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Inadequate lubrication might lead to high friction and wear and can ultimately translate in a higher dissipation of energy, initiation and propagation of fracture and material fatigue. These occurrences are avoided or delayed thanks to an efficient lubricating system. The core of a reliable system is the hydraulic pump which, in the automotive field, is also responsible for power transmission and cooling. Given the importance of such components, improving reliability and performance of the pumps is a topic that is greatly pursued by manufacturers. A machine that is infrequently addressed in the open literature of the fluid power field is the pendulum slider pump. This kind of machine has the makings of high durability performance, short response time, and significant ability to withstand flow contamination by solid particles. Considering the available literature, no Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies have been presented so far. Among the complexities that hindered the application of CFD to this machine, motion complexity and narrow gaps make the development of a numerical algorithm for its modelling non-straightforward. In this work, the authors present the development and the application of a CFD model for the simulation of pendulum slider pumps. The structured mesh generation process has been successfully applied to a state-of-the-art pendulum slider pump for automotive applications, and the outcome of the numerical investigation has been validated against an on-purpose built test bench. The results both in terms of variable displacement and fixed displacement behaviour are shown. This work proofs the suitability of the developed model for the analysis of hydraulic pendulum slider pumps.

This paper addresses the topic of balanced vane pump simulations for pressure ripple optimization by means of metering grooves at the leading edge of delivery ports. It presents a computational fluid dynamics case study based on a transient three-dimensional model developed using an up-to-date commercial software tool. Special attention is dedicated to gaseous cavitation and the impact of the related modeling choices on predictions. The effect of groove dimensions and interaction with the precompression features of the cam ring of the pump are addressed. Experimental data obtained using a dedicated test rig are presented for comparison with numerical results in terms of delivery pressure ripple and volumetric flowrate. A validation strategy based on tuning of the dynamic cavitation model adopted for simulations is proposed. The results demonstrate the critical importance of gas release modeling for the simulation of porting details in the case of significant aeration effects.

This paper addresses the problem of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of gaseous cavitation (GC) in lubricating positive-displacement pumps (PDPs). It is important for designers and analysts to predict the dynamic features of air release/dissolution processes which characterize this phenomenon, along with their effects on filling capability and noise-vibration-harshness behavior of the machine. The focus is on the empirical tuning of the commercial homogeneous-flow cavitation model known as dissolved gas model (DGM). Considering an automotive case study of a balanced vane pump (BVP), the effects of air modeling on numerical predictions of discharge flow/pressure ripple and volumetric efficiency have been studied. The tuning time parameters of the model have been correlated to the machine Reynolds number as part of a simplified theoretical background based on dimensional analysis. Considering experimental data at different operating conditions, the tuned model has shown a good capacity in predicting the pressure ripple and the flowrate at the discharge of the pump.