A study on internal flow field of automotive torque converter - three-dimensional flow analysis around a stator cascade of automotive torque converter by using PIV and CT techniques

The internal flow field around the stator of an automotive torque converter is investigated experimentally in this study by using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The objective of this investigation is to understand the flow field around the stator that plays an important role in enhancing the characteristics of the torque converter performance. Computerized tomography (CT) technique was applied to analyse the three-dimensional flow field using a series of two-dimensional PIV results obtained from two orthogonal directions. The three-dimensional data obtained in this study is utilized to improve the performance of the torque converter through the optimal design of the stator. The experimental results obtained in this way can be used to validate the accuracy of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science BN.