the three-element design of a positive-displacement pump and the trend of changes in efficiency was the same for all types of efficiency under different operating conditions. Furthermore, the volumetric efficiency presented a nonlinear positive correlation with increased rotational velocity, the mechanical efficiency showed a nonlinear negative correlation, and the total efficiency first increased and then decreased. When the rotational velocity was 1.33 $n_0$ and the discharge pressure was 0.68 $P_0$ , the total efficiency reached its maximum value.