Modeling Engine Oil Variable Displacement Vane Pumps in 1D to Predict Performance, Pulsations, and Friction

Variable displacement vane pumps are becoming more popular for engine oil circuits due to their fuel savings over traditional fixed displacement pumps. As a result, engineers need to analyze these pumps to ensure the pump design meets the demands of the oil circuit while having good friction characteristics and avoiding issues like high pressure amplitude and resonance. By employing 1D flow simulation to these pumps, the user can analyze the most important issues surrounding vane pumps at a fraction of the time as 3D CFD.

This paper showcases the prediction of several major performance quantities of a variable displacement vane pump including flow rate, pressure rise, and friction torque vs. engine speed and temperature. The simulation results show good correlation to measurement data. In addition, the pressure pulsation at several locations including in the vane chamber and at the outlet is compared directly with 3D CFD for a different pump. Furthermore, the effect of aerated oil on pump performance is also shown. Finally, a predictive friction model for vane pumps is proposed and shows good agreement with experiment.