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Introduction
This tutorial illustrates how to setup and run a vane pump analysis in FLUENT 6.3.
This tutorial demonstrates how to do the following:
• Specify the motion of dynamic zones using a compiled user-defined function (UDF).
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the FLUENT interface. Some of he basic
steps in the setup and solution procedures will not the basic steps in the setup and solution
procedures will not be shown explicitly.
You should be familiar with the dynamic mesh model and UDFs. Refer to the FLUENT 6.3
User’s Guide and the FLUENT UDF Manual for more information.
Problem Description
A vane pump consists of a rotor with radial slots positioned off-center in a housing bore.
A generic vane pump geometry is shown in Figure 2, where the rotor and housing are both
circular. Vanes that fit closely in rotor slots slide in and out as the rotor turns. Pumping
action is caused by the expanding and contracting volumes contained by the rotor, vanes
and housing.
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
Meshing Requirements
In this tutorial, a UDF is used to dynamically move the mesh at each time step. Hence,
follow some specific meshing rules so that both the initial mesh and all subsequent motion is
correct. With this meshing process, the pump core can be meshed with a high aspect ratio
map mesh scheme. Each mesh node displacement is composed of a solid body rotation and
a radial translation. The node displacement is a function of eccentricity, rotational speed,
and rotor/housing diameters. The pump gap (if created) is also meshed and moved in a
similar manner to the core. The meshing requirements (Figure 1) are as follows:
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
The schematic of the pump is shown in Figure 2. The meshed vane pump geometry of
the circular housing is shown in Figure 3. The pump core is meshed with a map mesh
scheme. The pump gaps are meshed using a high aspect ratio map mesh scheme. The inlet
and outlet pipes are meshed with a tetrahedral mesh. The gaps and inlet/outlet pipes are
connected to the pump core using non-conformal grid interfaces.
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
Preparation
1. Copy the files circle-pump.msh, input.txt, vane.c, and oil den.c to your working
folder.
Note: The input file must be called input.txt and must be located in the same folder
as the case file.
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
(a) Select mm from the Grid Was Created In drop-down list in the Unit Conversion
group box.
(b) Click the Change Length Units button.
Note: Do not scale the grid.
(c) Close the Scale Grid panel.
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
Use the right mouse button to check which zone number corresponds to each boundary.
If you click the right mouse button on one of the boundaries in the graphics window,
its zone number, name, and type will be printed in the FLUENT console.
Step 2: User-Defined Function In pump models without gaps, incompressible liquid and
constricting volumes create unphysical pressure spikes. Adding liquid compressibility through
a UDF provides a realistic solution. If the pump contains gaps, this liquid compressibility
UDF is not required as any pressure increase in the liquid will cause it to escape through
the gaps.
The model here contains gaps, hence it is not necessary to use the compressibility UDF.
However, the compressibility UDF is included for completeness, though it will not be used
by the solver. The file input.txt is read when the UDF is loaded. This contains the
parameters required for the UDF (see Appendix 1).
All inputs to the file input.txt must be in SI units.
1. Compile the UDF library using the source files vane.c and oil-den.c.
Define −→ User-Defined −→ Functions −→Compiled...
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(a) Click the Add... button to open the Select File panel.
i. Select the source files, vane.c and oil-den.c and click OK.
(b) Click Build to build the directories.
(c) Read the information in the Information panel and click OK.
(d) Click Load to load the UDF.
Step 3: Models
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Step 4: Materials
Define −→Materials...
(a) Delete air from the Name entry box and enter oil.
(b) Enter 0.008 for Viscosity.
(c) Select user-defined from the Density drop-down list to open the User-Defined Func-
tions panel.
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Vane Pump Modeling in FLUENT
(d) Click Yes in the dialog box that opens to overwrite air.
(e) Select user-defined from the Speed of Sound drop-down list to open the User-
Defined Functions panel.
(a) Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specification Method drop-down
list in the Turbulence group box.
(b) Set the Turbulent Intensity to 5%.
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(a) Enable Dynamic Mesh and In-Cylinder in the Models group box.
(b) Click the In-Cylinder tab and specify parameters as shown in the table:
Parameter Value
Crank Shaft Speed 500
Starting Crank Angle 0
Crank Period 360
Crank Angle Step Size 0.25
(c) Click OK to close the Dynamic Mesh Parameters panel.
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Step 9: Solution
Solve −→ Controls −→Solution...
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(a) Enable Filled and disable Node Values in the Options group box.
(b) Set Levels to 8.
(c) Select User Defined Memory... and User Memory 0 from the Contours of drop-down
lists.
(d) Select intf-pump-housing, intf-pump-vanes, and wall:0 from the Surfaces selection
list.
(e) Click Display.
For better rendering of the image, enable Headlights On in the Lights panel, select
Phong from the Lighting Method drop-down list and click Apply.
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(a) Set Autosave Case File Frequency and Autosave Data File Frequency to 8.
Files will be saved at every two degrees of rotation.
(b) Enter circle-pump.gz for Filename.
FLUENT will automatically append the time step number and extension to the file-
name while saving. For example, at the eighth time step, the files circle-pump0008.cas.gz
and circle-pump0008.dat.gz will be saved.
(c) Click OK to close the Autosave Case/Data panel.
6. Save the initial case and data files (circle-pump.cas.gz and circle-pump.dat.gz).
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10. Run the transient solution for 200 time steps (i.e., 50 degrees of rotation).
A complete cycle would require 1440 time steps.
Solve −→Iterate...
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(a) Select Pressure... and Static Pressure from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Select all surfaces except default-interior, default-interior:0, and default-interior:0:1
from the Surfaces selection list.
(c) Click Display.
Note: The profile file name must be called data outer.txt and must be located in the same
folder as the case file.
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The circular pump case was composed of a circular rotor and circular housing bore. Vane
pumps do not always conform to this geometry requirement. The rotor or housing may have
a non-circular profile. In such cases, a profile file is required as input for the UDF. In the
following example (see Figure 9), the housing of the pump is elliptical in shape. A sample
of this profile is shown (Appendix 2).
Preparation
1. Copy the files ellipse-pump.msh, input.txt, vane.c, data outer.txt and oil den.c
to your working folder.
Note: The file input.txt contains input data (zone ID, core ID, gap ID, radius,
etc.) for the pump. This data for ellipse pump is different from that for the
circular pump because the respective meshes are different. Hence, the input.txt
file used for the circular pump needs to be edited before it can be used for the
ellipse pump. For information, see Appendix 1.
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Step 1: Grid
(a) Select mm from the Grid Was Created In drop-down list in the Unit Conversion
group box.
(b) Click the Change Length Units button.
(c) Click Scale.
(d) Close the Scale Grid panel.
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Step 4: Materials
Same as Step 4 for circular pump (see 9).
Step 5: Boundary Conditions
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i. Select inlet from the Zone selection list and pressure-inlet from the Type se-
lection list.
ii. Click OK in the Question panel that opens.
(b) Click the Set... button to open Pressure Inlet panel.
i. Select Intensity and Hydraulic Diameter from the Specification Method drop-
down list in the Turbulence group box.
ii. Set the Turbulent Intensity to 5%.
iii. Set the Hydraulic Diameter to 15 mm.
iv. Click OK to close the Pressure Inlet panel.
(a) Enable Dynamic Mesh and In-Cylinder from the Model group box.
(b) Click the In-Cylinder tab and specify the parameters shown in the table:
Parameter Value
Crank Shaft Speed 500
Starting Crank Angle 0
Crank Period 360
Crank Angle Step Size 0.25
2. Define dynamic mesh zones.
Define −→ Dynamic Mesh −→Zones...
(a) Select fluid-pump from the Zone Names drop-down list.
(b) Select User-Defined from the Type group box.
(c) Select vane pump core::libudf from the Mesh Motion UDF drop-down list.
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(a) Enable Filled and disable Node Values from the Options group box.
(b) Set Levels to 4.
The number of levels is equal to the number of vanes.
(c) Select User Defined Memory... and User Memory 0 from the Contours of drop-down
lists.
(d) Select intf-pump-housing, intf-pump-vanes, and wall:0:1 from the Surfaces selection
list.
(e) Click Display.
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10. Run the transient solution for 200 time steps (i.e., 50 degrees of rotation).
A complete cycle would require 1440 time steps.
Solve −→Iterate...
(a) Set the Number of Time Steps to 200.
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(a) Select Pressure... and Static Pressure from the Contours of drop-down lists.
(b) Select all surfaces except default-interior, default-interior:0, and default-interior:0:1
from the Surfaces selection list.
(c) Click Display.
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Summary
In this tutorial, you set up and modeled a vane pump of circular and elliptical housing
respectively. You set up a dynamic mesh with dynamic zones defined using a UDF. You
then performed a transient dynamic mesh calculation and examined the pressure contours
at various stages of rotation.
0
0
8
7 13
25e-3 1.75e-3 0.1e-3
27.5e-3 2e-3
OUTER_SHAPE
INNER_SHAPE
N_VANE
CORE_ID GAP_ID
r HALF_VANE_WIDTH GAP
R DELTA
1. OUTER SHAPE is the outer profile of the pump core and is represented by an integer
value.
(a) 0: Profile is a circle and does not change in the z-direction.
(b) 1: Profile is user-defined and does not change in the z-direction. In this case a
profile file called data outer.txt (see sample in Appendix2) must be created
and copied to the same working folder as the case file.
2. INNER SHAPE is the inner profile of the pump core and is represented by an integer
value.
(a) 0: Profile is a circle and does not change in the z-direction.
(b) 1: Profile is user-defined and does not change in the z-direction. In this case
a profile file called data inner.txt (same format as data outer.txt) must be
created and copied to the same working folder as the case file (contact the support
engineer for information).
(c) 2: Profile is a circle and does change in the z-direction (i.e. 3D). In this case, an
additional source file called special inner.c is required to specify the change
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of inner radius with respect to the z-coordinate (contact the support engineer
for information).
4. CORE ID is the cell zone ID for the pump core. The complete pump core must be
defined as a single fluid zone.
5. GAP ID is the cell zone ID for the gaps. All gaps must be defined as a single fluid zone
(ignored if no gaps are used). If there is no gap, the GAP ID must be set to 0.
9. R is the radius of the pump housing if the OUTER SHAPE is a circle (ignored for user-
defined outer profile).
10. DELTA is the distance between the center of the inner and outer circles if the OUTER SHAPE
is a circle (ignored for user-defined outer profile). Even though the offset is always to
the left of the pump core center, DELTA must be a positive value.
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0.0275 0
0.027497851 0.0005
0.027491405 0.001
0.027480657 0.0015
0.027465603 0.002
0.027446237 0.0025
0.027422547 0.003
0.027394524 0.0035
0.027012277 0.0075
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