Numerical modelling of hook and claw-type vacuum pump performance based on cut cell Cartesian method

Abstract

Vacuum pump is widely used in aviation, chemical, semiconductor and other fields because of its superior performance. In order to study the internal flow characteristics and pump performance, 1-D Chamber Model method and the CFD modelling method based on static grid are commonly used, such methods ignore many important three-dimensional transient flow details. However, in numerical modelling of three-dimensional transient flow field for hook and claw-type vacuum pump with cusps in the rotor profile, the generation of flow field grid is always a challenge. The body-fitted mesh method is difficult to generate effective dynamic grid for such kind of fluid domain, which usually leads to the divergence of calculation. In order to solve these problems, the cut cell Cartesian method is proposed to simulate the three-dimensional transient flow field in hook and claw-type vacuum pump. Firstly, the mathematical basis of the cut cell Cartesian method was introduced in detail, in which the immersed boundary method (IBM) was combined with the generation process of adaptive Cartesian volume mesh. Aiming at modelling the hook and claw-type vacuum pump, firstly, the profile design method of hook and claw-type vacuum pump was derived, and the geometric model of the calculation domain was established. The transient flow field characteristics of the vacuum pump with different inter-lobe clearance sizes were analyzed, and the velocity, pressure, vortices and temperature characteristics inside the vacuum pump were obtained. The influence of clearance variation on the performance of the vacuum pump was discussed. The feasibility and accuracy of the method were verified by a study case of a two-stroke reciprocating piston pump. The research provides a good reference for dynamic grid generation and precise numerical simulation of hook and claw-type vacuum pump.