A Virtual Prototype for Fast Design and Visualization of Gerotor Pumps

Abstract

In the context of generation of lubrication flows, gear pumps are widely used, with gerotor-type pumps being specially popular, given their low cost, high compactness, and reliability. The design process of gerotor pumps requires the simulation of the fluid dynamics phenomena that characterize the fluid displacement by the pump. Designers and researchers mainly rely on these methods: (i) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and (ii) lumped parameter models. CFD methods are accurate in predicting the behavior of the pump, at the expense of large computing resources and time. On the other hand, Lumped Parameter models are fast and they do not require CFD software, at the expense of diminished accuracy. Usually, Lumped Parameter fluid simulation is mounted on specialized black-box visual programming platforms. The resulting pressures and flow rates are then fed to the design software. In response to the current status, this manuscript reports a virtual prototype to be used in the context of a Digital Twin tool. Our approach: (1) integrates pump design, fast approximate simulation, and result visualization processes, (2) does not require an external numerical solver platforms for the approximate model, (3) allows for the fast simulation of gerotor performance using sensor data to feed the simulation model, and (4) compares simulated data vs. imported gerotor operational data. Our results show good agreement between our prediction and CFD-based simulations of the actual pump. Future work is required in predicting rotor micro-movements and cavitation effects, as well as further integration of the physical pump with the software tool.