Paper Title
INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT INLET PRESSURE ON VOLUMETRIC FLUX AND CAVITATION IN GEAR PUMP BY USING CFD ANALYSIS

Abstract
Today, gear pumps are of great importance for the hydraulic sector. These pumps have an essential role in the places where they are used, and there are two different types: external and internal external pumps. The operating performance of external gear pumps has increased with industrial developments, and research on this subject is still ongoing. Although external gear pumps have high volumetric efficiency (90-95%), they also have cavitation formation and reverse flow disadvantages. Pump operating conditions such as hydraulic oil inlet-outlet pressure, gear pump operating temperature, gear wheel rotation speed, and hydraulic oil properties significantly affect cavitation, flow rate, and reverse flow. This study investigated the effect of liquid inlet pressure, one of the operating conditions for external gear pumps used in the industrial market, on volumetric flow rate and cavitation phenomenon with CFD analysis. Inlet pressure was accepted as a variable value, and other operating conditions (gear wheel rotation speed, hydraulic oil properties, outlet pressure, etc.) were kept constant. The properties of VG46 hydraulic oil at 40 °C were considered for the fluid properties used in the analysis. The rotation speed of the gears was assumed to be 3000 rpm, and the oil outlet pressure to be 250 bar. The volumetric flow rate and cavitation rate for three different inlet pressures, 0.5-1-1.5 bar, were determined with the Simerics MP+ 6.0 package program. This software, a unique package program for gear pump solutions, produced a fast and effective solution network with the automatic network creation tool. According to the findings, the volumetric flow rate increased as the inlet pressure increased. It was also determined that increasing inlet pressure caused higher total cavitation rates. In this case, it was determined that although a high volumetric flow rate was obtained with the increasing cavitation phenomenon, using gear pumps with high inlet pressure could be limited. Keywords - Cavitation, CFD Analysis, External Gear Pump, Volumetric Flux.