Flow Visualization and Measurement of Torque Converter Stator Blades Using a Laser Sheet Lighting Method and a Laser Doppler Velocimeter

970680

02/24/1997

Event
SAE International Congress and Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
A new experimental apparatus to visualize and measure the flow in the stator of a torque converter is proposed. A one-sided coaxial shaft constructed of an input shaft and an output shaft provides an open space inside the stator shaft for measurement. Through the window on the stator shaft, the flow in the stator can be directly observed. We also improved the laser sheet lighting method into the blade passage by using a mirror inside the blade.
By visualizing the flow with the laser sheet lighting method, we found that the flow around the leading edge has different separation regions along the blade span. Furthermore, by using a laser doppler velocimeter, velocity vectors and turbulence intensities were measured in three stator blades of different thicknesses with the same camber line. The thickness of the stator blades affects the flow patterns. Both the outlet flow rate and the average outlet flow angle show similar characteristics to the torque capacity coefficient when the stator blade thickness is altered. We have verified that the general flow characteristics are determined by the outlet flow rate, and are emphasized by the average outlet flow angle.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/970680
Pages
13
Citation
Watanabe, H., Kurahashi, T., and Kojima, M., "Flow Visualization and Measurement of Torque Converter Stator Blades Using a Laser Sheet Lighting Method and a Laser Doppler Velocimeter," SAE Technical Paper 970680, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/970680.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 24, 1997
Product Code
970680
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English