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of an Automotive Torque
E. Ejiri
Senior Researcher. Converter on Hydrodynamic
M. Kubo
Performance
Research Engineer.
Automotive torque converters have recently been designed with an increasingly narrower
Nissan Research Center, profile for the purpose of achieving a smaller axial size, which also translates into weight
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., savings. Four torque converters with different flatness ratios were manufactured and
1, Natsushima-cho, Yokosui<a-shi 237-8523, tested in order to evaluate the change in their overall performance, including efficiency,
Japan, stall torque ratio and torque transmission capacity. The experimental results show that the
e-mail: e-ejiri@nnall,nissan.co.jp overall performance deteriorates when the flatness ratio is reduced to less than about 0.2.
The internal flow characteristics of the torque converters were also investigated by
numerical analysis using a CFD code. The computational results indicate that the main
cause of this performance deterioration is a reduction in pump efficiency, which is
attributed to increases in shock loss in the inlet region, separation loss in the fore half
region, and friction loss in the exit region.
614 / Vol. 121, SEPTEMBER 1999 Copyright © 1999 by ASME Transactions of the ASIUIE
Turbine^
Stator sure source as the working fluid and controlled so that the inlet
pressure was 392 kPaG, the outlet pressure 196 kPaG and the exit
temperature 80 ± 1 °C for the torque converter.
Experimental Uncertainty. The input and output torque were
obtained by compensating for mechanical losses in the bearings,
the oil seals and the other frictional parts (measured beforehand),
disk friction loss between the turbine impeller and the cover, and
windage loss (using empirical formulae). Leakage flow was not
compensated for either between the elements (within the core) or
between an element and the external flow field. The former was
Fig. 1 Dimensions In torus cross section estimated as less than 1 percent and the latter as less than 0.1
percent of the circulatory flow according to our LDV measure-
ments. Both the uncertainty of the torque and that of the rotational
area would be as constant as possible. As indicated in Fig. 1, d/D speed measured with the instruments used in the experiment were
had a constant value of 0.417 and the stator axial length, Ls, was estimated at 0.05 percent. Therefore, the uncertainty of the calcu-
proportional to the torque converter axial length, L. lated efficiency, torque ratio, and torque capacity coefficient was
Two different pump impellers, one with a forward exit blade estimated at 0.2, 0.1, and 0.15 percent, respectively.
angle (referred to as a high-efficiency type) and the other with a
backward angle (referred to as a high-stall-torque-ratio type), were
manufactured for each type of torque converter. The high-stall- Numerical Flow Analysis
torque-ratio types are mentioned here only to confirm the consis-
tency of our conventional experimental data and are not discussed Computational Method. Viscous calculations were per-
in detail in this paper. Their inlet and exit blade angles on the formed by using a general flow analysis code which employs a
design path, a curve that bisects the flow passage cross-sectional finite volume method of discretization. Three-dimensional incom-
area, are shown in Table 2. The blade angle is defined as an angle pressible time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were solved with
from the meridional plane. The minus sign in the table indicates the code. A standard k-e model (Launder et al,, 1974) was used for
the rotational direction of the impellers. The blade angle was turbulence closure modeling. In discretizing the convection terms
designed at a speed ratio of 0.7 and was constant from the shell to of the equations, the QUICK scheme (Leonard, 1979), a third-
the core at the inlet and the exit. The blade angle distribution from order upwind differencing scheme, was used to obtain a stable
the inlet to the exit in the pump and turbine was defined so that the solution while suppressing numerical diffusion. The SIMPLE al-
angular momentum change would be constant along the design gorithm (Patankar et al., 1972) was employed to solve the alge-
path except near the exit. The pump had 31 blades which were 1.0 braic finite-volume equations resulting from the discretization op-
mm in thickness and the turbine had 29 blades which were 0.8 mm eration.
in thickness. To represent the complex geometry of the hydrodynamic ele-
ments accurately and distribute the computational meshes in an
Experimental Apparatus and Procedure. The input and appropriate fashion, an in-house mesh generation program was
output shafts of the torque converter were connected to DC dyna- used. Mesh-point clustering was performed near the boundary and
mometers, with tachometers and torquemeters installed in be- cell deformity was checked with the program. The computational
tween. These dynamometers were controlled so that the input grid is given in Fig. 2 where one blade passage is shown for each
torque was a constant 98 Nm at a given speed ratio. An ordinary element to illustrate the grid distribution in the computational field
automatic transmission fluid was provided from an external pres- when about 68,000 grid cells in total were used. Leakage between
Nomenclature
E = specific energy ( = wrVo) t = torque ratio { = TJTd c = circulatory component (a direc-
e = speed ratio (-Ni/Ni) V = absolute velocity tion perpendicular to the com-
I = rothalpy (=P/p + 1/2 W' - 1/2 W = relative velocity putation mesh line from the
T/ = efficiency shell to the core in the meridi-
i =
incidence angle p = density onal plane)
N =
rotational speed T = torque capacity coefficient (= T,/ 0.8 = speed ratio of 0.8
P =
static pressure 5 = stall point (speed ratio of 0)
PT =
total pressure ft) = angular velocity 6 = peripheral component
r =
radius (i,j) 1 = 1: pump
s =
distance along the design path (a Subscripts = 2: turbine
curve that bisects the passage 0 = reference position (design path posi- = 3: stator
cross-sectional area in the meridi- tion at pump exit) j = 1: inlet
onal plane), starting from the up- 1 = pump = 2: exit
stream boundary and ending at the 2 = turbine
downstream boundary of the com- Superscript
3 = stator
putation domain of an element * = nondimensional or normaUzed
T = torque
the elements and also between an element and the external flow
field was disregarded.
The wall function for the velocity vector was used to reduce the
grid points near the wall. A cyclic boundary condition was im-
posed on both peripheral boundaries outside a blade passage.
Computations were performed for one element after another along 5 10 15 20 25
/xlO* )
the flow direction in a manner where either the velocity or the Total grid cell number ^ '
pressure was given as the inlet and exit boundary condition of each
element, as shown in Fig. 3. For example, the pump flow was Fig. 4 Grid number dependence of solution
computed with the given inlet and exit pressures that had been
obtained in the previous iteration inside the turbine and the stator.
The turbine flow was computed with the given inlet velocity and The solution was assumed to have converged when all the
the exit pressure, and the stator flow with the given inlet and exit normalized residuals in mass and momentum conservation equa-
velocities. This manner of imposing boundary conditions signifi-
tions were less than 10"' and the rate of change in the mass flow
cantly reduced the CPU time required for convergence without
rate in two consecutive circulatory iterations was less than 10"\
sacrificing computational stability, compared with the conven-
Typically, nearly 1000 circulatory iterations and about 12 hours of
tional manner where the inlet velocity and the exit pressure were
CPU time were required to obtain a converged solution on a 250
applied to all three elements. Computed pressures and velocities in
each iteration were averaged circumferentially, transferred to the MHz workstation for 166,800 grid cells in total.
adjacent element and used as the boundary condition of the next Computational Uncertainty. Several types of grid systems
iteration. The pressure at the core of the pump inlet was reset to were used to evaluate the grid number dependence of the compu-
zero and all the other pressures were adjusted accordingly in tational results of the circular-type torque converter that was
computing the pump flow in each circulatory iteration. experimentally investigated by Ejiri et al. (1997). Figure 4 shows
the grid number dependence of the solution in terms of the element
efficiencies. The comparison suggests that a grid-independent so-
lution was obtained with more than about 170,000 grid cells in
total.
The standard k-e model and the wall function, both of which are
based on high Reynolds number flow, were used in the relatively
low Reynolds number turbulent flow in the torque converter. The
Reynolds number based on the passage height and the average
circulatory velocity at the pump exit was about 7 X 10\ This was
one source of prediction error. Observe the difference between the
computed and the measured circulatory velocity profiles at the
pump exit (Ejiri, et al., 1997). Another source of prediction error
originated from the transfer of the properties, such as pressure and
velocity, at the interface boundary between any two elements. The
properties were averaged both in time and space (circumferen-
tially) at the boundary, which means numerical diffusion occurred
* jH'M N=68,000 there. Note that the QUICK scheme almost always gave a more
accurate solution than the first-order upwinding for convection
terms in the Navier-Stokes equations at the cost of more CPU time.
Fig. 2 Computational grid Uncertainties with these errata were not separately estimated in
an exact manner here, however, the overall uncertainty was esti-
mated at around ±5 percent in efficiency and torque ratio, and at
±10 percent in torque capacity at a speed ratio of 0.8 from our
previous experience. Figure 5 compares the measured and com-
puted overall performance for the torque converter. Efficiency
tended to be overestimated and torque capacity tended to be
underestimated in the higher speed ratio range of interest (e =
0.6-0.8).
the normalized values of rjog and Tog that were obtained by using
50 the corresponding values for the Type 1 unit with a forward lean
pump impeller. The lines indicated in this figure are equipotential
performance lines the gradients of which were obtained empiri-
25
cally on the basis of our extensive experiments. Similar lines can
be derived from data reported in the literature (Jandasek, 1955).
The relation of t, - rjo.g is shown on the left side and the
efficiency potential increases in the upper right direction. Shown
on the right side is the relation of t, - 7*8 and the torque capacity
Fig. 5 Overall performance of torque converter potential increases in the same direction. The figure indicates the
Type 1 to Type 3 units have almost the same performance poten-
tial. However, it is clearly seen that Type 4 shows a significant
The following relation then holds true between the overall deterioration in its performance potential. The rotational speeds of
efficiency TJ and ii,, rja and TJJ, as the overall efficiency is defined the test pumps and turbines at e = 0.8 are shown in Table 3 for
as the ratio of output power to input power, and Pna = PT2.\, reference.
PT2,2 ~ Pn.U 'lid PT-3,2 ~ PT[,1'
Calculation Results. Calculations were performed with
(4) 166,800 grid cells (26 X 30 X 80: pitch X span X longitude for
Rothalpy, /, is defined as
I = Plp+ 1/2W^- l/2(/^ (5)
and the loss that occurs can be evaluated by this property. The
change in rothalpy from the element inlet, A/, is non-
dimensionalized by the change in the theoretical specific energy
from the inlet to the exit, Aii, as follows.
(A/)* = ^II^E (6)
If the pump is taken as an example, the following equations hold
true for the pump exit position.
A£, = [/,,2n,,2- C/,,,V9i,,(>0) (7)
( A / , , 2 ) * = T), - 1 (8)
0.2 0.3
Results and Discussions
Flatness ratio
Experimental Results. The measured overall performance of
the test torque converters is summarized in Fig. 6 in terms of the Fig. 7(a) Overall efficiency
stall torque ratio, t„ efficiency at e = 0.8, TJ*,,- and torque
capacity coefficient at e = 0.8, r^g. In this figure, 19*8 and TM are
O : Type 1
A : Type 2
A O : Type 3
.. Q D ; Type 4
Nondimensional distance
Shell
Shell
Type 2
m/s
Fig. 13 Circulatory velocity at s* = 0.6 in pump at e = 0.8 Fig. 15 Circulatory velocity at s* = 0.8 in pump at e = 0.8
Nondimensional distance
Shell
Shell
Type 2
m/s
Fig. 13 Circulatory velocity at s* = 0.6 in pump at e = 0.8 Fig. 15 Circulatory velocity at s* = 0.8 in pump at e = 0.8