scholarly journals A Study of the Flow of the Torque Converter Stator Blade.

1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 668-672
Author(s):  
Masatoshi YAMADA ◽  
Hisashi WATANABE ◽  
Masanobu KIMURA
1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 634-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. V. Marathe ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana ◽  
D. G. Maddock

The stator flow field of an automotive torque converter is highly unsteady due to potential and viscous interactions with upstream and downstream rotors. The objective of this investigation is to understand the influence of potential and viscous interactions of the upstream rotor on the stator surface pressure field with a view toward improvement of the stator design. Five miniature fast-response pressure transducers were embedded on the stator blade. The measurements were conducted at three locations near the leading edge and two locations near the trailing edge at the midspan location. The upstream flow field was measured using a fast response five-hole probe and is described in Part I of this paper. The experimental data were processed in the frequency domain by spectrum analysis and in the temporal-spatial domain by the ensemble-averaging technique. The flow properties were resolved into mean, periodic, aperiodic, and unresolved components. The unsteady amplitudes agreed well with the pressure envelope predicted by panel methods. The aperiodic component was found to be significant due to the rotor–rotor and rotor–stator interactions observed in multistage, multispool environment.


Author(s):  
B. V. Marathe ◽  
B. Lakshminarayana ◽  
Donald G. Maddock

The stator flow field of an automotive torque converter is highly unsteady due to potential and viscous interactions with upstream and downstream rotors. The objective of this investigation is to understand the influence of potential and viscous interactions of the upstream rotor on the stator surface pressure field with a view towards improvement of the stator design. Five miniature fast-response pressure transducers were embedded on the stator blade. The measurements were conducted at three locations near the leading edge and two locations near the trailing edge at the mid-span location. Upstream flow field was measured using a fast response five-hole probe and is described in the first part of this paper. The experimental data were processed in the frequency domain by spectrum analysis and in temporal-spatial domain by the ensemble averaging technique. The flow properties were resolved into mean, periodic, aperiodic and unresolved components. The unsteady amplitudes agreed well with the pressure envelope predicted by panel methods. Aperiodic component was found to be significant due to the rotor-rotor and rotor-stator interactions observed in multistage, multi-spool environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Boshen Liu ◽  
Lu Tan ◽  
Jin Li

Abstract An experimental investigation was performed to characterize the influence of pump rotation speed on the hydrodynamic performance and the associated unsteady pressure on the stator blade pressure-surface in a torque converter. High-resolution miniature transducers were used to obtain the signature of the pressure pulsation at specific surface locations. Results show that the increase of the pump rotation speed can enhance the torque capacity of the stator, leading to a higher torque ratio in the low speed ratio range and an improvement of the highest transmission efficiency. The efficiency increase rate starts to reduce at approximately SR = 0.4, corresponding to where the stator capacity reaches the maximum and exhibits a uniform distribution of the pressure pulsation intensity. The spectral decomposition of the pulsating pressure reveals the existence of two dominating frequencies, which corresponds to the upstream pump turbine interaction and the downstream pump blade passing. Higher pump speeds enhance the pump turbine interaction and results in a more regular pressure pulsation, improving the hydrodynamic performance of the torque converter.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-235
Author(s):  
Maotao Zhu ◽  
Na Li ◽  
Songlin He

The performance of a flattened hydraulic torque converter is optimized with orthogonal experiment and response surface method, considering parameters of its stator blade, defined with nonuniform rotational B-splines. The optimization model, with maximum of the stalling torque ratio as an objective, is determined through an external characteristic statistical analysis under the new European Driving Cycle condition. The optimization results show that the stall torque ratio is increased by 10.83%, while the highest efficiency is above 84%.


Author(s):  
Cheng Liu ◽  
Wei Wei ◽  
Qingdong Yan ◽  
Brian K. Weaver ◽  
Houston G. Wood

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the transient cavitation process in torque converters with a particular focus on cavitation suppression with a passive flow control technique. Design/methodology/approach The transient fluid field in a torque converter was simulated by RANS-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a full three-dimensional (3D) model. A homogeneous Rayleigh–Plesset cavitation model was used to simulate the transient cavitation process and the results were validated with test data. Various secondary flow passages (SFP) were applied to the stator blade. The cavitation behavior and hydrodynamic performance were simulated and compared to investigate the effect of SFP geometries on cavitation suppression. Findings Presented results show that cavitation in the torque converter is highly unstable at stall operating condition because of the combination of a high incidence angle and high flow velocity. The addition of an SFP to the stator blade produces a disruption of the re-entrant jet and reduces the overall degree of cavitation, consequently inhibiting the unstable cavitation and reducing performance degradation. Originality/value This paper provides unique insights into the complicated transient cavitation flow patterns found in torque converters and introduces effective passive flow control techniques useful to researchers and engineers in the areas of fluid dynamics and turbomachinery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng Liu ◽  
Wei Wei ◽  
Qingdong Yan ◽  
Brian K. Weaver ◽  
Houston G. Wood

Cavitation in torque converters may cause degradation in hydrodynamic performance, severe noise, or even blade damage. Researches have highlighted that the stator is most susceptible to the occurrence of cavitation due to the combination of high flow velocities and high incidence angles. The objective of this study is to therefore investigate the effects of cavitation on hydrodynamic performance as well as the influence of stator blade geometry on cavitation. A steady-state homogeneous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed and validated against test data. It was found that cavitation brought severe capacity constant degradation under low-speed ratio (SR) operating conditions and vanished in high-speed ratio operating conditions. A design of experiments (DOE) study was performed to investigate the influence of stator design variables on cavitation over various operating conditions, and it was found that stator blade geometry had a significant effect on cavitation behavior. The results show that stator blade count and leaning angle are important variables in terms of capacity constant loss, torque ratio (TR) variance, and duration of cavitation. Large leaning angles are recommended due to their ability to increase the cavitation number in torque converters over a wide range of SRs, leading to less stall capacity loss as well as a shorter duration of cavitation. A reduced stator blade count is also suggested due to a reduced TR loss and capacity loss at stall.


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