Journal of Flow Visualization and Image Processing

VISUALIZATION AND IMAGE PROCESSING OF TORQUE CONVERTER INTERNAL FLOW

ABSTRACT

This article deals with the techniques of flow visualization and image processing of the internal flows of the torque converter (TIC acronym) widely used in automatic transmission cars.
The internal flows of TIC was visualized by using a transparent model made of acrylic resin, and visualized images were processed to determine velocity vectors using the binary image cross-correlation method that is one of techniques of particle imaging velocimetry (PIV acronym). Inasmuch as the velocity vectors were obtained at randomly distributed points in the flow field, three kinds of methods were newly proposed to estimate velocity vectors at any grid points from the measured velocity vectors.