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Courtesy of Hoechst Trevira, USAFIDAP was used recently by Hoechst Trevira, the world's leading manufacturer of polyester, to help correct a critical manufacturing equipment problem. Trevira polyester is used in apparel and home textiles, recyclable plastic bottles, films, and other products. The company's Spartanburg, South Carolina plant is a world-scale polyethylene terephthalate (PET) manufacturing facility. To supply its process lines, gear pumps move more than 400 tons per day of hot, highly non-Newtonian molten polymer at pressures of 100 atmospheres or more. These pumps have internal sleeve bearings lubricated by the pumped fluid itself, using a three-dimensional channel machined into the journal housing. "Fluent's software and services really benefited everyone concerned, with improved plant reliability for Hoechst and a new competitive edge for our pump supplier. We wouldn't hesitate to utilize CFD again on a similar problem." The FIDAP results revealed that the bearing design was sub-optimal for this application and clearly indicated how the lubrication groove geometry might be changed to avoid the problem. The gear pump vendor was able to rapidly develop a more robust pump with a patented "pocket bearing" design that yielded a much longer service life. 
Pressure distribution in the "unrolled" sleeve bearing. Fluid pathlines in the lubrication groove.
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