In the case of internal gear pumps, the eccentricity of the outer rotor, which resembles a circular lobe, must be limited to a certain value in order to avoid the formation of cusps and loops; furthermore, the tip width of the inner rotor, which has a hypocycloid curve and an epicycloid curve, should not be allowed to exceed the limit value. In this study, we suggest that the tip width of the inner rotor be controlled by inserting a circular-arc curve between the hypocycloid and epicycloid curves. We also suggest that the outer rotor be designed using the closed-form equation for the inner rotor and the width correction coefficient. Thus, it is possible to design a gerotor for which there is no upper limit on the eccentricity, as in this case, undercut is prevented and there is no restriction on the tip width. We also develop an automated program for rotor design and calculation of the flow rate and flow rate irregularity. We demonstrate the superior performance of the gerotor developed in this study by analyzing the internal fluid flow using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-code.

Gerotor is a key component used in internal gear pumps of vehicles, and as the technology of sintering process is highly advanced, the gerotor has advantages for manufacturing complex profiles and obtaining durability and minimization. But internal gear pumps have been continuously required to improve flow rate and noise for fuel efficiency. The existing gerotors with multiple profiles have been designed by only translation algorithm, which is limited to improve the performances. In this study, a new automated design and multiple calculation programs using rotation and translation algorithm were developed for improving the performances of multiple profiles, and two types of combined multiple profiles (ellipse 1-involute-ellipse 2 type and 3-ellipses type) were generated. The performances (flow rate, irregularity, specific sliding and pressure angle) of the profiles were calculated by using theoretical analysis, and optimal designs of the two types were carried out on the basis of analysis results. Also, internal flow characteristics in the optimized gerotor generated were analyzed by using commercial CFD (computational fluid dynamics) code, ANSYS-CFX.