Non-stationary CFD Simulation of a Gear Pump

The use of modern CAD and CFD techniques in the conception and simulation of industrial products has had huge applications in the mechanical, automotive and aerospace industries. This paper includes all the steps to follow, from the treatment of CAD geometry up to the analysis of the simulation results. In particular we treat CAD simplification, the meshing of the geometry, the numerical strategy and, finally, analysis of the simulation results.This paper presents important aspects of a practical methodology applied to design a gear pump using the ANSYS Gambit software parametric abilities followed by a FVM analysis of its assembly to identify the most stressed components. A model for the prediction of the dynamic behaviour of an external gear pump is presented. We took into account the most important phenomena involved in the operation of this kind of machines. Fluid pressure distribution on gears, which is time-varying, is instantaneously computed and included as a resultant external force and torque acting on the gears.