A novel profile with high efficiency for hydrogen-circulating Roots pumps used in FCVs

Abstract Low flow rate is one of the primary disadvantages of Roots pumps when they are applied in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. A novel profile for Roots pumps was developed in this paper to increase the working volume and reduce the internal leakage. The available range of the design parameters of the Roots pump with the new profile was determined analytically, and an improvement in the working volume was validated. The flow dynamics inside the traditional and new pumps were investigated by experiments and numerical simulations. The analytical results indicated that the maximum area utilization of the new profile was approximately 10.4% higher than that of the traditional profile at the same lobe number. The numerical results demonstrated the superiority of the proposed profile in high flow rate and sealing. The tip concentric arcs of the new profile reduced the internal leakage via the radial gap. The characteristic of multipoint meshing within a certain range of rotational angles reduced the interlobe leakage.