The present invention pertains to the field of gears and transmissions, and more specifically to split power continuously variable hydro-mechanical transmissions, and its principal concern is to substantially increase the maximum torque ratio and rate of growth of the output torque, as well as the range of variation of transmission ratio, thus eliminating the need for multi-stage mechanical gears and substantially simplifying transmission structure at the same time.
Known “elementary” continuously variable hydrodynamic-mechanical transmissions, composed of hydrodynamic torque converter and single planetary gear, divides out naturally into two types: Hydrodynamic-mechanical transmissions with input planetary gear, and hydrodynamic-mechanical transmissions with output planetary gear. Typical transmission of the first type includes planetary gear and hydrodynamic torque converter, wherein the gear input (driving) shaft is connected with one member of the planetary gear (e.g. planet carrier), the hydrodynamic torque converter impeller is connected with another member of the planetary gear (e.g. sun gear), and the hydrodynamic torque converter turbine rotor is connected with yet another member of the planetary gear (e.g. ring gear) and output shaft. Typical transmission of the second type includes planetary gear and hydrodynamic torque converter, wherein the gear output (driven) shaft is connected with one member of the planetary gear (e.g. planet carrier), the hydrodynamic torque converter turbine rotor is connected with another member of the planetary gear (e.g. ring gear), and the hydrodynamic torque converter impeller rotor is connected with yet another member of the planetary gear (e.g. sun gear) and input shaft.
Such composition of the transmission causes the input torque and power delivered to the transmission is divided between two paths, namely the hydrodynamic path, where the driving torque is being continuously changed, and the purely mechanical path, the efficiency of which is larger than that of the hydrodynamic path. Thanks to such composition, overall efficiency of the transmission is larger than that of the torque converter, but the range of transmission ratio change is similar to the range of transmission ratio change of the torque converter. A drawback of this construction is that the maximum torque ratio and rate of rise of the output ratio are diminished in comparison with torque converter itself. Moreover, range of change the transmission ratio is typically 1:1-2:1 to 1:1-2.6:1. Kinetic schemes of such “elementary” hydrodynamic-mechanical transmissions are shown in
In order to extend the range of variation of the output torque (which is necessary for most applications) torque converter is usually combined in single transmission with several (3-5) planetary gears through a number of brakes and clutches (in automatic transmissions). Such transmissions are extensively mechanically complicated, and require separate steering systems and hydrostatic gears changing device, which renders them even more complex; moreover, these transmissions are heavy and prone to defects, and costly.
All transmission using torque converter feature good but not excellent rate of output torque rise, and an improvement of this parameter would be precious for emergency, military, and sport vehicles.
Thus there is a need for a simple and inexpensive continuously variable transmission capable of rapidly rising output torque, possessing wide range of variation of output torque, and capable of self-regulating, suitable for wide range of vehicles and working machines subjected during operation to rapidly changing large loads.
Thus the principal objective of the present invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive continuously variable transmission with relatively large range of variation of the output torque, which offers large maximum torque ratio rapidly rising when the speed ratio approaches zero, suitable for various vehicles, particularly those destined for start-stop mode of operation, and working machines subjected to heavy loads rapidly varying within broad limits, like passenger cars, city buses, small earth moving machines (e.g. compact track multi-terrain loaders), trucks, off-road vehicles, backhoe loaders, large wheel and track loaders (in which rapidly growing output torque translates to rapidly growing breakout force), dozers, and first of all special purpose vehicles like emergency, military (e.g. tanks), and sport ones (dragsters), where good acceleration is of highest priority.
These and other objectives are achieved according to the present invention by providing a hydrodynamic-mechanical transmission systematically utilizing the phenomenon of power circulation (present in all transmissions using hydrodynamic torque converter). The intense power circulation is attained according to the present invention by introducing a strong positive feedback between the torque converter pump and turbine, which in turn is achieved by way of a specific combination of the torque converter and planetary gear, to be described in full detail hereinafter. The range of variation of the transmission ratio of the transmission according to the instant invention (using standard torque converters) is expected to extend from 2:1 to 29:1 and even more, depending on the torque converter used, thus eliminating the need for multi-stage mechanical gears.
Like symbols denote like transmission elements throughout all the drawings, where:
Numeral 10 refers generally to the transmission of the instant invention;
numeral 11 refers generally to the torque converter;
letter “T” refers generally to the torque converter turbine;
letter “P” refers generally to the torque converter pump or impeller;
letter “S” refers generally to the torque converter stator;
numeral 12 refers generally to the planetary gear;
letter “C” refers to the planetary gear planet carrier;
symbol “SG” refers to the planetary gear sun gear;
symbol “RG” refers to the planetary gear ring gear;
symbol “ISh” refers to the transmission input shaft;
symbol “OSh” refers to the transmission output shaft;
numeral 13 refers generally to auxiliary direction of rotation reversing gear;
numeral 14 refers generally to the transmission input reduction gear;
symbol “OSh1” refers to the output shaft of the transmission input reduction gear.
Transmission according to the present invention 10 includes a typical torque converter 11 (with turbine and impeller rotors rotating in mutually opposite directions), and a typical planetary gear 12. The transmission input shaft ISh is connected directly to the torque converter 11 turbine rotor T and the planetary gear ring gear RG, the transmission output shaft OSh is connected with the planetary gear 12 planet carrier C, and the torque converter impeller rotor P is connected directly with the planetary gear sun gear. The torque converter of the transmission, according to the presented invention, must be large enough to absorb relatively large circulating power, and to allow to generate large output torque. To be more precise, the torque converter 11 of the transmission according to the instant invention destined for mating with a prime mover having maximum power PP and maximum output torque PT has nominal maximum input power lPP being a multiple of the maximum prime mover's power PP by a factor of l (where typically l∈[3,9]), and nominal maximum input torque kPT being a multiple of the maximum prime mover's output torque PP by a factor of k (where typically k∈[3,7]). Typically, the base transmission ratio of the planetary gear 12 (understood as the ratio of the number of teeth on the sun gear over the number of teeth on the ring gear, and denoted by bt) is chosen so that the value it(bt) of the torque ratio of the torque converter 11 corresponding to the speed ratio is=bt equals (depending on the application of the transmission) 40-80% of the maximum torque ratio (on stall) of the torque converter.
Now a discussion of the operation (at equilibrium states) of the transmission follows.
Let PS(t) be the output power of the prime mover at the moment t, Pc(t)—the circulating power at the moment t, PO (t)—the power on the transmission output shaft, TS(t)—torque delivered by the prime mover at the moment t, Tt(t)—torque on the turbine rotor at the moment t, Tr1(t)=TS(t)+Tt(t)—the resultant torque on the transmission input shaft at the moment t, Tp(t)—torque on the impeller rotor at the moment t, Ts(t)—torque on the planetary gear sun gear at the moment t (thus Ts(t)=Tp(t)), Tr2 (t)—the resultant torque on the transmission output shaft at the moment t (note that the resultant torque on the transmission output shaft is the sum of the torque on the planetary gear 12 ring gear, and the torque on the sun gear, i.e. Tr2(t)=Tr1(t)+Tp(t)), n1(t)—rotation speed of the output shaft of the prime mover at the moment t (equal to the rotation speed of the transmission input shaft and the turbine rotor), n2(t)—rotation speed of the transmission output shaft at the moment t (equal to the rotation speed of the planetary gear 12 planet carrier C), n3(t)—rotation speed of the torque converter impeller at the moment t (equal to the rotation speed of the planetary gear 12 sun gear SG),
is the torque converter speed ratio, it(t) is the torque converter torque ratio, η(is) denotes the torque converter efficiency,
is the transmission speed ratio, i′t(t) is the transmission torque ratio, η′(i′s) denotes the overall transmission efficiency. During operation of the gear the following equations hold at equilibrium states:
T
r1(t)=TS(t)+Tt(t) (1)
T
s(t)=Tp(t) (2)
T
r2(t)=Tr1(t)+Tp(t) (3)
Equations 1-5 immediately yield:
Since typically the product it(bt)bt=η(bt) assumes values close to 0.85-0.9 for the value of bt close to 0.6, the maximum value Tr2max of the output torque at stall is even 10-16 times the maximum output torque of the prime mover. The lower limit of the range of variation of the transmission ratio is defined by the following conditions: Tp=btTr1=bt(Tt+TS),Tt=Tp, is≅0.9; therefore, for bt=0.6, Tr2≅3.48TS, and the range of variation of the torque ratio equals [3.48; 12] to [3.48; 16]. Also the rate of growth of the output torque
(=10-16 times the rate of growth of the prime mover output torque) is large, and expected to be 3-5 times the rate of growth of the output torque specific for known transmissions.
Since the rotation speed of the turbine rotor equals the rotation speed of the prime mover shaft, this transmission operates at relatively large rotational speeds of the torque converter rotors.
The second preferred embodiment of the invention, shown schematically in
The following equations hold during operation of the transmission at equilibrium states:
Equations 15-23 immediately yield:
Hypothetical speed multiplication torque converter characteristics shown in
Conjecture/Hypothesis. The efficiency ηm(is), resp. the torque ratio itm(is), of the speed-multiplying torque converter (is≥1), corresponding to the speed ratio is, equals
resp.
(for is∈[a, b] for certain values of a and b), where
is the efficiency of the conventional torque converter for the speed ratio
(where the speed ratio is understood as the ratio of the rotational speed of turbine to the rotational speed of pump); thus the efficiency of the hypothetical speed-multiplication torque converter at the speed ratio is≥1, understood as the ratio of the rotational speed of the faster rotor (turbine) to the rotational speed of the slower rotor (pump), is assumed to be equal to the efficiency of the conventional torque converter at the same speed ratio is≥1 understood as the ratio of the rotational speed of the faster rotor (pump) to the rotational speed of the slower rotor (turbine). Basing on these speed multiplication torque converter characteristics the transmission characteristics for basis transmission ratio of the planetary gear bt=0.95 were plotted, as shown in
Thus
and the overall transmission efficiency varies from 0 at stall to 0.97 for i′s=0.47. The most outstanding, and extremely valuable, feature of this (hypothetical) transmission is its exceptionally large range of variation of torque ratio (defined by
which eliminates, in most applications, the need for multi-stage mechanical gears. Another outstanding feature of this transmission is its good efficiency, which is greater than 0.8 for speed ratio i′s∈(0.17, 0.47), i.e. for speed ratios covering 64% of the whole range of the speed ratio variation. Since the efficiency q of the torque converter varies within the limits 0.87-0.1 as the transmission speed ratio i′s varies within the limits 0.17-0.47 (which was computed using equations Eq. (28) and Eq. (34)), this points out to large share of the power being transferred by the mechanical branch of the transmission for i′s ∈(0.17, 0.47). Very rapid growth of torque ratio for speed ratio i′s→0, and exceptionally large torque ratio at stall can also be seen in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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P.422664 | Aug 2017 | PL | national |