Open AccessA novel approach for assessing the instantaneous flow rate of an external gear pump using 3d printing and computer vision
Author(s) -
Valerian Sârbu,
Mihai Avram
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/997/1/012060
Subject(s) - computer science , stepper , matlab , controller (irrigation) , flow (mathematics) , enhanced data rates for gsm evolution , casing , position (finance) , volumetric flow rate , simulation , computer vision , engineering , mechanical engineering , materials science , geometry , mathematics , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , agronomy , economics , biology , nanotechnology , operating system
The flow rate ripple inherent in gear pumps is already well researched with varying degrees of accuracy. The usual approach for determining the instantaneous flow rate includes mathematical models, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the practical approach, measuring the flow rate on an existing system using sensors. This paper presents an original method for determining the flow rate using new technologies, specifically 3d printing, edge computing and image processing. The target is a 3d printed scale model of the gears and casing attached to a stepper motor; a raspberry pi zero acts as a remote image capture device and position controller. The frames captured at key positions are wirelessly transferred to a computer running MATLAB for processing and extracting the flow data using special algorithms. Results were very good and reasonably accurate.