How Torque Converters Work! (Animation)

[Music] the torque converter is often seen as the most complicated part in vehicles of today it is however a very important component of automatic transmissions this animation explains the theory behind this complex component the first part of the torque converter is the impeller it has curved blades and is filled with fluid when the impeller spins the fluid will be thrown out words by centrifugal forces caused by the rotation of the impeller the faster the impeller rotates the higher the centrifugal forces the turbine is situated opposite to the impaler in fact you could say that the turbine is an impeller rotated by 180 degrees the fluid flow from the impeller is directed over the blades of the turbine so the turbine rotates the blades call it a rat of those of the impeller the yellow ones of those of the turbine here we can see that the yellow blades of the turbine are much slower than those of the impeller because for example torque inversion and energy losses between impeller and turbine take place let's have a closer look on the flow of the fluid the fluid in the impeller is forced outwards due to centrifugal forces and transmits the energy to the turbine the turbines blades are installed in such a way as to allow the fluid to flow to the inner part of the turbine and in the impeller from there the cycle repeats itself this device is called a fluid coupling here no torque is converted to convert talk another special feature is necessary the stator which is interposed between the impeller and the turbine the fluid flows through the turbine to the stator the status curved blades to the fluid flow at an angle of almost 90 degrees the result is a multiplication and torque because two fluid flows back more slowly the impeller is mounted to the housing and the housing is connected to the engine consequently the impeller receives the mechanical energy produced by the engine in general toll converters use a lock-up clutch that will be explained later on and turbine output shaft that connects the turbine to the transmission and the wheels of the vehicle [Music] torque converters have three stages of operation the first phase is called stall here the engine applies power to the impeller but the turbine does not reach aid because the driver keeps his or her foot on the brake at traffic lights so the vehicle does not move the second phase is called acceleration and takes place when the traffic lights turn green the brakes are not applied and the driver presses the accelerator pedal consequently the impaler rotates faster but there is a relatively large difference between impeller and turbine speed under this condition the converter produces torque multiplication for acceleration this talk multiplication is needed the third phase is called coupling the vehicle moves fast the turbine has reached approximately 90 percent of the speed of the impeller and the torque multiplication has ceased now the torque converter is a simple fluid coupling modern vehicles used at this stage of operation a lock-up clutch to lock the turbine to the impaler this eliminates losses associated with fluid drive [Music]

Channel: Thomas Schwenke

Views: 3,368,719

Rating: 4.8682094 out of 5

Keywords: Torque Converter, impeller, Centrifugal forces, rotation of impeller, turbine, impeller and turbine, Fluid coupling, stator, lock-up clutch, stall, acceleration, coupling, automatic transmission

Id: z5G2zQ_3xTc

Length: 4min 25sec (265 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/JViz]

Just specifying that the torque converter converts torque with the stator makes the whole movie end up like this:

http://i.imgur.com/nCec3EU.jpg

[u/peewy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm8EHTTNPEg

This is a far better video from 1954

[u/kissabaol]

What the fuck kinda english dialect is that?

[u/jt7724]

Is there some weird context here in which the fact that the narrator keeps saying "the fluid is thrown outward by centrifugal force" is okay? Because last I checked, anyone who had taken high school physics knew that wasn't a thing (although I don't know a lot about impellers, so I'm happy to be corrected if it is actually used properly here.)

[u/boomboomhead]

Now how does a scooter torque converter work? I've seen it in motorcycles too but I cant quite understand how they work.