An Investigation of Tooth Tip Leakages in Gerotor Pumps: Modeling and Experimental Validation

Abstract Gerotors are inexpensive positive displacement pumps commonly used in hydrostatic transmissions, fuel injection, and automotive lubrication systems. In these pumps, leakages at the tooth tips of the gears are the major source of volumetric losses that prevents their usage in high pressure applications. However, due to the curvature of typical gear profiles, the flow relations available in the literature do not accurately model this leakage flow. In this paper, a novel tooth tip leakage flow model is developed based on dimensional analysis. Key geometric and flow parameters are identified and a set of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are conducted on the tooth tip geometry to establish the flow relationship. This relationship is first verified with the analytical formulation derived from Reynolds equation. Then, an experimental setup is designed to reproduce the flow conditions at the tooth tip of gerotors. Experiments are conducted for a range of geometric and flow parameters, and results from the experiments are used to validate the proposed leakage flow model. The tooth tip leakage flow model developed and validated in this work is valuable for pump designers in determining the impact of gear geometry and clearances on volumetric performance of the pump. Moreover, the model can be readily used in any lumped parameter based simulation tool permitting a fast and accurate prediction of the tooth tip leakage flow and hence the volumetric efficiency of the unit.