830571 An Experimental Analysis ©f Fluid Flow in a Torque Converter Akio Numazawa, Fumihiro Ushijima, and Kagenori Fukumura Toyota Motor Corp. (Japan) Tomo-o Ishihara Univ. of Tokyo (Japan) International Congress & Exposition Detroit, Michigan February 28 - March 4, 1983 Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Sunday, August 26, 2018The appearance of the code at the bottom of the first page of this paper indicates SAE's consent that copies of the paper may be made for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific clients. This consent is given on the con­ dition, however, that the copier pay the stated per article copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., Operations Center, 21 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970 for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collec­ tive works, or for resale. Papers published prior to 1978 may also be copied at a per paper fee of $2.50 under the above stated conditions. SAE routinely stocks printed papers for a period of three years following date of publication. Direct your orders to SAE Order Department. To obtain quantity reprint rates, permission to reprint a technical paper or per­ mission to use copyrighted SAE publications in other works, contact the SAE Publica­ tions Division. ISSN 0146-7191 Copyright 1983 Society of Automotive Engineers, inc. This paper is subject to revision. Statements and opinions ad­ vanced in papers or discussion are the author's and are his responsibility, not SAE's; however, the paper has been edited by SAE for uniform styling and format. Discussion will be printed with the paper if it is published in SAE Transactions. For permission to publish this paper in full or in part, contact the SAE Publications Division. Persons wishing to submit papers to be considered for pre­ sentation or publication through SAE should send the manu­ script or a 300 word abstract of a proposed manuscript to: Secretary, Engineering Activity Board, SAE. Printed in U.S.A. Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Sunday, August 26, 2018830571 An Experimental Analysis ©f Fluid Flow in a Torque Converter Akio Numazawa, Fumihiro Ushijima, Tomo-o Ishihara and Kagenori Fukumura Univ. of Tokyo (Japan) Toyota Motor Corp. (Japan) ABSTRACT Theoretical analysis of the fluid flow in a torque converter is not easy because it is a three-dimensional and very complicated problem. A new flow visualization method applicable to oil flow, namely a liquid- resin film method, was developed to observe the fluid flow in a torque converter. The existence of cross, swirl, reverse and separated flow in torque converters was made clear by this method, and it was clarified that the existence of these kinds of flow resulted in depressing torque converter efficiency. Additionally, the flow pattern in a torque converter was predicted theoreti­ cally by estimating the pressure distribution in it. An elliptical torque converter with high efficiency was developed by flow visualization and theoretical consider­ ation. IT IS IMPORTANT to increase torque converter efficiency for the improvement of the fuel economy of vehicles with automatic transmissions. As torque con­ verter efficiency depends on the flow condition in the converter circuit, it is required to clarify the relationship between the flow condition and the torus and blade profiles. A theoretical analy­ sis of the fluid flow in a torque con­ verter is not easy because it is three- dimensional and very complicated. Therefore, an experimental study of the fluid flow in a torque converter is re­ quired using the flow visualization technique. Several papers have been written on the flow visualization of a torque con­ verter using