Performance Improvement Using a Slotted Stator of an Automotive Torque Converter 2003-01-0247

This article discusses the application of a newly slotted reactor blade to enhance the performance characteristic of a torque converter over a range of speed ratio. A parametric study was conducted using numerical analysis. Throughout the study, an emphasis was placed on a flow control that would result in the decrease of flow separation while also increasing the input capacity factor. Using a previously developed design software, TorconMaster^®, several slotted-reactor blades were newly generated with varying slot angles and mounting locations. The present numerical analysis considered the details of the full three-dimensional, viscous and turbulent flow field within the automotive torque converter adopting a mixing plane model and showed good agreement with the experimental results. The slotted reactor blade can increase the input capacity factor more than 15% compared to the value of the reference blade. Therefore, the slotted reactor blade can be used for enhancing the performance of the torque converter. The numerical results showed that the slot reduced the flow separation and retarded the location of the flow separation to the downstream of the slot.