1999-01-1259 Kluger SWRI

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SAE TECHNICAL PAPER SERIES
1999-01-1259
An Overview of Current Automatic, Manual and Continuously Variable Transmission Efficiencies and Their Projected Future Improvements
Michael A. Kluger and Denis M. Long
Southwest Research Institute
International Congress and Exposition Detroit, Michigan March 1-4, 1999

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Printed in USA
1999-01-1259
An Overview of Current Automatic, Manual and Continuously Variable Transmission Efficiencies and Their Projected Future Improvements
Michael A. Kluger and Denis M. Long
Southwest Research Institute
Copyright 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
This paper will overview current production manual, automatic, and continuously variable transmission (CVT) efficiencies and efficiency variations across the industry. For automatic transmissions, efficiencies associated with the pump and the gearbox components will be highlighted along with areas for improvements. Efficiencies associated with various types of pumps such as internal-external, gerotor, hypocycloidal, and variable displacement will be compared. For CVTs a comparison of efficiencies for belt type and toroidal types will be provided, along with an examination of external-external and variable displacement type ball pumps.
Table 1. Five-Speed Manual Transmission Percent Time in Gear and Efficiency in Each Gear
Time in Gear 8% 10% 21% 20% 41% Representative Current Production Efficiency Efficiency Variation 93.5% 92-96% 92.0% 92-97% 94.0% 93-97% 97.4% 93-99% 93.8% 92-97%
Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5
1.0 MANUAL TRANSMISSION

Manual transmissions consist of two parallel gear shafts each typically containing thirteen gears and four synchronizers. Most gear shafts are supported across their length by three bearings. Though the type of bearings used differ dramatically among the various manufacturers. The gears are helical cut and are typically manufactured from through hardening alloy or carburizing grade steel and heat treated to an Rc 58 value. In non-direct gears the powerpath of the transmission takes engine input speed through a gear ratio to the lower lay shaft which is operated at a speed 35 per cent lower than engine speed. The ratio used dramatically effects the torque loading in the downstream gearing and the gear speed. This particular gear ratio is one of the factors differentiating manual transmissions produced by different manufacturers. It in turn represents a significant variable differentiating the efficiency of a particular transmission. 1.1 MANUAL TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY When operated through a representative combined city/highway cycle, the time spent in each gear for a typical five-speed manual transmission and its corresponding efficiency is as follows: 1
An average efficiency for this transmission would be 96.2 per cent. Note that in a direct-drive gear (Gear 4) the efficiency is 3-5 per cent higher than for nondirectdrive gears. 1.2 MANUAL TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS Since torque-dependent losses are three times speed losses, it is better to transmit power through the layshaft at high speeds. Increasing the layshaft speed helps increase manual transmission efficiency. Methods for reducing wind-age and churning will be discussed in the proceeding para-graph. Similarly, use of a 35-mm, cast iron center section for improved bearing support will reduce shaft distortion and improve gear tooth meshing and reduce bearing losses. In addition, manual transmission efficiency values can be improved by reducing windage losses which are generated by rotating gears through air saturated with fluid. For a typical 2.3L transmission application operating at 3,000 rpm, a repre-sentative drag torque is 1.4 Nm. This value can be improved by assuring that the inner surface of the transmission case is smooth and continuous and free from casting imperfections. These imperfections provide nucleation sites where fluid can cling to and subsequently rain back into the air rotating about and with the gears further saturating the rotating air. This improvement can be further enhanced with the application of an oil-shedding, dry film lubricant on the inner case surface that again prevents fluid from attach-
ing itself to the inner surface. Frictional losses between the gears can be reduced by incorporating an oilretaining dry film lubricant on the gear teeth to reduce the sliding friction occurring during gear meshing. Changing from steel ball bearings to ceramic ball bearings will reduce parasitic losses by approximately 0.07 Nm for a 40 mm I.D., 70 mm O.D., and 20 mm wide bearing operated at 2,000 rpm. Typically, ceramic bearings have about one-third less resisting torque than an all steel bearing. This is due to a smaller contact pressure ellipse and lower skid within the contacts. 1.3 IMPROVED MANUAL TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY VALUES By incorporating the above improvements the efficiency in each gear would be as follows: Table 2. Future Manual Transmission Efficiency Values Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5 Efficiency 94.7 % 93.1 % 94.4% 97.8% 94.4% Efficiency Improvement 1.2% 1.1% 0.4% 0.4% 0.6%
Table 4. Five-Speed Automatic Transmission Per Cent Time in Gear and Efficiency in Each Gear
Time in Gear * 9% 4% 5% 32% 40% Efficiency Current Production Efficiency Variation 70.3% 60-85% 78.1% 60-90% 86.0% 85-95% 86.2% 85-95% 88.7% 83-94%
Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5
* Excludes 10% for idle
An average efficiency for this transmission would be 85.3 per cent. 2.2 PUMPS The pumping system used in a step ratio automatic transmission can consume up to 20 per cent of the total power required to operate a typical automotive transmission through a representative city cycle. Across the operating range, these pumps require pumping torques of 4.0 - 9.0 Nm. 2.3 FIXED DISPLACEMENT PUMPS There are three conventional fixed displacement pump types that are typically used in automatic transmissions. They are as follows: Internal External Crescent Type Gerotor Hypocycloidal The pump with the best overall and volumetric efficiency is the hypocycloidal type as it is approximately 5-10 per cent more efficient at any operating conditioning than a gerotor or internal external crescent type. A comparison of overall efficiency for these three pumps is shown in the figure below.
This would provide an overall transmission efficiency rating of 96.7 per cent or a 0.5 per cent improvement.
2.0 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS

Automatic transmissions consist of three major components: the pump, torque converter, and gearbox. For each of these components there are major differences in their configurations as produced by different manufacturers. For example, the variation in the components used in the gearbox portion only, are shown in the figure below. Table 3. Automatic Transmission Component Variations Planetary Gearset Types Clutch Packs Bands One-Way Clutches Bearings 2 and 3 Sets Simpson, Ravignaux 3, 4, 5, and 6 0, 1, 2, and 3 0, 1, and 2 Ball, Roller, and Bushings
The differences as they affect efficiency values will be discussed in subsequent sections. 2.1 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY When operated through a representative combined city/ highway cycle the time spent in each gear and its corresponding efficiency are as follows: Figure 1. A Comparison of Overall Efficiency for Three Fixed Displacement Pump Types at 1.0 MPa Outside of conventional improvements to reduce axial and radial leakage in the pump with tighter tolerances, areas for improvement in the overall pumping system include improved porting arrangements which improve efficiency most predominately at high speeds. 2
2.4 VARIABLE DISPLACEMENT PUMPS Theoretically, the variable displacement pump is the best pump configuration based upon energy consumption as it matches the delivery of the pump to the transmissions flow requirements. Though not uniformly used throughout the industry, resistance to its use has been associated with control pressure instability. Additionally, current variable displacement applications have built in extra leakage to obtain improved stability which tends to reduce the advantages of this pump type in practice. In comparison to fixed displacement pumps, variable displacement pumps require 1 Nm less pumping torque at low speeds and 5 Nm less at high speeds as shown in the figure below.
2.6 WINDAGE AND CHURNING LOSSES Internal fluid movement inside a transmission greatly affects the windage and churning losses. Routing of fluid directly off the rotating components as it directly exits the rotating drums into a collector that returns the fluid immediately and directly to the sump has the potential to reduce windage and churning losses by 10 per cent as shown in the figure below.
6 5.5 Drag Torque (N-m) 5
Conventional Transmission Drag Torque Improved Collector systemDrag Torque
4.5 4
3.5 3 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Input Speed (RPM)
Figure 3. Windage and Churning Drag Loss Improvement with a Fluid Collector System 2.7 GEARBOX PARASITIC LOSS DISTRIBUTION A breakdown of the losses within a 3.0L automatic transmission gearbox is shown in the figure below.
Windage
Figure 2. Average Pumping Torque Differences for Fixed and Variable Displacement Pumps 2.5 CLUTCH PACK DRAG Of considerable interest to the industry are spin losses because of their large influence on coastdown performance and the fact that they represent a constant parasitic loss during vehicle operation. For a given friction material groove pattern, clutch pack drag is a function of many variables. These variables and improvements that can be realized for each are shown below. Table 5. Clutch Pack Variables and Improvements
Improvement By Increasing Pack Clearance from 0.75 to 1.5 mm, Drag Torque Will Decrease 75% Flow Through the Pack At High Speeds a 40% Decrease in Flow Through the Pack Will Reduce Clutch Pack Drag Torque by 40% Speed Reduce Relative Speed Across The Friction Material and Separator Plate Stationary Friction Mate- Will Increase Drag Torque by 35% rial or Separator Plate Direction of Rotation of Positive Rotation the Friction Material Plate Clutch Pack Variable Pack Clearance
Gear Geometry Seals Bushing/Bearings
Clutch Pack Drag
Figure 4. Automatic Transmission Gearbox Parasitic Drag Torque Distribution 2.8 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION IMPROVEMENT By reducing the viscosity of the fluid, parasitic losses can be reduced. At normal transmission operating temperatures a reduction in fluid viscosity of 1 cSt will reduce drag torque by approximately 0.2 Nm. Changing seal material from cast iron to Teflon and PEEK will reduce drag torque by approximately 0.07 Nm per seal. Considering that a typical transmission utilizes 6 seals on average, a total reduction in drag torque of 0.4 Nm can be realized. 3
2.9 IMPROVED AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY VALUES By incorporating the above improvements the efficiency in each gear would be as follows: Table 6. Future Automatic Transmission Efficiency Values Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5 Efficiency 72.1% 80.9% 87.1% 86.7% 89.5% Efficiency Improvement 1.8% 1.8% 1.1% 0.5% 0.8%
Overall CVT Pump Efficiency 60
50 % Overall Efficiency
40
30
20
10
Outlet pressure = 3.0 Mpa Outlet pressure = 5.0 Mpa 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Input Speed (rpm) 5000 6000
This would provide an overall efficiency value of 86.3 per cent or a 1.0 per cent improvement.
3.0 BELT TYPE CVTS

In general, CVTs offer the promise of better efficiency than conventional transmissions, particularly at part load. A CVTs advantage is that it allows an engine to operate over a wide range of speeds and loads while in many cases being independent of the speed and torque requirements placed on the wheels by the vehicle and the driver For belt type CVTs, the amount of power which can be transmitted is determined by either the tensile strength in the bands as the belt is squeezed, or by the transverse buckling strength of the belt as it is squeezed between the two halves of the sheave. Tension in the steel bands needs to vary enough to prevent buckling of the stack of metal blocks and to hold them in contact with the sheave faces with sufficient normal force to generate adequate tangential strength. Typical efficiency for belt-type CVTs is shown in the figure below. Table 7. Belt Type CVT Efficiency Values at Various Operating Conditions
Low-Speed Ratio High-Input Torque 84% 86% 83% Mid-Speed Ratio Mid-Input Torque 86% 89% 85% High-Speed Ratio Low-Input Torque 77% 80% 76%
Figure 5. External-External Pump Overall Efficiency 3.2 BELT TYPE CVT IMPROVEMENT Because belt type CVTs require pressures of up to 3 MPA, the pumping power requirements represent a very large portion of the overall CVT power losses. This is particularly a problem at low-power conditions typical of the major operating periods during city and highway driving, where CVT efficiency values are approximately 85 per cent. Variable displacement pumps provide a mechanism to improve low end power consumed by matching the power requirement of the CVT and the power required by the pump. The pumping requirement for a belt type CVT is for low flow and high pressures. Conventional variable displacement, vane type pumps are not well suited for these requirements. A better variable displacement pump type is a radial ball pump or a radial piston pump. Such devices have overall efficiencies as shown below.
Low-Speed Mid-Speed High-Speed
Typical belt type CVT losses are 5 to 30 Nm. 3.1 CVT PUMP One type of pump used in current production belt type CVTs is the external-external gear type. Typically these pumps produce flows of 10 to 40L/min through pressure ranges of 3.0 to 5.0 MPa. Typical pumping torques range from 2 to 5 Nm. Typical overall efficiency for an external pump is shown in the figure below. 4
Figure 6. Variable Displacement Ball Pump Efficiency for Different Displacement Positions
4.0 TOROIDAL TRANSMISSION

The potential for high mechanical efficiency is characteristic of traction drives because rolling motion is intrinsically very efficient. The overall efficiency curve of a traction drive is quite flat over most of the torque loading regime. The efficiency of a toroid transmission is approximately 91 per cent over the majority of the operating torque and ratio ranges. However, at low torques and low reduction ratios the efficiency drops dramatically to 78 per cent as shown in the figure below.
94 92 90 88 86 Efficiency, 84 82 80 78 300 250 200 150 1.4 1.9
Figure 9. Toroid with Mechanical Shunt This improves the low end efficiency to approximately 98 per cent as shown in the figure below.
100
95
94 92 90 88 86 84 82 80 78
90
Efficiency, %
85
i = 0.70 i = 1.00
80
i = 1.45
i = 2.25
Input Torque (N-m)
Reduction Ratio
100 50 0 0.4 0.9
75 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Input Torque (N-m) * Toroidal Data Based on Machida & Abe, 1996
Figure 7. Traction Drive Efficiency as a Function of Input Torque and Reduction Ratio There are three major loss categories for the toroidal transmission. The largest category is the normal force generation and reaction, the second category is the contact patch whose losses are related to geometry, while the third category is associated with the output gear and is essentially fixed. Breakdowns in the total system losses of a typical toroidal transmission are shown below. Total Loss
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Pump ing Creep Spin Bearings Seals
Figure 10. Toroidal Transmission Efficiency with a Mechanical Shunt The greatest potential for efficiency improvements can be realized with higher Ct fluid. Higher Ct fluids lower the normal force required, reduce the overall component size, bearing losses and pump losses. For example a 50 per cent improvement in Ct reduces the normal force approximately 15,000N, while reducing the overall toroid size by 16 per cent By incorporating a traction fluid with an improved coefficient of traction of 0.12, the overall toroid efficiency would be improved 1.8 per cent. A breakdown of losses and their improvements are shown below. Table 8. Loss Distribution and Changes with Traction Fluids Having Ct Values of 0.08 and 0.12 Losses Pumping Creep/Spin Bearings Seals Ct = 0.08 67% 16% 10% 8% Ct = 0.12 59% 20% 9% 9% Improvement 8% (4)% 1% (1)%
5.0 CONCLUSION
Manual transmissions have overall efficiency values of 96.2 per cent which are the highest efficiency values of any type transmission. Manual transmissions represent a very simple and mature technology with very little room for improvement. At best, manual transmissions can be improved to provide an efficiency of 96.7 per cent.
Figure 8. Breakdown of Power Losses Within the Toroidal Transmission To improve the efficiency at low input torque conditions and reduction ratios some sort of mechanical shunt is required as shown in the figure below.
Automatic transmissions have overall efficiencies of 85.3 per cent which is on average 10 per cent less efficient than manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions are complex mechanisms containing multiple interdependent systems typically consisting of between 500-700 parts. Interestingly enough, no transmission manufacturer in the world today has been able to optimize these components to produce a transmission with the highest efficiency in each gear, in torque dependent and speed dependent operating scenarios, and in both engine-driving and rear-wheel or coast mode operation. Even so, the ideal best current production type transmission could be improved to provide an efficiency of 86.3 per cent. Belt type CVTs have overall efficiencies of 84.6 per cent which are less than manual transmission efficiency values. However, the major advantage of a CVT is that it allows the engine (a device that has a maximum 35 per cent adiabatic efficiency) to operate in a more fuel-efficient manner. A CVT-engine combination will improve a typical powertrains fuel economy by 5-10 per cent. Additional fuel economy benefits for belt type CVTs can be realized by reducing the fluid pumping power requirements, most notably at low-power conditions, by replacing current fixed displacement pumps with a variable displacement type ball pump to achieve an overall efficiency of 88.4 per cent. Toroidal type CVTs have overall efficiencies of approximately 91 per cent. This type of mechanism offers great promise to manufacturers of high horsepower vehicles configured with engine sizes greater than 3.0L, typically used in minivans, sport utility vehicles, and light duty pickup trucks. Efficiency improvements of 1.8 per cent could be realized in toroidal transmissions with the implementation of traction fluids having a coefficient of traction (Ct) of 0.12.

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Licensed to Eaton Corporation Licensed from the SAE Digital Library Copyright 2008 SAE International E-mailing, copying

SAE TECHNICAL PAPER SERIES

International Congress and Exposition Detroit, Michigan March 1-4, 1999

Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5

1.0 MANUAL TRANSMISSION

Gear 1 Gear 2 Gear 3 Gear 4 Gear 5

* Excludes 10% for idle

2.0 AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS

3.5 3 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Input Speed (RPM)

Gear Geometry Seals Bushing/Bearings

Clutch Pack Drag

Overall CVT Pump Efficiency 60

3.0 BELT TYPE CVTS

Low-Speed Mid-Speed High-Speed

4.0 TOROIDAL TRANSMISSION

Input Torque (N-m)

75 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

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