Effects of Number of Stator Blades on the Performance of a Torque Converter

Abstract

Torque converter (TC) is a totally enclosed hydrodynamic turbomachine, used most often in automobiles for the smooth transfer of power and speed change from the engine to the transmission, and torque magnification. A typical TC has 3 major components: a pump that is attached directly to the TC cover and connected to the engine shaft, a turbine connected to the transmission shaft, and a stator connected to the transmission housing via a one-way clutch and providing guidance for the fluid flow. In this work, effects of the number of stator blades on the performance of a TC are investigated numerically, using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package. The standard k-epsilon turbulence model was used. A Newtonian fluid whose properties correspond to industrial oil was used for the working fluid. The range of speed ratio (between turbine’s speed and pump’s) of 0.2–0.8 was considered. It was found that as the stator blades’ number increases (here from 13 to 19), the TC’s efficiency and torque ratio vary significantly, passing through minimum and generally also reaching a maximum.