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A fluid coupling or hydraulic coupling is a hydrodynamics or 'hydrokinetic' device used to transmit rotating mechanical power. Fluid coupling encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com It has been used in automobile transmissions as an alternative to a mechanical clutch. It also has widespread application in marine and industrial machine drives, where variable speed operation and controlled start-up without shock loading of the power transmission system is essential.
Hydrokinetic drives, such as this, should be distinguished from hydrostatic drives, such as hydraulic pump and hydraulic motor combinations.
Dr Gustav Bauer of the Vulcan-Werke collaborated with English engineer Harold Sinclair of Hydraulic Coupling Patents Limited to adapt the Föttinger coupling to vehicle transmission in an attempt to mitigate the lurching Sinclair had experienced while riding on London buses during the 1920s Following Sinclair's discussions with the London General Omnibus Company begun in October 1926, and trials on an Associated Daimler bus chassis, Percy Martin of Daimler decided to apply the principle to the Daimler group's private cars.
During 1930 Daimler Company began to introduce a transmission system using a fluid coupling and Wilson self-changing gearbox for buses and their flagship cars. By 1933 the system was used in all new Daimler, Lanchester and BSA vehicles produced by the group from heavy commercial vehicles to small cars. It was soon extended to Daimler's military vehicles and in 1934 was featured in the Singer Eleven branded as Fluidrive. These couplings are described as constructed under Vulcan-Sinclair and Daimler patents.
In 1939 General Motors introduced hydramatic, the first fully automatic automotive transmission system installed in a mass-produced automobile. The Hydramatic employed a fluid coupling.
The first diesel locomotives using fluid couplings were also produced in the 1930s.
The driving turbine, known as the 'pump', (or driving torus) is rotated by the Engine, which is typically an internal combustion engine or electric motor. The impeller's motion imparts both outwards linear and rotational motion to the fluid.
The hydraulic fluid is directed by the 'pump' whose shape forces the flow in the direction of the 'output turbine' (or driven torus). Here, any difference in the angular velocities of 'input stage' and 'output stage' result in a net force on the 'output turbine' causing a torque; thus causing it to rotate in the same direction as the pump.
The motion of the fluid is effectively - travelling in one direction on paths that can be visualised as being on the surface of a torus:
The STC coupling contains a reservoir to which some, but not all, of the oil gravitates when the output shaft is stalled. This reduces the "drag" on the input shaft, resulting in reduced fuel consumption when idling and a reduction in the vehicle's tendency to "creep".
When the output shaft begins to rotate, the oil is thrown out of the reservoir by centrifugal force, and returns to the main body of the coupling, so that normal power transmission is restored.
If a coupling is deliberately designed to operate safely when under-filled, usually by providing an ample fluid reservoir which is not engaged with the impeller, then controlling its fill level may be used to control the torque which it can transmit, and in some cases to also control the speed of a load.
Controlling the fill level is done with a 'scoop', a non-rotating pipe which enters the rotating coupling through a central, fixed hub. By moving this scoop, either rotating it or extending it, it scoops up fluid from the coupling and returns it to a holding tank outside the coupling. The oil may be pumped back into the coupling when needed, or some designs use a gravity feed - the scoop's action is enough to lift fluid into this holding tank, powered by the coupling's rotation.
Scoop control can be used for easily managed and stepless control of the transmission of very large torques. The Fell locomotive, a British experimental diesel railway locomotive of the 1950s, used four engines and four couplings, each with independent scoop control, to engage each engine in turn. It is commonly used to provide variable speed drives. Variable Speed Fluid Drives for Pumps
In automotive applications, the pump typically is connected to the flywheel of the engine—in fact, the coupling's enclosure may be part of the flywheel proper, and thus is turned by the engine's crankshaft. The turbine is connected to the input shaft of the transmission. While the transmission is in gear, as engine speed increases, torque is transferred from the engine to the input shaft by the motion of the fluid, propelling the vehicle. In this regard, the behaviour of the fluid coupling strongly resembles that of a mechanical clutch driving a manual transmission.
Fluid flywheels, as distinct from torque converters, are best known for their use in Daimler Company cars in conjunction with a Wilson pre-selector gearbox. Daimler used these throughout their range of luxury cars, until switching to automatic gearboxes with the 1958 Daimler Majestic. Daimler and Alvis Cars were both also known for their military vehicles and armoured cars, some of which also used the combination of pre-selector gearbox and fluid flywheel.
Manufacturers of industrial fluid couplings include Voith, Voith: Fluid Coulings, voith.com Transfluid, Transfluid: Fluid couplings, transfluid.eu TwinDisc, TwinDisc: Fluid couplings , twindisc.com Siemens, Siemens: Hydrodynamic couplings , automation.siemens.com Parag, Fluidomat, Fluidomat fluidomat.com Reuland Electric and TRI Transmission and Bearing Corp. TRI Transmission and Bearing Corp turboresearch.com
This is not an exhaustive list but is intended to give an idea of the development of fluid couplings in the 20th century.
Overview
A fluid coupling consists of three components, plus the hydraulic fluid:
Stall speed
An important characteristic of a fluid coupling is its stall speed. The stall speed is defined as the highest speed at which the pump can turn when the output turbine is locked and full input torque (at the stall speed) is applied. Under stall conditions all of the engine's power at that speed would be dissipated in the fluid coupling as heat, possibly leading to damage.
Step-circuit coupling
A modification to the simple fluid coupling is the step-circuit coupling which was formerly manufactured as the "STC coupling" by the Fluidrive Engineering Company.
Slip
A fluid coupling cannot develop output torque when the input and output angular velocities are identical. Why is the output speed of a turbo coupling always lower than the input speed? voithturbo.com from Voith - Fluid couplings FAQ Hence, a fluid coupling cannot achieve 100 percent power transmission efficiency. Due to slippage that will occur in any fluid coupling under load, some power will always be lost in fluid friction and turbulence, and dissipated as heat. Like other fluid dynamical devices, its efficiency tends to increase gradually with increasing scale, as measured by the Reynolds number.
Hydraulic fluid
As a fluid coupling operates kinetically, low-viscosity fluids are preferred. Generally speaking, multi-grade or automatic transmission fluids are used. Increasing density of the fluid increases the amount of torque that can be transmitted at a given input speed. Does the type of operating fluid influence the transmission behaviour? voithturbo.com from Voith - Fluid couplings FAQ However, hydraulic fluids, much like other fluids, are subject to changes in viscosity with temperature change. This leads to a change in transmission performance and so where unwanted performance/efficiency change has to be kept to a minimum, a motor oil or automatic transmission fluid with a high viscosity index should be used.
Hydrodynamic braking
Fluid couplings can also act as hydrodynamic brakes, dissipating rotational energy as heat through frictional forces (both viscous and fluid/container). When a fluid coupling is used for braking it is also known as a retarder. Fluid couplings glossary voithturbo.com
Scoop control
Correct operation of a fluid coupling depends on it being correctly filled with fluid. An under-filled coupling will be unable to transmit the full torque, and the limited fluid volume is also likely to overheat, often with damage to the seals.
Applications
Industrial
Fluid couplings are used in many industrial application involving rotational power, Industry/Sector Industrial and other uses of fluid couplings voithturbo.com Process Uses of fluid coupling by process voithturbo.com especially in machine drives that involve high-inertia starts or constant cyclic loading.
Rail transportation
Fluid couplings are found in some Diesel locomotives as part of the power transmission system. Self-Changing Gears made semi-automatic transmissions for British Rail, and Voith manufacture turbo-transmissions for diesel multiple units which contain various combinations of fluid couplings and torque converters.
Automotive
Fluid couplings were used in a variety of early semi-automatic transmissions and automatic transmissions. Since the late 1940s, the torque converter has replaced the fluid coupling in automotive applications.
Aviation
The most prominent use of fluid couplings in aeronautical applications was in the DB 601, DB 603 and DB 605 engines where it was used as a barometrically controlled hydraulic clutch for the centrifugal compressor and the Wright turbo-compound reciprocating engine, in which three power recovery turbines extracted approximately 20 percent of the energy or about from the engine's exhaust gases and then, using three fluid couplings and gearing, converted low-torque high-speed turbine rotation to low-speed, high-torque output to drive the propeller.
Calculations
Generally speaking, the power transmitting capability of a given fluid coupling is strongly related to pump speed, a characteristic that generally works well with applications where the applied load does not fluctuate to a great degree. The torque transmitting capacity of any hydrodynamic coupling can be described by the expression , where is the mass density of the fluid (kg/m3), is the impeller speed (rpm), and is the impeller diameter (Meter). In the case of automotive applications, where loading can vary to considerable extremes, is only an approximation. Stop-and-go driving will tend to operate the coupling in its least efficient range, causing an adverse effect on fuel economy.
Manufacture
Fluid couplings are relatively simple components to produce. For example, the turbines can be aluminium castings or steel stampings and the housing can also be a casting or made from stamped or forged steel.
Patents
GB190906861 02 Dec 1909 Hermann Föttinger [16] US1127758 09 Feb 1915 Jacob Christian Hansen-Ellehammer [17] US1199359 26 Sep 1916 Hermann Föttinger [18] US1472930 06 Nov 1923 Fritz Mayer [19] GB359501 23 Oct 1931 Voith [20] US1937364 28 Nov 1933 Harold Sinclair [21] US1987985 15 Jan 1935 Schmieske and Bauer [22] US2004279 11 Jun 1935 Hermann Föttinger [23] US2127738 23 Aug 1938 Fritz Kugel [24] US2202243 28 May 1940 Noah L Alison [25] US2264341 02 Dec 1941 Arthur and Sinclair [26] US2491483 20 Dec 1949 Gaubatz and Dolza [27] US2505842 02 May 1950 Harold Sinclair [28] US2882683 21 Apr 1959 Harold Sinclair [29]
See also
Notes
External links
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