The geometry of the Moineau pump

Jens Gravesen
Technical University of Denmark, Department of Mathematics
26 March 2008
Abstract
The Moineau pump was invented in 1931 by the French engineer Rene Moineau
and exhibits an intriguing geometry. The original design is based on hypo- and epi-
cycloids and all except one design has either cusps or less severe inexion points
with innite curvature. By using the support function to represent planar curves it
is possible to make an explicit analysis of a general design and we can show that
points of innite curvature are unavoidable.
Key words: Moineau pump, envelope, support function.
1 Introduction
The Moineau pump is an invention from 1931 by the French engineer Rene
Moineau, see [11]. The Moineau pump has two parts rotating relative to each
other in an eccentric motion. The shapes in an axial cross section are in the
original design based on epi- and hypo-cycloids. In 2006 the large Danish pump
manufacturer Grundfos wanted an investigation of other possible designs and
brought the problem to the 57th European Study Group with Industry held
at the Technical University of Denmark. All but one of the classical designs
possesses points with innite curvature and it is of particular interest too see
if that can be avoided.
In a previous analysis of the scroll compressor [3] planar curves was represented
by specifying the radius of curvature as a function of tangent direction. In the
present work we specify the support as a function of normal direction. In both
cases it is trivial to nd a point with a given tangent or normal and this makes
Email address: [email protected] (Jens Gravesen).
C
2
C
1
H
2
P 6
?

Fig. 1. The circle C

1
rolls inside the circle C
2
and the point P rolls back and forth
on the diameter H
2
. To the right P and H
2
are oset with .
it possible to get closed analytical expressions for the envelope of a moving
curve.
The support function is a classical tool in convex geometry [2] and was rst
suggested for use in geometric design by M. Sabin in 1974 [12]. Lately there
has been renewed interest in this representation [1,5,7,10,13,14]. Using the
support function it is possible to analyse a general design and show that
innite curvature can not be avoided.
The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 we introduce the original designs
and explain how the pump works. In Section 3 we introduce the representation
by the support function and give some properties of the representation. In
Section 4 we analyse a general design, show that points of innite curvature
can not be avoided and give a few examples of new designs.
2 The original design
If a circle C
1
with radius 1 rolls inside a circle C
n
of radius n then a xed
point P on C
1
traces a hypo-cycloid H
n
with n cusps, see Fig. 3. In the case
where n = 2 the hypo-cycloid is simply a diameter of C
2
traced twice, once
in each direction, see Fig. 1. The rolling of C
1
inside C
2
also denes a motion
in the plane and under this motion the point P moves along H
2
. If we oset
both P and H
2
with the same amount we obtain the rotor, a circle, moving
back and forth in the stator, two parallel lines with semicircles attached at the
ends. The picture is a horizontal section in the pump and the areas to each
side of the rotor are sections in two pump chambers.
To construct the pump we now lift the right hand picture in Fig. 1 to horizontal
planes z = constant, see Fig. 2 to the left. We then roll each copy of the circle
C
1
, to which the rotor is attached, a distance proportional to the height z, see
the second picture in Fig. 2. Finally we rotate each horizontal plane, with both
the rotor and the stator, such that all copies of the circle C
1
are back to the
original position, see the third picture in Fig. 2. The stator is now formed by
2
Fig. 2. The construction of the pump is illustrated in the rst three pictures and
the pumping in the last two pictures.
the thick rounded rectangles, the rotor is formed by the thick small circles,
and the space in between forms two series of pump chambers. In Fig. 2 the
horizontal sections in one of the pump chambers are coloured in gray but only
a portion corresponding to half the height of a pump chamber is shown, (any
other portion can be found by symmetry). As all copies of C
1
now are above
each other they form a cylinder as do the copies of C
2
. If the C
1
cylinder now
rolls inside the C
2
cylinder the thick small circles moves back and forth inside
the rounded rectangles. As we see from the dierence between the third
and the last picture this has same eect as a vertical translation followed by a
rotation, i.e., the pump chambers are moved up (or down) by a screw motion.
For more pictures and animations, see [8,9].
2.1 The n + 1:n hypo-cycloid construction
Consider Fig. 3. We have three circles C
1
, C
n
and C
n+1
with radii 1, n, and n+1
respectively. Rolling C
1
inside C
n
and C
n+1
produces the two hypo-cycloids H
n
and H
n+1
respectively. Now consider the motion generated by letting C
n
roll
inside C
n+1
and let H
n
follow the motion. It is easily seen that H
n+1
is (part of)
the envelope for this moving curve. Furthermore, a straightforward calculation
shows that the cusps of H
n
stays on H
n+1
during the motion, see [6]. We can
now perform the same procedure as above. Lift the construction to horizontal
planes z = constant, roll each copy of C
n
a distance proportional to z, and
rotate each horizontal plane such that the copy of C
n
returns to its original
position. This way n + 1 series of pump chambers are formed and when the
cylinder formed by the copies of C
n
rolls inside the cylinder formed by the
copies of C
n+1
the pump chambers move up or down by a screw motion, see
[8,9].
3
C
3
C
2
C
1
H
3
H
2
C
4
C
3
C
1
H
4
H
3
C
5
C
4
C
1
H
5
H
4
3:2 4:3 5:4
Fig. 3. Above the n +1:n hypo-cycloid construction for n = 2, 3, 4. Below osets of
the same constructions. In the 3:2 construction we have zoomed in on a point where
a semicircle connects to the oset H
3
. The zoom uses dierent scales in the x and
y direction.
In the patent [11] the construction is oset, probably to avoid the cusps. If
an oset of a curve passes through a centre of curvature, i.e., intersects the
evolute, then a cusp is formed. So to avoid cusps a curve can at most be oset
out to the minimum radius of curvature. The hypo-cycloids have zero radius
of curvature at the cusps so even though the oset is visually ne the osets
do have cups, see Fig. 3.
2.2 The n + 1:n epi-cycloid construction
Consider Fig. 4. We have three circles C

1
, C
n
and C
n+1
with radii 1, n, and n+1
respectively. Rolling C

1
outside C
n
and C
n+1
produces the two epi-cycloids E
n
and E
n+1
respectively. Now consider the motion generated by letting C
n
roll
inside C
n+1
and let E
n
follow the motion. As in the previous cases E
n+1
is
(part of) the envelope for this moving curve and the cusps of E
n+1
stays on
E
n
during the motion, see [6]. A pump is constructed by the same procedure
as in the hypo-cycloid case and n + 1 series of pump chambers are formed.
Once again the cusps of a epi-cycloid has innite curvature, so an oset has
cusps too, as is clearly seen in Fig. 4.
4
C
2
C
1
C

1
E
2
E
1
C
3
C
2
C

1
E
3
E
2
C
4
C
3
C

1
E
4
E
3
2:1 3:2 4:3
Fig. 4. Above the n + 1:n epi-cycloid construction for n = 1, 2, 3, below osets.
C
4
C
2
C
1
H
4
E
4
E
2
H
2
C
6
C
4
C
1
H
6
E
6
E
4
H
4
C
8
C
6
C
1
H
8
E
8
E
6
H
6
A
1
A
2
A
2
A
3
A
3
A
4
2:1 3:2 4:3
Fig. 5. The construction consisting of alternating arcs of hypo- and epi-cycloids.
2.3 The n + 1:n hypo-epi-cycloid construction
Consider Fig. 5. We have three circles C
1
, C
2n
, C
2n+2
with radii 1, 2n, and
2n + 2 respectively. If we take every second arc of the hypo-cycloid H
2n
and
every second arc of the epi-cycloid E
2n
we obtain a curve A
n
consisting of
alternating arcs of hypo- and epi-cycloids. Each of these arcs are obtained by
rolling C
1
on the inside or the outside of C
2n
. We now let A
n
follow the motion
generated by letting C
2n
roll inside C
2n+2
. It can be shown that the outer part
5
of the envelope is A
n+1
, that the tangents agree at each point in A
2n
A
n+1
,
and that there in general are n+1 points of contact except at specic instances
where two points of contacts come together, see [6]. By the same procedure
as in the case hypo-cycloid or epi-cycloids, n +1 series of pump chambers are
formed and when the cylinder formed by the copies of C
2n
rolls inside the
cylinder formed by the copies of C
2n+2
the pump chambers move up or down
by a screw motion, see [8,9]. This construction is without cusps but there are
n inexion points on A
n
and here the curvature is innite.
3 The support function
We rst introduce a rotating frame (e, f ) and the rotation matrix R,
e() =
_

_
cos
sin
_

_ , f () =
_

_
sin
cos
_

_ , R() =
_

_
cos sin
sin cos
_

_ . (1)
Now let h : R R be a real C
2
function and consider the parametrisation
x() = h() e() + h

() f (). (2)
Dierentiation yields x

() = (h() +h

()) f () so x is regular if and only if

ds
d
= h() + h

() = 0. (3)
In that case the tangent is t = f () and the normal is n = e()
1
. Hence
h = x f = x n = distance from origo to the tangent line. (4)
That is, h is the support function for the curve parametrised by x. We have
d
2
x
ds
2
=
dt
ds
=
d
ds
dt
d
= (h + h

)
1
f

= (h + h

)
1
e. (5)
We see that if h is a C
k
function with k 2 and satisfying (3) then the
parametrisation by arc length is C
k
even though the parametrisation (2) is
only C
k1
. We also see that the signed radius of curvature is given by
=
ds
d
= h() + h

(). (6)
Any planar curve with non vanishing curvature, i.e., without inexion points,
can be given as (2). If h is the support function of curve x then the rotated
1
If > 0 then (t, n) = (f , e) is a negatively oriented basis
6
curve R(t) x has the support function h(t), the translated curve x+a
has the support function h() +a e(), and the scaled curve cx has the
support function ch, see [1,5,7,10,1214].
We can not use the normal direction as a parameter across an inexion point,
but the modication in [4] allows us that.
Theorem 1 Consider an ordinary inexion point (x
0
, y
0
) with curvature =

1
s +
1
2

2
s
2
+ O(s
3
), where s is arc length and
1
> 0. Denote the normal
direction by and let
0
be the normal direction at the inexion point. We
can introduce a parameter u such that u
2
=
0
and the support function
can be written
h = x
0
+y
0
u
2
+
2
3

1
u
3
+ O(u
4
). (7)
Furthermore,
dh
d
= y
0
+

1
u +O(u
2
) and
d
2
h
d
2
=

1
2
1
1
u
+ O(1). (8)
Proof. By a rotation we may assume that
0
= 0. Then we have
d
ds
= =
1
s +

2
2
s
2
+ O(s
3
) and u
2
= =

1
2
s
2
+

2
6
s
3
+ O(s
3
).
Thus
s =

1
u

2
3
2
1
u
2
+ O(u
3
), (9)
and
cos() = 1
1
8

2
1
s
4

1
12

2
s
5
+ O(s
6
), sin() =
1
2

1
s
2
+
1
6

2
s
3
+ O(s
4
).
The curve can now be parametrised as
x =
_
t ds =
_
f () ds =
_

_
x
0

1
6

1
s
3

1
24

2
s
5
+ O(s
5
)
y
0
+ s
1
40

2
1
s
5
+ O(s
6
)
_

_ .
Finally, the support function can be written
h = x n = x e() = x
0
+
y
0

1
2
s
2
+
_
2
1
+ y
0

2
6
_
s
3
+ O(s
4
).
Substituting (9) into this expression shows (7). Using that
d
du
= 2u
d
d
, equa-
tions (8) is a now a straightforward calculation. 2
7
4 General designs
We consider designs as in Fig. 5, i.e., designs consisting of arcs with alternating
signs of curvature. We start with one positively curved arc of the rotor. This
arc is then moved around by the motion generated by a circle rolling inside
another circle and we nd the stator as the envelope of this moving curve.
Then we reverse the viewpoint and consider the rotor as xed while the stator
is moving. Now the full rotor can be found as an envelope of this new moving
curve.
The motion generated by rolling a circle of radius b inside a circle of radius a
is given by
x R(t) x + c e(t), (10)
where c = a b and = b/(b a). In particular, if we have a circle of radius
n rolling inside a circle of radius n + 1 then c = 1 and = n. Observe that
< 0 if a > b. Now consider the motion of the curve (2),
X(, t) = R(t) x() +c e(t) = h() e( +t) +h

() f ( +t) +c e(t). (11)

We have a point on the envelope if and only if the velocity and the tangent
are parallel. The partial derivatives of X are
X

= (h() + h

()) f ( +t), (12)

X
t
= h() f ( + t) h

() e( + t) + c f (t). (13)
So we have a point on the envelope if and only if X/t is orthogonal to
e( +t), i.e., if and only if
0 =
X
t
e( + t) = h

() + csin( + t t) (14)
or
sin( + (1 )t) =
h

()
c
. (15)
We can solve this equation with respect to t and obtain the complete solution
t
,k
=
2k +
1
2
+ arcsin
_
h

()
c
_

1
, = 1, k Z. (16)
The value of k only matters in a few instances, so in the following we will just
write t

. Observe that
cos( + (1 )t

) = cos
_
1
2
+ arcsin
_
h

()
c
__
=

_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
.
(17)
8
The normal of the envelope X(, t

) is the normal of x() rotated through

the angle t

, i.e., it is e( +t

). So the normal direction of the envelope is

= + t

=
1
1
_
2k +
1
2
+ arcsin
_
h

()
c
_

_
, (18)
and the derivative with respect to is
d

d
=
h

() c
2
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
(1 )c
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
. (19)
The support function of the envelope is h

= X(, t

) e(

) which becomes
h

= h() + c cos(

) = h() + c

_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
. (20)
The rst derivative with respect to normal direction is
dh

= h

)
_
1
dt

_
c sin(

)
_
1
dt

_
= h

()
_
1
dt

_
c
h

()
c
_
1
dt

_
=
1

(), (21)
and the second derivative is
d
2
h

d
2

=
1

()
_
d

d
_
1
=
c(1 )
2
h

()
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
h

() + c
2
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
. (22)
If we interchange what is moving and what is xed and reverse the time
then we just have to interchange a and b. Then c is replaced with c and
with 1 . Making the appropriate modications to (18) we nd the normal
directions

,
= +
1

_
_
2 2k +

2
_
+ ( ) arcsin
_
h

()
c
__
. (23)
The support functions are
h
,
= h() + ( )c

_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
, (24)
9
and the rst and second derivative are
dh
,
d
,
= h

(), (25)
d
2
h
,
d
2
,
=
h

()c
2
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
( )h

() + c
2
_
1
_
h

()
c
_
2
. (26)
We collect the information in the following theorem
Theorem 2 Let a positively curved arc of the rotor have the support function
h() and let the motion be generated by a circle of radius n rolling inside
a circle of radius n + 1, where n N. Let

1
()
1
n + 1
(n arcsin(h

()/n)) ,

1
() =
1
n + 1
( + n + arcsin(h

()/n)) ,

1,1
() = +
1
n
( 2 arcsin(h

()/n)) ,
and
h
1
() = h() +
1
n
_
n
2
(h

())
2
,
h
1
() = h()
1
n
_
n
2
(h

())
2
,
h
1,1
() = h()
2
n
_
n
2
(h

())
2
.
Then the positively and negatively curved arcs of the rotor have the support
functions
h( + 2k/n), h
1,1
_

1
1,1
( + 2k/n)
_
, k = 0, . . . , n 1,
respectively, and the positively and negatively curved arcs of the stator have
the support functions
h
1
_

1
1
( + 2k/n)
_
, h
1
_

1
1
( + 2k/n)
_
, k = 0, . . . , n,
respectively. We can parametrise the arcs as
x() = h() e
_
+
2k
n
_
+ h

() f
_
+
2k
n
_
,
x
1,1
() = h
1,1
() e
_

1,1
() +
2k
n
_
+h

() f
_

1,1
() +
2k
n
_
,
x
1
() = h
1
() e
_

1
() +
2k
n+1
_
+
n + 1
n
h

() f
_

1
() +
2k
n+1
_
,
x
1
() = h
1
() e
_

1
() +
2k
n+1
_
+
n + 1
n
h

() f
_

1
() +
2k
n+1
_
.
10
A straightforward calculation shows that

=
_
h

c
_
1
_
h

c
_
2
_
2
h

c
2
_
1
_
h

c
_
2
, (27)

,
= 2
(h

)
2
+ c
2

2
(h

)
2
2ch

_
1
_
h

c
_
2
2h

c
2
_
1
_
h

c
_
2
. (28)
We will now analyse the situation at the endpoints of the arcs of the horizontal
sections of the pump.
Theorem 3 Consider a Moineau pump design where the horizontal sections
of both the stator and rotor consists of smooth arcs with alternating strictly
positive and strictly negative curvature in the interior. If the support function
of the positively curved arc of the rotor either has an expansion
h = h
0
+ h
1
(
0
) +
h
m
m!
(
0
)
m
+ O((
0
)
m+1
), (29)
where h
m
= 0, or an expansion
h = h
0
+ h
1
u
2
+
2h
3
3
u
3
+
h
4
2
u
4
+O(u
5
), (30)
where u
2
=
0
and h
3
= 0. Then there are points with innite curvature
in the design.
Proof. As the arcs of the stator, with support functions h
1
and h
1
respec-
tively, have to connect, the normal directions
1
and
1
have to agree at the
endpoints. Hence (h

)
2
= c
2

2
at the endpoints. By a rotation we may assume
that = 0 at the endpoint we consider.
First we consider the case (29). If m = 2 then it is easily seen that

=
h
2
2
+ O(
1/2
)
h
2
+ O(
1/2
)
h
2
= h
0
, for 0. (31)
If m 4 then we have

=
c
2

2 2h
m
h
1
(m1)!

m1
+ O(
m+1
)
c
2
_
2h
m
h
1
(m1)!

m1
2
+ O
_

m+1
2
_
, for 0. (32)
11
If m = 3 and h
3
=
2
h
1
then we have

=
_
h
3
c
_
h
3
/h
1
_
2

2
+ O(
3
)
_
h
3
c
2
_
h
3
/h
1
_
+ O(
2
)
, for 0. (33)
Finally, if m = 3 and h
3
=
2
h
1
then we obtain

1,1
= +
(
2
1)
4
c
2

2
+ O(
3
)

2
h
1
+ O(
2
)
, for 0. (34)
We now consider the case (30). As
d
du
= 2u
d
d
we have
dh
d
= h
1
+ h
3
u + h
4
u
2
+ O(u
3
) and
d
2
h
d
2
= h
3
1
u
+ h
4
+O(u).
Substituting this into (27) yields

= h
0
+ O(u) h
0
, for u 0. (35)
As
1
0 and
1
0, we can conclude that
1
=
1
= 0 at the endpoint of
the arcs of the stator in the cases (31), (32), (33), and (35). Similar 0 and

1,1
0 so in the case (34) we have
1,1
= = 0 at the endpoint of arcs of
the rotor. In all cases the design has points of innite curvature. 2
4.1 Examples
We will consider a deformation of the 3:2 hypo-epi-cycloid design. We let c = 1
and = 2. An epi-cycloid arc of the rotor has the support function
h() = 3 cos
_
2
3
_
, h

() = 2 sin
_
2
3
_
, h

() =
4
3
cos
_
2
3
_
,
with
_

4
3
,
4
3
_
. If we preserve the values of h, h

, and h

at the endpoints
then we consider deformations h + , where
:
_

4
3
,
4
3
_
R, with
_

4
3
_
=

4
3
_
=

4
3
_
= 0.
One possibility is
() = cos
3
_
2
3
__
a
0
+
N

=1
_
a

cos

_
2
3
_
+b

sin

_
2
3
___
.
See Figure 6 for a few examples of such deformations.
12
5
4
3
2
1
0
1
2 1 1 2
6
4
2
2
2 1 1 2
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
2 1 1 2
(a
0
, b
1
) =
_
1
8
, 0
_
(a
0
, b
1
) =
_

1
2
, 0
_
(a
0
, b
1
) =
_
0,
1
6
_
Fig. 6. Below new designs of a Moineau pump. Above the radius of curvature of the
arcs of the stator and the arcs of the rotor are shown with solid and dotted lines
respectively.
5 Conclusion
The support function representation of planar curves are used to dene and
analyse designs of Moineau pumps. In particular, it is proved that if the rotor
and stator consists of alternating arcs with positive and negative curvature
then it is impossible to avoid points with innite curvature in the design.
It is an open problem whether the inclusion of straight lines in the design allows
for other curvature bounded designs than the 2:1 hypo-cycloid construction
in Figure 1.
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to the participants in ESGI 57 for valuable discussions on the
Moineau pump. I will in particular thank Helge Grann and Troels Jepsen from
Grundfos who brought the Moineau pump to the study group.
References
[1] Almegaard, H., Bager, A., Gravesen, J., J uttler, B., and

Sr, Z., Surfaces
with Piecewise Linear Support Functions over Spherical Triangulations, in
13
Mathematics of surfaces XII (Ralph Martin, Malcolm Sabin, Joab Winkler,
eds.), Springer Verlag, 2007, pp. 4263.
[2] Bonnesen, T. and Fenchel, W., Theory of convex bodies. BCS Associates,
Moscow, Idaho, 1987.
[3] Gravesen, J. and Henriksen, C., The geometry of the scroll compressor, SIAM
Review 43, 113126 (2001).
[4] Gravesen, J., The Intrinsic Equation of Planar Curves and G
2
Hermite
Interpolation. In Seattle Geometric Design Proceedings (Miriam Lucian and
Mike Neamtu eds.) Nashboro Press, 2004, pp. 295310.
[5] Gravesen, J., Surfaces parametrised by the normals, Computing 79, 175183
(2007).
[6] Gravesen, J. et al., Mathematical problems for Moineau pumps, 2006, in Final
report for the 57th European Study Group with Industry, http://www2.mat.
dtu.dk/ESGI/57/report/grundfos.pdf
[7] Gravesen, J., J uttler, B., and

Sr, Z., Approximating Osets of Surfaces by using
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ECMI 2006 (Bonilla, L.L.; Moscoso, M.; Platero, G.; Vega, J.M. Eds.) Springer
Verlag, 2007, pp. 719723.
[8] Gravesen, J., The Moineau Pump, Technical University of Denmark, 2007,
http://www2.mat.dtu.dk/people/J.Gravesen/MoineauPump/
[9] Gravesen, J., Spherical curves for the design of conical Moineau pumps, SIAM
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uio.no/siag/problems/gravesen/
[10] Gravesen, J., J uttler, B., and

Sr, Z., On rationally supported surfaces, Comp.
Aided Geom. Design, to appear.
[11] R. J. L. Moineau, Gear Mechanism, US-Patent no. 1 892 217, 1931.
[12] Sabin, M., A Class of Surfaces Closed under Five Important Geometric
Operations, Technical report VTO/MS/207, British aircraft corporation, 1974,
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/na/people/Malcolm/vtoms/vtos.html
[13]

Sr, Z., Gravesen, J., and J uttler, B., Computing Minkowski sums via Support
Function Representation, in Curve and Surface Design: Avignon 2006, (Patric
Chenin, Tom Lyche, and Larry Schumaker eds.) Nashboro Press, Brentwood
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Sr, Z., Gravesen, J., and J uttler, B., Curves and surfaces represented by
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14