The effect of blade geometry on the performance of an automotive torque converter

The performance characteristics of a torque converter strongly depends on the blade geometry, which directly affects its torque ratio and input capacity factor. The present study developed a program that designs a blade system and analyzes its performance characteristics. Using the design and analysis program, TorconMaster\sR, several blade systems were newly generated and compared their performance characteristic with reference blade system. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of the blade geometry on the performance of a torque converter. As analysis tools, one-dimensional performance analysis were used for sensitivity analysis, where a full three- dimensional flow computation was used for investigation of three-dimensional blade geometry on performance. The analytical and numerical results obtained a refined relationship between geometry and performance. Furthermore, the results can also be used as reference data for performance enhancement in the design process of torque converter blades.