Abstract
In this study, the characteristic of a vane pump of automotive power steering system is numerically analyzed. The vane pump changes the energy level of operation fluid by converting mechanical input power to hydraulic output. To simulate this mechanism, moving mesh technique is adopted. As a result, the flow rate and pressure are obtained by numerical analysis. The flow rate agrees well with the experimental data. Moreover, the variation and oscillation of the pressure around the rotating vane are observed. As a result of flow characteristics, The difference of pressure between both side of vane tip causes the back flow into the rotor. As the rotational velocity increases, the flow rate at the outlet and the pressure in the vane tip rises with higher amplitude of oscillation. In order to reducing the oscillation, the design of devices for decreasing the cross-area of the outlet part and returning the flow from the outlet to the inlet is required.
