Discover how Voith Turbo have designed their Hydrodynamic Torque Converters

Voith Turbo is the leading manufacturer of hydrodynamic variable-speed couplings, variable-speed transmission couplings and torque converters.

They are used in power generation, in the oil and gas industries as well as in the chemical and raw material industries to control pumps, compressors, and blowers, right up to starting systems of gas turbines. In short, wherever maximum operating safety and precise, high control dynamics at lowest operating and maintenance effort are required.

The application of hydro dynamically adjustable drives allows energy and cost savings, higher flexibility, longer service life of machinery and motor, less maintenance effort and use under adverse conditions with compact and robust designs. The output range reaches from 100 kW to 50,000 kW and speeds of up to 20,000 rpm.

Fig. 1. Torque Converter.

What are torque converters ?

The heart of Voith’s hydrodynamic torque converter is its hydraulic circuit; consisting of a pump, turbine and a guide wheel with adjustable guide vanes. The mechanical energy of the motor is converted into hydraulic energy through the pump wheel. In the turbine wheel the same hydraulic energy is converted back into mechanical energy and transmitted to the output shaft.

“The extensive use of TURBOdesign1 has enabled Voith Turbo to improve the aerodynamic design of their torque converters and to speed up the overall design process.”

With the arrangement of three bladed wheels (pump, turbine, guide vane) it is possible to obtain a torque conversion within the operation range. The adjustable vanes of the guide wheel regulate the mass flow in the circuit. At closed guide vanes (small mass flow) the power transmission is at its minimum. With the guide vanes completely open (large mass flow) the power transmission is at its maximum.

Large efficiency improvements up to 10 points have been obtained by the optimisation of the hydrodynamic guide vane design over a wide range of speed ratios as shown in the data above.

Discover how Voith Turbo introduced TURBOdesign Suite into their design process in order to maximise the hydrodynamic performance of their torque converters and to speed up their design process.