Analysis and Optimization of Semicircular and Straight Lobe Viscous Pumps

Abstract

A viscous pump design that is capable of producing higher flow rates than a viscous pump previously introduced by Etsion and Yaier (1988) is developed and investigated. The key to the new design is straight lobes as opposed to the semicircular lobes of the previous design. The geometry of the straight lobes does not lend itself to as straightforward a solution as the semicircular lobe analysis. Approximations are made and then verified using upper and lower shape factor bounds and finite element analyses. Lobe geometry for each lobe design is optimized to produce maximum pumping capacity. The results of the optimization show that the straight lobe pump is theoretically superior to the semicircular lobe pump.