DEVELOPMENT OF A DYNAMIC TORSIONAL ACTUATOR FOR TORQUE CONVERTER CLUTCH CHARACTERIZATION

This thesis outlines the development of a torsional shaker test stand capable of testing damping and isolation capabilities of torque converter clutch assemblies in automotive torque converters. By utilizing an electric motor typically found in hybrid electric vehicles, the desired torque fluctuations can be achieved for these measurements. The electric motor can be used as a “torsional shaker” to impose torsional vibrations originating from an internal combustion engine. A synchronous model was developed to evaluate the electric motor to ensure it could produce the required dynamic torque behavior. AMESim models were developed and used to correlate analytical and experimental vibration measurements. The measurements of interest are primarily associated with the damper clutch assembly and its respective stiffness and damping properties. The developed system was found capable of reasonably producing dynamic torsional vibration similar to an internal combustion engine and finding the dominating converter clutch resonance