Numerical simulation of cavitation in

gear pumps
Project description

Cavitation is a well-known and greatly unwanted phenomenon in gear pumps as well as

in many other engineering applications such as ship propellers, large two-stroke diesel
engines and dam spillways. The phenomenon is caused by the formation and following
collapse of gas/vapour bubbles due to sudden changes in pressure. Continuous
collapses of bubbles or implosions may weaken even hard surfaces as that of a
propeller steel blade.

Schematic of gear pump (left); the gap between the teeth of the is discretized (middle)
and used in large scale CFD simulations of cavitation (right).

In a recent M.Sc. project conducted at DTU MEK, extensive Computational Fluid

Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the flow in the cavity between the teeth of the gear
pump produced by C. C. Jensen (Svendborg) revealed steady state cavitation (see
figure above). The proposed project aims at extending this previous work to include
unsteady cavitation.

Project type and conditions

The project is suitable for M.Sc candidates with knowledge in CFD.

Collaboration: C. C. Jensen, Svendborg

Contact person: Jens Honore Walther at FVM, jhw@mek.dtu.dk, tel.: + 45 4525 4327

Peder Klit at FM, klit@mek.dtu.dk, tel.: +45 4525 6267

DTU Mechanical Engineering, Section for Fluid Mechanics, Coastal and Maritime Engineering
Nils Koppels Alle 403
DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark Last updated 17-04-12