INTRODUCTION

Gear pumps are a type of rotary positive displacement pump, meaning they pump a constant amount of fluid

for each revolution. Gear pumps transfer fluid by gears coming in and out of mesh to create a non-pulsating

pumping action. Gear pumps are able to pump at high pressures and excel at pumping high viscosity liquids

efficiently.

There are no valves in a gear pump to cause friction losses and also high impeller velocities, with resultant

friction losses, are not required as in a centrifugal pump. Therefore a gear pump is well suited for handling

viscous liquids such as fuel and lubricating oils. Gear pumps are not suited for pumping solids and abrasive

liquids.

Internal and external gear pumps are the two basic types of gear pumps. Both the internal and external gear

pumps have an idler gear that is driven by the driving gear and both use the same method of gears coming in

and out of mesh to create a pumping action. The main differences between the two gear pumps are the

placement of the gears and where the fluid is trapped.

BENEFITS OF GEAR PUMP
1. Operate at high speeds
2. Good efficiency
3. Non-pulsating flow
4. Reliable and easy to maintain
5. Handle higher viscosity fluids
6. Reduced speed for internal gear pumps will be able to pump higher
viscosity liquids such as tar,molasses, and bitumen.
7. Suitable for high pressure
8. Internal can have smoother pumping for shear sensitive fluids
LIMITATIONS OF GEAR PUMPS
Pumping heavier viscosity fluids can sometimes build up within the pump
and could make the gears rotate slower. Since the fluid is in contact with the
gears, it can be extremely sheared as it is transferred to the discharge side
of the pump. Internal gear pumps can have overhung loads on shaft bearings
and cause premature wear. If any gear pumps are not made to high
standards and dont have tight mechanical clearances between the internal
components fluid could be able to leak backwards, which would decrease the
pump efficiency. Shear sensitive liquids are not suitable for gear pumps.
APPLICATIONS OF GEAR PUMP
Gear pump provide continuous, non-pulsing flow making it ideal for certain
metering applications. Further, these pumps can handle very high pressures
~3000 psi enabling them to be used in hydraulic application. Overall, the
gear pumps have a wide variety of applications and these are just a few:
1. Oil pumps in vehicles
2. Used for hydraulic transmission system
3. Pump varies fuel oils and lube oils
4. Used for lubrication in machines
5. Handle corrosive liquids
6. Chemical metering
7. Metering molten plastics in forming synthetic fibers, filaments, films and
pipes
8. Metering fuels and chemical additives
9. Internal gear pumps are greatly used in food industry for pumping things
like chocolate, fillers
and cacao butter.
MATERIALS:
Following materials are used in making diferent parts of the gear pump.
Shaft- Made of forged naturally steel.
Rotors- they are also made of forged nitro alloy steel.
Casing- Closed grained gray cast iron.
Efects of cavitation:
1. Material damage:
Perhaps the most ubiquitous problem caused by cavitation is the material damage
that cavitation bubbles can cause when they collapse in the vicinity of a solid
surface. Consequently, this aspect of cavitation has been intensively studied for
many years. The problem is complex because it involves the details of a
complicated unsteady flow combined with the reaction of the particular material of
which the solid surface is made. The pitting caused by the collapse of cavities
produces great wear on components and can dramatically shorten a pumps
lifetime.
As we have seen in the previous section, cavitation bubble collapse is a violent
process that generates highly localized, large amplitude disturbances and shocks in
the fluid at the point of collapse. When this collapse occurs close to a solid surface,
these intense disturbances generate highly localized and transient surface stresses.
Repetition of this loading due a multitude of bubble collapses can cause local
surface fatigue failure, and the detachment of pieces of material. This is the
generally accepted explanation for cavitation damage. It is consistent with the
appearance of cavitation damage in most circumstances. Unlike the erosion due to
solid particles in the flow, for which the surface appears to be smoothly worn with
scratches due to larger particles, cavitation damage has the crystalline and jagged
appearance of fatigue failure. An example of cavitation damage on the
compensation plate on an external gear pump is shown in figure 2.3. After a surface
is initially afected by cavitation, it tends to erode at an accelerating pace. The
cavitation pits increase the turbulence of the fluid flow and create crevasses that
act as nucleation sites for additional cavitation bubbles. The pits also increase the
components surface area and leave behind residual stresses. This makes the
surface more prone to stress corrosion (Stachowiak and Batchelor[79]).

2. Hydrodynamic efects
The various hydrodynamic efects of cavitation have their source in the interruption
of the continuity of the liquid phase as cavities appear. As the cavity volume
displaces liquid, the flow pattern is modified and the dynamic interaction between
the liquid and its boundaries is altered. Usually the efect of cavitation is to limit or
lessen the force that can be applied to the liquid by the surface. The overall
resistance to flow and reduced turning efect combine to lower the performance of
the equipment involved. Decrease in power output and head are indications of
cavitation causing a decrease in guidance and hence efective momentum transfer
between liquid and rotor. The decrease in efficiency is a measure of the increased
losses. Hydrodynamic efects in positive displacement pumps will be extensively
discussed in the following chapters.

3. Vibration
Cavitation is an inherently unsteady process and may involve large fluctuating
forces. The amplitudes of vibration do not usually exceed alert values unless
resonance is involved. The spectra produced usually has a very wide frequency
range and low amplitude. Cavitation-induced vibration may lead to other forms of
pump damage.

4. Noise
Noise is a consequence of the momentary large pressures that are generated when
the contents of the bubble are highly compressed. In consequence, it is mainly
caused by the shock-wave mechanism that appears in the bubble collapse process.
The crackling noise that accompanies cavitation is one of the most evident
characteristics of this phenomenon. The onset of cavitation is often detected first by
this noise rather than by visual observation of the bubbles. Moreover, it is often the
primary means of detecting cavitation in devices such as pumps and valves. Indeed,
several empirical methods
have been suggested that estimate the rate of material damage by measuring the
noise generated (for example, Lush and Angell [58]). Most of the analytical
approaches to cavitation noise build on knowledge of the dynamics of collapse of a
single bubble. Fourier analysis of the radiated acoustic pressure due to a single
bubble were first visualized by Rayleigh [71] and implemented by Mellen [61] and
Fitzpatrick and Strasberg [22].

Cavitation detection methods

1 Direct Observation
The direct method ofers the only possibility for detailed study of the hydrodynamic
phenomenon
either at inception or for advanced stages of cavity development. Nowadays, the
development of high-speed CCD cameras and optical techniques such as Particle
Image Velocimetry (PIV), has increased the popularity of these methods.
Nevertheless, in many cases (which often include those of hydraulic machinery), the
region in which cavitation takes place cannot be visually accessed, therefore
indirect detection methods are needed.

2 Indirect Observation
Indirect methods are based on the measurement of variables afected by cavitation
and on the
previous understanding of the cavity dynamics and its relation with the measured
variables. Some
of these methods are:
Determining the efect of cavitation on the performance of a piece of equipment.
This method
gives no information about the character of the hydrodynamic phenomenon.
Measuring the efect on the distribution of pressure over the boundary at which
cavitation
occurs: It gives information about the location of the cavitating zone and about
force and
moment transmission between the liquid and the boundaries.
Analyzing the noise emitted by cavitation. It provides a very sensitive way of
detecting
amounts of cavitation that may be too small to detect by direct observation.
Analyzing the structural vibrations caused by cavitation.
Allowing cavitation to scatter laser-beam light into a photocell. This is a very
sensitive way
to indicate the presence of extremely small cavities.