Flowrate formulation and displacement analyses for deviation function-based gerotor pumps

This article presents a research on the flowrate formulation and displacement analysis of gerotor pumps. The flowrate formula is based on the deviation function and is applicable to gerotors with any pitch curves and generating curves that are either circular or non-circular. For gerotors with the circular pitch curves and generating curves, the derivation of the formula proposed here is much simpler than the current available one. Two dimensionless parameters, the lobe non-circularity and the pitch non-circularity, are then introduced so that gerotor performance can be analysed systematically. As examples, the specific flowrate and displacement curves with the combinations of sinusoidal and polynomial pitch curves and deviation functions are illustrated. Based on these case studies, it is found that in general the specific displacement increases according to the lobe non-circularity, whereas the pitch non-circularity has only the minimum effects on the performance of pumping displacement. The results of the given case studies also show that the pumps with less lobe numbers are capable to have relatively larger specific displacements.