Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2016, Vol. 8(10) 1–10
Ó The Author(s) 2016
Flow characteristics of external gear DOI: 10.1177/1687814016674100
aime.sagepub.com
pumps considering trapped volume

Xiaoru Hao, Xiaojun Zhou, Xiaoguang Liu and Xiaohu Sang

Abstract
This article investigates the volume change law of trapped fluid in the meshing process and the flow characteristics of
external gear pumps under the following two cases: the pump design with and without relief groove. In this study, a
mathematical modeling of gear pairs is deduced based on the meshing theory and a complete set of mathematical equa-
tions of tooth profile, and the flow rate equation is derived based on law of conservation of mass across the changing
boundaries of a control volume. During the process, the function of the pump displacement is established, which is
formed by two parts: tooth space volume and trapped volume. In addition, using a control volume approach, the trapped
volume and flow rate characteristics of the pump under different design parameters of gears are discussed. The results
show that the curve of trapped volume is similar to a parabola and the pump designed with a large number of teeth,
module, and pressure angle easily obtained good flow rate characteristics under the same condition, which have a great
benefit for designing the relief grooves and external gear pumps.

Keywords
Tooth profile, external gear pumps, mathematical models, control volume approach, trapped volume, flow rate
characteristics

Date received: 20 April 2016; accepted: 13 September 2016

Academic Editor: Jose Ramon Serrano

Introduction routinely carry the fluid at a periodic interval that

causes the flow rate and pressure in the intake and dis-
The well-known advantages of external gear pumps charge to vary periodically and these variations are
such as low manufacturing cost, compactness, high referred to as flow and pressure ripples. When two
reliability, and excellent performance make them as one gears meshing with each other, it will form a closed
of the prominently used components in fluid power. cavity which separates suction side and discharge side,
External gear pumps are also ideal equipment for con- known as the trapped volume. The trapped volume of
veying high-viscosity liquids.1 Depending on meshing fluid with rapid changes results in the generation of
form, there are two main different types of gear pumps: pressures above and below the inlet and discharge pres-
external and internal. Within relative to internal gear sures. Excessive over-pressure can lead to high loading
pumps, external gear pumps convert mechanical pow- of the gears and excessive mechanical losses, cause
ers into hydraulic fluid powers with high pressures.
This is particularly true in measurement and lubrication
systems. School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University,
The gear pump is simple in its operating principle, Shanghai, China
as the gears rotate the fluid is transferred from inlet
Corresponding author:
port to outlet port around the outside of gears, and the Xiaojun Zhou, School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation,
displacement of the fluid is accomplished by two mesh- Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China.
ing gears rotating against each other.2 Gear teeth Email: sdzhouxj@shu.edu.cn

Creative Commons CC-BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without
further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/
open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

vibrations and noises, affecting the stationarity and established the mathematical modeling of tooth profile.
stress of the gear machine. Under-pressure can result in This article took into account the meshing points and
cavitation. Therefore, meshing actions make a signifi- the results were shown to compare nicely with actual
cant contribution to pressure and flow ripples that are test data. Lin et al.9 presented a new general numerical
critical dynamics affecting system’s lifetime perfor- method used to calculate the tooth profile of a non-
mance. Generally, gears can dig their relief grooves on circular curved face gear. Ellen Bergseth and Stefan
the side plates or wear plates to reduce the localized Björklund10 adopted a logarithmical profile modifica-
pressure spikes and fluid cavitation in the meshing tion method to reduce the contact pressure at a specific
volumes. normal load. Alipiev11 used realized potential method
Two main sources of noise and vibration are pres- to investigate the geometric design of symmetric and
sure pulsation and gear meshing. Meanwhile, the peri- asymmetric teeth of involute gears in the meshing pro-
odic variation of gear meshing forces can produce cess. Liang et al.12 studied transmission efficiency of
pressure ripples. So, the investigation of the flow rate gear drive and the geometric design with double circu-
performances of pumps has been a subject of consider- lar arc-involute tooth profile. Other researches
able interest for many years. Manring and employed lumped parameter approach to predict the
Kasaragadda3 used the control volume method to cal- instantaneous flow and pressure particularly in the
culate the instantaneous flow rate of external gear meshing area of gear pumps.13,14 In order to investigate
pumps with different teeth numbers of the driving and the geometric design of the gear tooth profile and the
the driven gears. They pointed out that a higher teeth body of the pump influence on flow characteristics of
number for the driving gear or the driven gear can gear pump, Nagamura et al.15 derived three types of
decrease flow pulsation. However, they did not con- non-involute tooth profiles and calculated accurately
sider the influence of trapped volume on the flow char- the displacement volume to optimize the pump perfor-
acteristics of the pumps. Foster et al.4 investigated the mance. The numerical modeling method generated
flow performance of external gear pumps under cyclic results in good agreement with the experimental results.
excitations adopting swept volume method. This work Saleem16 has analyzed tooth geometry effect on the
considered the trapped volume of fluid between mesh- performance of the gear pumps, and the results show
ing teeth, where the changes of trapped volume can be that the pump with unstandard gears have a high flow
calculated using a geometric formula. Huang and Lian5 rate and small trapped volume. Although there
considered a closed flow rate formula to represent flow are many studies in these fields, to the authors’ best
characteristics of external spur gear pumps and accu- knowledge, there has been little research on calculating
rately calculated pump flow rates and fluctuation coef- the flow rate of pumps which has taken the trapped
ficients and further discussed the effect of design volume into account being a part of pump
parameters of gear on the flow pulsation. Tooth profile displacement.
and the hole size of wear plates exert an influence on In this article, the mathematical equations of tooth
the trapped volume of fluid and instantaneous flow profiles and the mathematical modeling of gear pairs
rate of gear pumps. For this reason, some researches for the change of trapped fluid volume in the meshing
addressed their studies on the structure of gear pumps cycle and flow characteristics are established on the
which include new designs or modifications of wear basis of the gear tooth shape configuration of external
plates or tooth profile and so on. Wang et al.6 utilized gear pumps. The calculation method for displacement
the optimization theorem to design gear wear plates to of pumps based on trapped volume is presented and the
cut down the instantaneous pressure spikes of the control volume method is employed for the flow rate
meshing action in the external gear pumps and motors, calculation. Using the model and method, the volume
where computational method of the gear pocket of trapped fluid and the flow characteristics depending
volumes adopted swept volume method. The result was on the pump-operating conditions could be quantita-
that this method reduced the pressure variations and tively analyzed.
spikes and achieved the better system performance. In The content of the article is organized as follows:
2011, Wang et al.7 proposed a numerical model for the Section ‘‘Mathematical model of the gear pairs’’ intro-
entire gear pumps using the generalized control duces and explains the tooth configuration and estab-
volumes method, especially for gear teeth within the lishes the mathematical models of tooth profiles and
meshing zone and calculated the orifice areas of side gear pairs. Section ‘‘Calculation method for pump flow
plates and flow rate of the gear pumps. Devendran and characteristics’’ proposes the calculation approach with
Vacca8 presented a novel design concept that the inlet/ control volume, including instantaneous flow rate, flow
outlet grooves were machined in the sliding bushings to rate fluctuation coefficient, and displacement of the
realize a variable timing for the connections of each pump. Section ‘‘Results analysis and discussion’’ ana-
tooth space volume with the inlet and outlet ports and lyzes the flow rates with and without relief grooves,
Hao et al. 3

x = ra  cos g 1
ð3Þ
y = ra  sin g 1

where g 1 is the angle as defined in Figure 1. The pres-

sure angle ak of the involute has the maximum value
arccos (rb =ra ). By substituting ak = arccos (rb =ra ) into
equation (1), the value of coordinates (xa , ya ) can be
calculated. Then, the variation range of g 1 with
arccos (xa =ra );908 is represented by equation (3) and
Figure 1.

Root fillet trochoid

This article adopted the hobbing cutter as a rack cutter.

For a rack cutter with two round edges, the machining
parameters of the tool are defined as18

a0 = ha m + c m  rr
pm
Figure 1. Coordinate system for the involute tooth shape. b= + ha m tan a + rr cos a ð4Þ
4
c m
resumes the precise value validation results, and dis- rr =
1  sin a
cusses the gear parameters’ influence on the trapped
volume and flow characteristics. Section ‘‘Conclusion’’ the root fillet trochoid is the equidistant line of the pro-
concludes the research. late involute. In the process of pinion machining, the
pitch line of tool is tangent to the pitch circle of gears
and makes pure rolling. Therefore, the equation for the
Mathematical model of the gear pairs root fillet trochoid on the end face can be written as
Geometry of tooth profiles and mathematical models  a 
1
x = r sin u0  0
+ rr cosða0  u0 Þ
Trapped volume study is fundamental in the research of sina a  ð5Þ
1
meshing flows. In order to calculate precisely and accu- y = r cos u0  + r r sinða0  u0 Þ
rately the trapped volume, the coordinate system of a sin a0
symmetric involute tooth shape is shown in Figure 1. where a0 is a parameter between a and 908
The tooth profile of the involute gear is composed of tip
circle, involute, root fillet trochoid, and root circle. 1
u0 = ða1 cot a0 + bÞ, a1 = a0  x3 m
These portions are mathematically expressed as follows: r
Root circle
Involute equation

  x = rf cos g 2
x = sin ug  ug  cos ug  rb  cos u ð6Þ
  y = rf sin g 2
 cos ug + ug  sin ug  rb  sin u
  ð1Þ When the parameter a0 is equal to 908, by applying
y = sin ug  ug  cos ug  rb  sin u
  it into equation (5), we can calculate the value of coor-
+ cos ug + ug  sin ug  rb  cos u
dinates (xf , yf ). The range of g 2 with arccos (xf =rf );908
where ug = invak + ak , with the involute angle as a p=z is represented by equation (6) and Figure 1.
parameter, invak = tan ak  ak the involute function
of the angle ak ,17 the angle ak being selected within Mathematical models of the gear pairs
08; arccos (rb =ra ) range, and u given by
The mathematical model for the complete tooth shape
p of involute gears can be obtained by the equations char-
u = inva + ð2Þ
2z acterizing the tooth profiles. It is assumed that f (x0 , y0 )
is the function of one tooth profile on the gear, the driv-
Tip circle ing gear teeth profile is thus expressed as
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 2. Meshing coordinate systems of gear pairs.

Figure 3. Control volume of the discharge side in the gear
pump.
x1 = x0 cos u  y0 sin u
ð7Þ
y1 = x0 sin u + y0 cos u
Calculation method for pump flow
where u = 2p  n1 =z and n1 takes positive integer that is characteristics
in the range of 1  n1  z. In the following analysis, it is assumed that the gear
Two different reference coordinates for each gear pump is an ideal pump, the pump parts are rigid and
are shown in Figure 2, both having their origins coin- inflexible, and there is no leakage flow between the gear
ciding with the centers of the gears. Where 1 is the driv- faces and the side plates. Control volume approach and
ing gear and 2 is the driven gear. The coordinate energy method14,19 are the two main methods for
systems O1  X1 Y1 Z1 and O2  X2 Y2 Z2 are the rotating instantaneous flow rate calculation in gear pump. This
coordinate systems rigidly connected to the centers of article adopts control volume approach to analyze the
driving gear and the driven gear, respectively. While flow characteristics of gear pump.
O1  X10 Y10 Z10 and O2  X20 Y20 Z20 represent the initial
positions of the corresponding coordinate systems.
When the driving gear rotates by angle u1 counter- Instantaneous flow rate of the pump
clockwise around the Z1 axis, the driven gear will rotate
by angle u2 around the Z2 axis clockwise following the Figure 3 shows a crosshatched area that defines the con-
motion relationship. trol region at discharge chamber of the gear pump. v1
According to the kinematics of gear geometry and and v2 are rotational speed of the driving and driven
theory of gearing,17 the conjugate tooth profile of gear gear, respectively. By making above these assumptions it
2 can be deemed as the envelope of the tooth profile of can be stated that the total volume entering the discharge
gear 1 in coordinate system. Using the coordinate trans- chamber must equal the total volume leaving the dis-
formation from O1  X1 Y1 Z1 to O2  X2 Y2 Z2 , the equa- charge chamber. In Figure 3, the input volume from the
tion of the tooth profile for driven gear in the Cartesian driving gear is given by dVi1 ; however, a certain amount
coordinate system can be written as of gear volume is also leaving the control volume, which
is trapped volume. This exiting volume from driving gear
x2 = x1 cosðu1 + u2 Þ  y1 sinðu1 + u2 Þ is given by dVo1 . Similarly, the input and exiting volumes
from driven gear are given by dVi2 and dVo2 , respectively.
+ a sin u2
ð8Þ According to the principle of conservation of mass, the
y2 = x1 sinðu1 + u2 Þ + y1 cosðu1 + u2 Þ input volumes equal to the output volumes yields the
 a cos u2 governing equation can be expressed as
Hao et al. 5

dV = ðdVi1  dVo1 Þ + ðdVi2  dVo2 Þ ð9Þ

The gear axial thickness has no effect on the kine-
matic flow ripple of the pump, so a unit thickness is
considered. In the geometry of two meshing gears, the
entering and exiting volumes are given by
(
dVi1 = 12 ra1
2
du1 , dVo1 = 12 rp1
2
du1
1 2 1 2 ð10Þ
dVi2 = 2 ra2 du2 , dVo2 = 2 rp2 du2

where ra1 and ra2 are the addendum radius of driving

gear and driven gear, respectively; rp1 and rp2 are the
contact radius between the two sealing teeth in the
mesh; and u1 and u2 are the angle of rotation. From
the fundamental law of gearing, du2 can be presented
in the form

r1 du
du2 = du1 , v = ð11Þ
r2 dt
Substituting equations (10) and (11) into equation
(9) yields the following result for the instantaneous flow
rate of the pump
  r  
dV 1 2 2 1 2 2
Q= = v1  ra1  rp1 + ra2  rp2 ð12Þ
dt 2 r2
Using this equation, the instantaneous flow rate of
the pump may be determined once the instantaneous
meshing point radii rp1 and rp2 are known. The meshing
point coordinates are obtained by solving equations (7)
and (8) and then the instantaneous meshing point
radius can be determined from the Pythagorean theo-
rem. Similarly, Qmax and Qmin can be obtained by this
method, where Qmax and Qmin denote the maximum and
minimum values of instantaneous flow rate,
respectively.

Figure 4. Meshing process of one tooth pair: (a) first phase:

Displacement and flow rate fluctuation coefficient from starting the driving gear root promote driven gear tip
(maximum trapped volume V10 ), (b) second phase: the
The external gear pump is configured with an identical
symmetrical centerline of tooth overlap with centerline of the
number of teeth on each pair of meshing gears, so the
gears (minimum trapped volume V10 ), and (c) third phase: the
tooth space volume V1 of driving gear is equal to V2 of new trapped volume V200 is formed by a pair of meshing tooth.
driven gear. The displacement of external gear pump
can be written as
 
q = 2z V1  Vtrap
^
 ð  where f (x1 , y1 ) and f (x2 , y2 ) are the function of driving
n 2
ð13Þ gear and the driven gear, respectively. xj1 and xj2 are the
= 2z pra1  f ðx0 , y0 Þdx  Vtrap
360 x-coordinate value of the instantaneous meshing point,
which are obtained by solving the gear pairs equations
where n is the central angle of tooth profile, and Vtrap
(7) and (8). The meshing movement of a gear pair start
represents the trapped volume, which can be expressed
from the driving gear root promote driven gear tip (see
as
Figure 4(a)). For pumps designed without relief groove,
xðj2 the trapped volume Vtrap is equal to maximum trapped
volume Vmax (see Figure 4(a)). However, for pumps
Vtrap = ½f ðx2 , y2 Þ  f ðx1 , y1 Þdx ð14Þ
designed with relief grooves, the trapped volume is
xj1 equal to minimum trapped volume Vmin (see Figure
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 5. The variation curves of trapped volume. Figure 6. The comparison of the modification value and the
value of calculation method.

4(b)). In Figure 4, A, A0 , B, B0 , C, D, H, and H 0 are con-

tact points of gears.
The average flow rate for one flow pulsation is
defined as

^ ave = v q^
Q ð15Þ
2p
The flow rate fluctuation coefficient is defined as

^k = Qmax  Qmin ð16Þ

^ ave
Q

Results analysis and discussion

Using the mathematical method described in the previ-
ous sections, the volume changes of trapped area with Figure 7. Flow rates with and without relief grooves.
the rotation angle of gear and the flow characteristics
of gear pumps can be obtained. A MATLAB code was
developed to numerically simulate the changes of and have the peak value 7:3209 3 109 m3 . This result
trapped volume and flow characteristics. In the case is in line with the previous studies.20 The trapped vol-
studies, the driving gear and the driven gear have the ume V10 and total trapped volume Vz have the same
same parameters. The gears data are given as follows: minimum value of 2:7546 3 109 m3 when the rotation
number of teeth = 10, module = 3, pressure angle = angle is equal to 15:65078. In the working process of a
20°, addendum coefficient = 1, radial clearance coeffi- gear pump, the variation curves of trapped volume
cient = 0.25, addendum modification coefficient = 0, repeat the above trend until the end.
and the rotational speed of engine takes 1200 r/min.
Flow rate and relief grooves
The variation of trapped volume In Figure 6, the mathematical model of the modifica-
One meshing cycle of one tooth from the beginning of tion value for the displacement of pump has been used
engagement to the end of engagement was set as the by this form from Cunxing.19 The calculation results of
investigation target. The volume changes of trapped two methods are negligible, which indicate that this
area are shown in Figure 5, where V10 and V20 are the new method is correct.
trapped volume of the driving and driven gear side, In Figure 7, the amplitude of the flow pulse of
respectively. V200 is the new trapped volume of the dri- pumps with relief groove is smaller than without relief
ven gear side. groove during three meshing cycles. The flow rate with-
From Figure 5, the curve shape of trapped area is out relief groove has the maximum of 1:2181 3
similar to a parabola and the variation curves of 105 m3 =s, minimum of 8:2020 3 106 m3 =s, and aver-
trapped volume V10 and V20 are symmetric in distribution age of 1:0590 3 105 m3 =s. Therefore, its flow rate
Hao et al. 7

to be the same as those given in above section with the

exception of the specified parameter under discussion.

Number of teeth. The change of trapped volumes and

flow rate characteristics with different numbers of teeth
are illustrated in Figure 8.
In Figure 8(a), two gray lines represent the curves of
minimum trapped volume Vmin and the displacement of
pump q1 with relief groove. Two black lines represent
the curves of maximum trapped volume Vmax and
the displacement of pump q without relief groove.
Figure 8(a) shows that the maximum trapped volume
decreases with increasing numbers of teeth, and the dis-
placement of pump increases with the increased num-
bers of teeth when the pumps without relief groove. On
the other side, for the pump design with relief groove,
increasing the numbers of teeth can make the minimum
trapped volume decrease and the displacement of pump
increase. However, the displacement of pump with relief
groove is larger than without relief groove, namely,
q1 .q2 (see Figure 8(a)).
In Figure 8(b), two gray lines represent the curves of
flow rate fluctuation coefficient k1 and average flow
rate of pump Qave1 with relief groove, and two black
lines represent the curves of flow rate fluctuation coeffi-
cient k and average flow rate of pump Qave without
relief groove. With the number of teeth varying from 6
to 18, the average flow rate of pump without relief
groove gets higher and the flow rate fluctuation coeffi-
cient gets smaller by increasing the numbers of teeth.
On the other hand, for the pump design with relief
groove, the average flow rate of pump increases with
Figure 8. Influences of teeth number for pumps with and increasing numbers of teeth, and the flow rate fluctua-
without relief grooves: (a) trapped volume and displacement and tion coefficient decreases with increasing numbers of
(b) average flow rate and flow rate fluctuation coefficient. teeth, but the latter curve changes slightly. For instance,
the flow rate fluctuation coefficient is 0.0619 and
0.0369, respectively, when the number of teeth is 8
fluctuation coefficient is obtained by solving equation and 14.
(16), which is equal to 0.3757. In another case, for
the pump design with relief grooves, its flow rate
has the maximum of 1:2441 3 105 m3 =s, minimum Module. The trapped volumes and flow rate character-
of 1:1825 3 105 m3 =s, and average of 1:2236 3 istics change with various modules are illustrated in
105 m3 =s. The flow rate fluctuation coefficient is Figure 9.
0.0503. The results show that the average flow rate In Figure 9(a), the line color description is the same
increase 15.5% of the pump designed with relief groove as Figure 8(a). The maximum trapped volume
than without relief groove, but the fluctuation coeffi- increases, while the modules are increased from 1 to
cient reduce 86.6%. 7 mm and the displacement of pump increases too, with
or without relief groove. In the same way, the mini-
mum trapped volume increases with the increased mod-
Volume of trapped fluid and flow rate characteristics ules. Besides, the growth trend of four curves is
consistent. Within the range of modules varied (1–
under different design parameters
7 mm), no marked variations in growth trend, trapped
In this section, the influence of gear design parameters volume, or displacement were shown.
on trapped volumes of gear pumps is investigated. The In Figure 9(b), the line color description is the same
design parameters of gear pairs include the number of as in Figure 8(b). Figure 9(b) illustrates that the various
teeth, module, and pressure angle. Gear sizes are kept modules does not change the flow rate fluctuation
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 10. Influences of pressure angle for pumps with and

Figure 9. Influences of modules for pumps with and without without relief grooves: (a) trapped volume and displacement and
relief grooves: (a) trapped volume and displacement and (b) (b) average flow rate and flow rate fluctuation coefficient.
average flow rate and flow rate fluctuation coefficient.

line color description is the same as in Figure 8(a). The

coefficient of pump, but the average flow rate increases maximum trapped volume decreases with the increased
by increasing the modules in terms of the pump design pressure angle, but the displacement of pump has just
with or without relief groove. The flow rate fluctuation the opposite change trend when the pumps without
coefficient is a certain value 0.4126 for the pump design relief groove. For the pump design with relief groove,
without relief groove, in contrast, the flow rate fluctua- the minimum trapped volume gets bigger with pressure
tion coefficient of pump design with relief groove is angle increasing, and the displacement of pump is not
0.0503 under the same conditions, which means, in the sensitive to the pressure angle.
latter case, the flow rate fluctuation coefficient reduced In Figure 10(b), the line color description is the same
by 87.8%. Furthermore, the average flow rate has no as in Figure 8(b). Figure 10(b) shows that increasing
significant change in both cases. In summary, it is one pressure angle will lead to a gradual average flow rate
that can be used to one’s advantage for making a larger change (trend) and flow rate fluctuation coefficient
module of external gear pumps as designed, other con- decrease for the pump design without relief groove. It
ditions being equal. is assumed that the pump design with relief groove.
From Figure 10(b), it may also be observed that a
slight increase in the average flow rate may be achieved
Pressure angle. The trapped volumes and flow rate char- if pressure angle of external gear pump goes up.
acteristics change with different gear pressure angles Moreover, as we have shown already, the flow rate
between 14° and 22° are discussed. In Figure 10(a), the fluctuation coefficient is fairly insensitive to pressure
Hao et al. 9

angle change. These trends suggest that a larger pres- In summary, the results of this study show that it
sure angle of pump (with the same design parameters) may be advantageous to design the relief groove or
may be designed under the condition of gear pump external gear pumps with a large number of teeth, mod-
with relief groove. ule, and pressure angle under the same condition.

Declaration of conflicting interests

Conclusion
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
This article presented a numerical solution method respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
using the control volume approach to investigate how article.
the trapped volumes change with the rotation angle and
the flow characteristics of external gear pumps in both Funding
cases where the pump design with and without relief
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
groove. This method includes the mathematical models port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
of tooth profiles and gear pairs while the numerical article: This research was supported by the National Natural
simulations were performed with MATLAB packages. Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51574161).
In order to establish an accurate mathematical
model, a complete set of mathematical equations
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Appendix 1
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