39

Study of the trapping of fluid in a gear pump

H Yanada, MEng and T Icbikawa, Dr Eng
Department of Energy Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi,Japan
Y Itsuji, MEng
Sumitomo Heavy Industries Limited, Tanashi, Japan

I n a gear pump, relief grooves are provided on the endplates to avoid the trapping offluid, and their position has great influence on the
performance of a gear pump. However, no definite design has been established on the relief groove position. I n order to decide the
optimal position of the relief groove, it is necessary to clarify the trapping phenomenon of working fluid in a gear pump. In this study,
the pressure in the space trapped by tooth surfaces of the driving and driven gears was measured using a.fixed endplate type of external
gear pump, specially made, in which a miniature semiconductor type of pressure transducer was installed. The experiment revealed the
effects of the relief groove position and the backlash size on the magnitude of the pressure rise in the trapped space and on the
performance. The optimal position ofthe relief groove was made clear.

NOTATION the relief groove position on the overall efficiency of a

gear pump and presented some interesting results. Their
A relief groove open area experiments, however, were restricted to the low-
Bd distance from the centre-line to the delivery pressure range (less than 1 MPa) and lucid explanations
side, relief groove to the experimental results were not given.
backlash It is necessary to clarify, first of all, the trapping phe-
rotational speed
nomenon itself in order to decide the optimal position
delivery pressure of the relief groove. This implies that the pressure in the
suction pressure trapped space must be measured and the effects of the
pressure in space u1
main factors on the trapping phenomenon have to be
pressure in space u2 examined.
= F, - P,
In this study, a gear pump that was specially made
normal pitch
for this study was instrumented to measure the pressure
shaft torque when AP = 0 in the trapped space. The relations between the afore-
volume of trapped space mentioned two factors and the pressure of the trapped
non-dimensional displacement
volume and between them and pump efficiency were
number of gear teeth
made clear.
pressure angle
angular position
overall efficiency 2 TEST PUMP AND TRAPPED VOLUME
The test pump is a fixed endplate type of external gear
1 INTRODUCTION pump which was specially made. The specifications of
the gears are shown in Table 1.
A gear pump has a simple construction and is resistant Figure 1 shows the variations of the contacting con-
to dirt. Because of these and other advantages, it has dition of two gears and of the trapped volume with
been used as a power source in hydraulic systems. Invo- shaft position. Circular marks in the figure stand for
lute gear%which are generally used in gear Pumps, must contacting points, u , and v2 are the trapped volumes of
have a Contact rat10 greater than One. This leads to the driven gear side and of the driving gear side respec-
Periodic trapping of fluid in the space surrounded by tively, and P , and P , are the pressures in the spaces v1
two pairs of contacting tooth surfaces of the driving and and u2 respectively. p, is the delivery pressure and p , is
driven gears. In order to avoid or minimize the pressure the suction pressure, while 6 stands for the shaft posi-
rise of the trapped fluid, relief grooves are provided on tion and the point 0 = 0' corresponds to a pitch point.
the endplates. The position of the relief groove greatly There are ten gear teeth, so each contacting condition
influences the performance of a gear pump; no definite shown in Fig. 1 is repeated every 36".
standard has been established on the position of the The positions of the relief grooves were proposed in
relief groove. reference (1) for two cases. One is the case where the
One Of the authors made a ProPosition On the backlash size is large enough to be able to consider the
relief groove position with respect to two cases where two spaces and Ii2 as one space v( = u1 + v 2 ) and the
there is a large enough backlash and no backlash. other is the ca,: where there is no backlash. The posi-
However, the of the position of the proposed tions from the centre-line are expressed using B,, for
relief groove has not been verified. Ishibashi and Muta the former case and B,, for the latter case as follows (1):
(2) investigated the influence of the backlash size and
Bd, = 0.5tn cos a (1)
The MS was recelved on 24 June 1986 and was nceepted for publrcation on I3
Auqust 1986. Bd2 = 0.25tn COS Ci (2)
4/87 0 IMechE 1987 0263-7138/87 $2 OO+ 05 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vul 201 No A1
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40 H YANADA. T ICHIKAWA AND Y ITSUJI

where t, is the normal pitch and a the operating press- Table 1 Specifications of gears
ure angle. In the case of the test pump, &, = 6.4 mm Module (mm) 4.75
and B,, = 3.2 mm. As seen from Fig. lb, if the delivery Number of gear teeth 10
side relief groove is provided at the position of Bd = Bdl Diameter of addendum circle (mm) 58.0
when the backlash size is large, the delivery side relief C h t r e distance (mm) 48.8
groove closes at the angular position where the trapped
+
volume 21 (= u1 c2)becomes minimum. Similarly, if the
Backlash (pn)
Operating pressure angle
30
23'50'
50
23"40
200
23"lO
delivery side relief groove is provided at the position of
B, = B,, when the backlash size is zero, the delivery
side relief groove closes at the angular position where
the trapped space c1 or v 2 becomes minimum, as seen
from Fig. l a or c. In this investigation, the position of
the delivery side relief groove was varied within the
range of Bd, 3, B, 3 B,, .
LTsing four pairs of endplates which have different
positions of the relief groove and three pairs of gears
which have different backlash mes, the effects of the
relief groove position and the backlash size on the trap-
ping phenomenon were investigated. Table 2 shows the
position of the relief groove, the bacxlash size and the
ratio of backlash to module. R, an Table 2 indicates the
distance trom the centre-line to h e delivery side reiief
groove, h the backlash size and ni the module. Ench
value of h is a nominal value The gears usecl nave
tolerances of Cb 13 pm in backlash. I n addition. because
of the existence of clearance between the gear shaft and
needle bearing, the centre distance between the driving
and driven gear shafts become.; slightly large when
pressure is exercised; this results in a larger backlash
size. Therefore the actual backlash sizes are larger than
those presented in Table 2. However, since it is difficult
to measure the actual backlash s i x under the operating
conditions, the nominal values shown in Table I are
used in this paper. The distance from the centre-line to
the suction side relief groove is 6.4 mm, regardless of the
delivery side relief groove position
The upper half of Fig. 2 shows the variation of
trapped volume with angular position; the lower half
shows the variations of the change rates of trapped
volume per unit rotational angle dv,/dtl, dr2/dl) and
dvlde and of the relief groove open area A with angular
position. In the case where the trapped space is separat-
ed into two spaces u, and u2 owing to zero or very small
backlash, trapping takes place alternatively in the
spaces u1 and u2 every n / z rad (18"), the angular range
of trapping is wide and the amount of volume com-
pressed during trapping is very large. On the other
hand, when the backlash size is large and the trapped
space can be considered as one space u ( = v1 vz), the +
angular range of trapping is narrow and the amount of
volume compressed is small.
The variation of the trapped space is expressed by the
following equations (1):

Table 2 Relief groove position of delivery

I side and backlash size
( c )9 = -9" B , mm 6.4 4.8 4.0 3.2
Fig. 1 Variations of contacting points and trapped space h (Pm) 30 50 200
with angular position h h ( x lo-') 0.632 1.053 4.21

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 STUDY OF THE TRAPPING OF FLUID IN A GEAR PUMP 41

u2 = uO2 + 0.25b&)(B + y)2

(Oe2 d 6 0 ~ 2 ) (5)
where u o , v o l , uo2 are the minimum volumes of each
trapped space respectively, b the face width and z the
number of gear teeth. Table 3 shows the starting
angular points of trapping O e , Oel, O,, and the finishing
points of trapping 4, Of,, Of,. Equations (3) to (5) are
shown in Fig. 2 by solid curves. White circular marks
are the results obtained by measuring the area of the
trapped space on enlarged drawings using a planimeter.
The open area of the relief groove A was also measured
on enlarged drawings using a planimeter.

3 EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT AND METHOD

The circuit of the experimental apparatus is shown in
Fig. 3. The test pump (1) is driven by a swash plate type
of axial piston motor (2) and the rotational speed is
0 9 18 27 36 controlled by a flow regulating valve (5). As the dis-
(-18) (-9) (0) placement of the test pump is greater than that of the
~-
e drive motor by about 20 per cent, a pressure-reducing
degree valve (6) is employed for supplementing the shortage of
Fig. 2 Variations of trapped volume, change rate of trapped flow and adjusting the suction pressure of the test
volume per unit rotational angle and delivery side pump. The delivery pressure of the test pump is adjust-
relief groove open area with angular position ed by a relief valve (7).

Table 3 Starting and finishing angular positions of trapping

Radian 0.240 0.388 -0.074 0.388 -0.388 0.074

i-0.2401 (-0.2401 (0.240)
Degree 13.8 22.2 -4.2 22.2 -22.2 4.2
( - 13.8) (-13.8) (13.8)

Fig. 3 Schematic of test apparatus

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42 H YANADA, T ICHIKAWA AND Y ITSUJI

Shaft torque was measured by a strain gauge type of 4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS A N D DISCUSSION
torque transducer (9) and angular position by a poten-
tiometer (10). Those signals were amplified by a strain 4.1 Pressure in the trapped space
amplifier or a d.c. amplifier (11) and recorded on an Figure 5 shows measured waveforms of pressures P ,
electromagnetic oscillograph or a digital memoryscope and P , . Figure 5a, b and c show the results for h = 30,
(12). The delivery flowrate of the test pump was 50 and 200 pm respectively. The position of the delivery
obtained by measuring the drain flow of the relief valve side relief groove is the one that is calculated from
(7) using a platform scale. equation (l),that is B d = B d , = 6.4 mm. Figure 5 shows
The pressure in the trapped space was measured by a that when the backlash size is small (h = 30 pm),
miniature semiconductor type of pressure transducer extremely high pressures occur in the trapped spaces; as
which was installed in the casing, shown in Fig. 4a. The
configuration of pressure taps provided on the endplate
is presented in Fig. 4b. The length, width and depth of 12 -
the pressure tap are 6, 2 and 0.5 mm respectively. The B, = 6 4 m m
relative position of the pressure taps to the centre-line 10- N = lo00 rimin h=30pm -

differs from one pair of endplates to another; the

trapped space is connected to the pressure tap in the
angular range by about 32" in each endplate. The diam-
eter of the pressure leading conduits, which penetrate
the endplate, is 0.8 mm and the length of the conduit
from the pressure tap to the pressure transducer is
about 25 mm. Therefore, the volume increase of the
trapped space due to the additional oil in the conduit is
small and the time lag resulting from the finite propaga-
tion speed of the pressure wave is negligible. 9 0 9 18 27

The working fluid is turbine oil. All the experiments e (-18) (-9)
degree
were conducted under the oil temperature of 50°C. The
(a) h = 30 pm
density and the viscosity of the oil at 50°C are 858
kg/m3 and 0.0262 Pas respectively.

4.(c
4
-E
6.

5-

4.

3t
B , = 6.4 mm
h = 50pm
N = 500 rimin

I
I I
-9 0 9 18 27
Pressure tap
e (-18) (-9)
(a) Arrangement from pressure tap to pressure transducer degree
(b) h = 5 0 p m

B, = 6.4 m m
5 h = 200pm

N = loo0 rimin
n

I I I I I I I

-9 0 9 18 21 36
(-18) (-9) (0)
i e
Pressure tap dyg6e
(c)h=200pm
(b) Configuration of pressure taps
Fig. 5 Measured waveforms of pressure in trapped spaces
Fig. 4 Details of pressure measuring part ( B , = 6.4 mm)
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 STUDY OF THE TRAPPING OF FLUID IN A GEAR PUMP 43

the backlash size becomes greater, the pressure rise in is expressed as (du,/dO)w, (du,/dO)w or (dv/dO)w, where
the trapped space becomes low and when the backlash w is the angular velocity. The maximum pressure rise
size is large enough ( h = 200 pm), the pressure rise in occurs at the angular position where the relief groove of
the trapped space is very small. As seen from Fig. 2, in the delivery side just closes (h = 30, 50 pm) or nearly
the case of Bd = 6.4 mm, the open area of the relief closes (h = 200 pm), so that the compression flowrate
groove is zero at 8 = 0" and/or at 18". Figure 5a shows caused by the trapping must flow out through the clear-
that the pressures in the trapped spaces P, and P, ances between the gears and endplates. The clearances
become maximum in the vicinities of 8 = 0" and 18" are very small (12-15 pm); therefore, laminar flow is
respectively and that there is no interference between developed in the clearances. The flowrate of laminar
the waveforms of PI and P,. It is deduced from these flow is proportional to the pressure difference between
results that no oil in the space u2 flows into the other the two points under consideration; accordingly, a pro-
space u1 through the backlash while the oil in u2 is portional relation exists between the maximum pressure
subjected to compression and that each space forms an rise and the rotational speed.
isolated trapped space. Therefore, when designing gear Figure 7 shows the measured waveforms of the
pumps it is necessary to take into account the fact that
small backlash is in effect equivalent to no backlash.
In the case of h = 50 pm (Fig. 5b), the maximum
pressure rise caused by trapping is about a half of that
in the case of h = 30 pm, but the overall tendency is
almost identical to the case of h = 30 pm. From the fact
that the pressure PI rises again to some extent when the
pressure P, becomes high around 0 = 18", it can be
seen that part of the oil in u2 compressed by the trap-
ping flows into the space u1 through the backlash.
In the case of h = 200 pm (Fig. 54, the pressures P ,
and P, vary in a similar way to each other with regard
to angular position. This signifies that the two spaces u1
and u2 that exist through the backlash can be regarded
as one space u ( = u1 + uz).
Figure 6 indicates the speed dependence of the
maximum pressure rise in the space u2 caused by trap-
ping, (P, - Pd)max, with backlash size as a parameter. 6-
The maximum pressure rise increases proportionally to Bd=40mm
the rotational speed. The compression flowrate due to 5- h=30pm -

the trapping is proportional to the rotational speed and

I
h = 30pm

6- Ed = 3.2mm -
h = 30pm

"0 500 1OOO

N
rlmin ( c ) B , = 3.2 mm
Fig. 6 Speed dependence of maximum pressure rise in space Fig. 7 Measured waveforms of pressure in trapped spaces
~2 (Bd = 6.4 mm) (h = 30 pm)
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44

pressures PI and P , in the cases of Bd = 4.8, 4.0 and

3.2 mm when the backlash size is 30 pm. No inter-
ference is seen between P , and P , in the same way as
H YANADA, T ICHIKAWA AND Y ITSUJI

1.061
'1 --
-
v = 1.053
Fig. 5a. Pressure rises resulting from trapping can be -

recognized in the cases of Bd = 4.8 and 4.0 mm, and the

magnitude of the pressure rise becomes low as the 1.04 -
delivery side relief groove approaches the centre-line. -
The maximum pressures of PI and P , appear in the
vicinities of 8 = 4.5" and 22.5" in the case of B, = 4.8 I .02 -
mm and at the angular positions of about 0 = 6" and
24.5" in the case of Bd = 4.0 mm. These angular posi- -
tions correspond to those where the open area of the ---
1.00
relief groove A becomes zero. The maximum pressure
rise in the case of B, = 4.8 mm is about a half of that in
the case of & = 6.4 mm (Fig. 5a). This is because the 3.2 4.8 6.4
values of duJd6 and dv2/d6 at the position of A = 0 Bd
~~~

when B, = 4.8 mm are just a half of those when Bd =
6.4 mm. When B, = 3.2 mm (Fig. 7c), at which position
the relief groove corresponds to that calculated from
equation (2), a pressure rise is not seen at all. The value
of dv,/d8 or dv,/d0 at the angular position where A = 0
is zero when B, = B,, = 3.2 mm. In such a case the oil
in the trapped space can escape through the relief
groove of the delivery side without resistance; therefore,
no pressure rise takes place.
4.2 Shaft torque
Shaft torque was measured under different com-
binations of backlash size and relief groove position.
Figure 8 shows the shaft torque To measured when the
pressure difference between the delivery and suction
sides AP was zero. When h = 200 pm, as already shown,
only a low-pressure rise was caused by the trapping, so
that To in the case of h = 200 pm may be thought of as
being frictional torque only. The difference between the
values of To in the case of h = 30 or 50 pm and of To
when h = 200 pm indicates the torque increase resulting
from the trapping. When the backlash size is 30 or
50 pm, the amount of decrease of torque efficiency in the
case of B, = 6.4 mm, assuming, as an example, the case
where the pressure difference AP is 10 MPa, is about 6
or 4 per cent respectively. These results show that unless
mm
Fig. 9 Variation of displacement with delivery side relief
groove position with backlash size as a parameter
the relief groove position is altered according to the
backlash size, a significant decrease of torque efficiency
may occur.
4.3 Displacement
Figure 9 shows the non-dimensional displacement V,
which was obtained from the experimental results at
N = 1000 r/min and AP = 0 MPa. The displacement V
was non-dimensionalized by dividing it by the displace-
ment vhlr
which can be theoretically calculated on con-
dition that the backlash size is large enough. The
theoretical displacement is expressed by the following
equations in the cases of large backlash ( & I ) and no
backlash (vh2),
provided that the helical angle of a gear
is zero (1):
(7)

where D, is the diameter of the addendum circle, A , the

centre distance, b the face width and t, the normal
h = 30pm pitch. For the test pump, vhl
is 27.38 cm3/rev and vhz
N = 1000 rimin is 28.84 cm3/rev.
AP =0 MPa h = 50pm It is shown in Fig. 9 that when h = 200 pm, the value
of Vis always unity, regardless of the relief groove posi-
tion in the range of B, < Bdl. It is also shown that
when the backlash is small and the relief groove posi-
tion is the one which is defined by equation (2), that is
h = 200pm
Bd = Bd2 = 3.2 mm, the value of V is almost equal to
v h 2 / v h 1 ( = 1.053). From this result, it must also be
noticed that gears have in effect no backlash if the back-
lash size is small. On the other hand, when the relief
groove position is such that Bd > Bd2,even in the case
where the backlash size is very small, the displacement
I/ becomes smaller than vh2,
that is P < v,,&hI. In
I I I particular, when B, = 6.4 mm, P is nearly equal to
O' 312 4.8 6.4 unity, regardless of backlash size. In the case of Bd = 6.4
B d. mm, as seen from Fig. 1 b, the relief groove closes at the
m in angular position where the overall trapped volume u
Fig. 8 Shaft torque when h P =0 MPa and iV = lo00 rjmin +
(= v 1 u z ) becomes minimum. Therefore, the oil
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 STUDY OF THE TRAPPING OF FLUID IN A GEAR PUMP 4s

In the case of h = 30 pm, the nearer the delivery side

' DI
relief groove is to the centre-line within the range of

1 Bd 2 Bd2 , the better is the overall efficiency, because the

pressure rise in the trapped space decreases and the
displacement increases with the access of the relief

11 groove of the delivery side to the centre. On the other

hand, when h = 200 pm, the overall efficiency becomes
low with the access of the relief groove of the delivery
side to the centre. This is because the leakage which
flows from the delivery side through the backlash to the
suction side increases with the approach of the delivery
i).4 -
@ h 1 5 0 PI11

0h = 200 pi11 I side relief groove to the centre within the range of Bd <
Bd,. When la = 50 pm, the overall efficiency tends to lie
between those of the above two cases. It is also shown
that the overall efficiency i s highest in the case of small
0.2

1 I
12
I
48
I
64
I
backlash and the relief groove position calculated by
equation (2).

Hd .
_ The trapping phenomenon in a gear pump and the
mni
Fig. 10 Variation of overall efficiency with delivery side relief
groove position with backlash size as a parameter
volume to be compressed in the trapped space v2 until
the space u2 becomes minimum after the closure of the
relief groove can not be delivered to the delivery side.
Therefore the displacement V equals Fh1in the same
way as in the case of h = 200 pm. From the same con-
siderations as above, it can be seen that the displace-
ment is in the range of < V < Kb2 when the
backlash is small and the delivery side relief groove is
situated in the range Bd, > 13, > B d , .
4.4 Overall efficiency
Figure 10 shows the relations between the overall
efficiency and the backlash size and the relief groove
position. These results were obtained when N = 1000
r/min and P , = 9.81 MPa. The magnitude of the overall
efficiency shown is considerably low compared to that
of ordinary gear pumps. The existence of the pressure
taps on the endplates decreased the effective sealing
area between the delivery side and the suction side, as
shown in Fig. 4b; therefore, the leakage flowrate was
increased. The increased leakage flowrate is responsible
for the low overall efficiency.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
effects of the relief groove position and the backlash size
on the trapping phenomenon and the performance have
been made clear. This investigation also pointed out the
necessity of altering the relief groove position according
to the backlash size and showed that the highest overall
efficiency was obtained when the backlash was small
and the delivery side relief groove was provided at the
position calculated by the equation 3, = 0.25t,, cos a.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Toyo-oki Kogyo
Company Limited for their help in making the test
pump and Mr H. Ogata for his help in experiments.
Thanks are also given to Associate Professor A. Hibi of
Toyohashi University of Technology for his valuable
suggestions and to Professor K. Yamaguchi of Toyota
College of Technology for his helpful discussion.
REFERENCES
I Ichikawa, T. Gear pump (in Japanese), 1962 (Nikkan Kogyo
Shimhunsha).
2 Ishihashi, A. and Muta, R. The effects of relief groove position and
backlash size on the efliciencq and the pressure fluctuation ratio of
a gear pump (in Japanese). Trans. Japan SOC. Mech. Enyrs, 1967,
33-251, 1155.

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