The useful life of an engine can be extended by reconditioning some of the components which are subjected to maximum wear and tear, lube pump is one such component. For a new gear pump, the clearance between the gear and casing is maintained at very low value to prevent leakage flows. As the engine comes to the end of its life the clearance increases due to wear and consequently a deterioration in pump performance is observed. A scientific methodology is required to find out the maximum clearance value up to which the pump can provide the target flow rate and head. This is done to assess whether a pump can be continued to be used or be replaced.
Current method of qualifying the performance of the reconditioned pumps is through product testing, where pumps of different axial and radial clearances are tested to come up with acceptable clearance values. In this study, an attempt is made to replace testing with the CFD simulation to reduce the cost and time involved.
Previous work on CFD simulation of gear pump focused on pump performance, without modeling axial and radial clearances. In current work the radial and axial clearance are modeled and effects on pump performance is studied. Testing was performed to validate the simulation results and mass-flow rates matched within 10 % of test results.