Improving Startup Behavior of Fluid Couplings Through Modification of Runner Geometry: Part I—Fluid Flow Analysis and Proposed Improvement

Abstract

For the use as a startup device the characteristic of a hydrodynamic coupling has to be steep at the nominal high speed operation condition and flat in the range of lower speed ratios. The economical design of the runner requires that the mass and the volume of the coupling should be as small as possible. The flow field in a starting configuration is simulated and a detailed analysis of the three-dimensional flow field is performed to deduce constructional modifications which meet both requests. The analysis shows that several modifications on pump and turbine runner seem to be successful. The consequences of the variation of the runner geometries will be discussed in detail in Part II of this paper. [S0098-2202(00)02104-0]