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The Newcomen Steam Engine was only used to pump water out of mines at that time. In 1769,
James Watt improved the function of the steam engine and made it practical in the real world [1],
which is why most people still think Watt invented the steam engine.
James Watts steam engine is designed so that water goes into a high temperature boiler, is
boiled and vaporized, and turns into high pressure steam. This steam pushes the piston, generating a forward and backward motion (see http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/steam -engine.swf
for an animated picture) [3]. Because the combustion room is located outside the engine, the
steam engine is also called the external combustion engine.
2008
ProQuest
Yao:
Automotive Transmissions
According to the physics rule of motion, when an object is in static status it needs a larger force
to overcome friction. When the object starts moving, the needed driving force becomes smaller
and smaller, and the speed becomes faster and faster. Therefore, to move the piston in a steam
engine from static position, very high pressure must be generated to push the piston. When the
piston starts moving, the pressure decreases, because it is released from the exhaust by the
movement of the piston, before it can be compressed into high pressure air. At low speed, the
engine creates high pressure steam to push the piston, while at high speed, the steam pressure
becomes low. Thats why the old steam powered locomotives start very slowly, but still can
reach a very high speed.
The steam engine is very efficient at generating power based on the physics rule of motion; however, it takes awhile before the machine can reach its highest efficiency. Another drawback is
that the steam engine occupies too much space. Therefore, scientists tried to develop an engine
with smaller size, but that can instantly generate the power needed. The internal combustion engine, which has been used for most machinery including vehicles, was invented. Several kinds of
internal combustion engines have been widely used for vehicles, for example, in the two-stroke
combustion cycle, four-stroke combustion cycle, and rotary engines. The first engine to use a
four-stroke combustion cycle successfully was built in 1867 by N. A. Otto [9]. The design of the
internal combustion engine is much more complicated than the steam engine, however. All internal combustion engines need to go through the following procedures to finish the combustion
cycle: intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust. The shock wave file
http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/engine.swf [11] shows how the four-stroke internal combustion engine works. First, gasoline comes from C and moves the piston downward. Second,
the piston moves upward and compresses the air. Third, the compressed air is fired and moves
the piston downward again. Finally, the fired air is exhausted through L and moves the piston
upward again. While fired once every two cycles for a four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine, a two-stroke combustion cycle internal engine is fired once per cycle, which can be seen on
the shock wave file http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/two-stroke.swf [10]. The internal combustion design can instantly convert the power generated by the explosion of burning fuel into
high pressure air to push the piston. Unlike the steam engine, for an internal combustion engine
to move the piston faster and faster, more and more fuel is needed to generate higher pressure. In
other words, for an internal combustion engine, high pressure is needed to keep the piston running at a high speed, while at low speed, only low pressure is necessary. This is just opposite to
the function of the steam engine.
Even though it solves the dimension and slow start issues of the steam engine, the internal combustion engine generates another serious problem. When the piston is running at high speed, the
pressure needed is also high, which violates the physics rule of motion. Running an engine at
http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/discoveryguidesmain.php
Released January
2008
high speed with high pressure is not efficient, and also decreases the engine life. To solve this
problem, the transmission system was invented.
To transfer engine power efficiently, the gear ratio between the engine and wheels plays a very
important role. When we use a screwdriver, the portion we hold has a larger diameter, while the
portion contacting with the screw has smaller diameter. This design makes users use less force to
unscrew a screw while applying force on a larger diameter portion of the screw driver. Therefore, attaching a smaller gear to the engine side and connecting it to a larger gear to deliver
power to wheels helps overcome friction when moving a static vehicle. Figure 2 shows that the
large gear of the wheels needs less force to drive it. However, it also shows that when the engine
gear turns one circle, the wheel gear only turns about one half. The car wont run as fast as
possible.
Figure 2
Consider the following situation from Figure 3: the wheel gear has a smaller size, which needs
more force to move it while the car is static. It wont even be possible to move the car if the
en- gine power is not large enough. However, when the engine gear turns 1 cycle, the wheel
gear
may turn 2, which makes the car run faster.
Figure 3
Based on the physics rule of motion, after the object starts moving, the driving force needed becomes smaller. Therefore, if the car can run on the large gear condition (Figure 2) when starting,
but change to a small gear (Figure 3) when moving, that is, applying a large force when starting,
but a small force when moving, this will makes the power transmission much more efficient.
Manual Transmission
Manual transmission is also referred to as stick
shift transmission because you need to use the
transmission stick every time you change the
gears. To perform the gear shift, the transmission system must first be disengaged from the
engine. After the target gear is selected, the
transmission and engine are engaged with each
other again to perform the power transmission.
Figure 5 shows the components of the manual
transmission gearbox, and Figure 6 shows how
the clutch works. From Figure 5, the gear selector fork can be moved forward and backward to move the collar to engage it to the target gears (blue). The gears (blue) are driven by
the engine, while the collar (purple) connects
to the wheels. To engage the collar to the gear, the power from the engine must be temporarily
removed so the gear will lose the driving force. Therefore, the gear and the collar can be engaged
without causing grinding due to different
spin speeds. However, the collar and gear
still have different spinning speeds due to
the gear ratio change when shifting. For
the modern car, a mechanism called a
synchronizer is added to the collar to synchronize the spinning speed between collar and gears to make the gears mesh
smoothly. The synchronizer is made of
frictional materials. When the collar tries
to mesh with the gear, the synchronizer
will touch the gear first and use friction
Figure 6 Clutch. Image is from Research Machines plc
force to drive the gear to spin at the same
speed as the collar. This will ensure that
the collar is meshed into the gear very smoothly without grinding (see Figure 7). For some cars
without synchronizers, a driving skill called double clutching must be performed during gear
shifting to avoid gear grinding.
For a standard 5-speed manual transmission system, three different gear selector forks are used. Figure 8 and Figure 9 show
the side-view and top-view of the respective positions of three
forks. This H shift pattern enables the driver to select fivc
different gear ratios and a reverse gear.
The clutch, used to temporarily disconnect power from the engine, is shown in Figure 6. When the thrust pad is pushed, it
lifts the pressure pad so the driven pad (clutch plate) is disengaged from the flywheel. The flywheel, which is connected to
the gears of the transmission system, will stop spinning. On the
other hand, when the thrust pad is released, the spring pushes
the driven pad back to engage the flywheel and drives it spinning. The whole procedure is shown on the following Shockwave
file:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/clutchfig5.swf.
Figure 7 The synchronizer drives the
gear to spin at the same speed as the
collar to avoid grinding when meshing.
Image is from How Manual
Transmissions Work, HowStuffWorks,
Inc.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmissi
on.htm
Most modern manual transmission cars have been equipped with synchronizers so double
clutching is no longer necessary. However, you still can use this technique when driving to enhance the synchronizers and clutch pads lives.
Automatic Transmission
fugally. By locking one of them, the planetary set can generate three different gear ratios, including one reverse gear, without engaging and disengaging the gear set. The shockwave file
http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/automatic-transmission-planetary.swf shows how this
mechanism works when you click on the left buttons. Normally an automatic transmission system has two planetary gear sets with different sizes of sun gears with their planet gears intermeshed (see Figure 11.) Only one planet carrier is used to connect both sets of planet gears. This
is called a compound planetary gear set. This design can generate four different gear ratios and
one reverse gear. The inputs, outputs, and gear ratios are summarized in Table 1 [7].
Gear
Input
Output
Fixed
Gear Ratio
1st
30-tooth Sun
72-tooth Ring
Planet Carrier
2.4:1
30-tooth Sun
Planet Carrier
36-tooth Ring
2.2:1
Planet Carrier
72-tooth Ring
36-tooth Sun
0.67:1
Total 2nd
1.47:1
2nd
3rd
Planet Carrier
72-tooth Ring
36-tooth Sun
0.67:1
Reverse
36-tooth Sun
72-tooth Ring
Planet Carrier
-2.0:1
1.0:1
Table 1
In order to lock the gears to perform gear ratio change, a band and clutches are used. The band is
connected to an actuator piston by way of a lever link (see Figure 12). The piston pushes the
lever link to force the band to lock the gear.
From different auto makers, several different types of automatic transmission systems
were designed and developed. Figure 14
shows one of the simple automatic transmission system designs. From this design,
the sun gear (yellow) is connected to a drum
(yellow), which can be locked by a band
(red). The ring gear (blue) is directly connected to the input shaft (blue), which transfers power from the engine. The planet carrier (green) is connected to the output shaft
(green), which transfers power into the
wheels. Based on this design, when in neutral, both band and clutch sets are released.
Turning the ring gear can only drive planet
gears but not the planet carrier, which stays
static if the car is not moving. The planet
gears drive the sun gear to spin freely. In
this situation, the input shaft is not able to
transfer power to the output shaft. When
whose gear ratio is small than 1. This will make the gear shift more smooth [8].
How can the band and
clutches perform the
lock function to select
the right gear automatically? Both the
band and clutch piston
are pressurized by the
hydraulic system (see
Figure 15). The part
connecting the band or
clutches to the hydraulic system is called the
shift valve, while the
Figure 14 Planetary Gear Sets with Band and Clutches. Image is from Charles Ofria, A Short
one connecting the hyCourse on Automatic Transmission, The Family Car Web Magazine,
draulic system to the
http://www.familycar.com/
output shaft is called
the governor (see Figure 16). The governor is a centrifugal sensor with a spring loaded valve.
The faster the governor spins, the more the valve opens. The more the valve opens, the more the
fluid goes through and the higher the pressure applied on the shift valve. Therefore, each band
and clutch can be pushed to lock the
gear based on a specific spin speed detected by the governor from the output
shaft. To make the hydraulic system
work efficiently, a complex maze of
passages was designed to replace a
large number of tubes (see Figure 17).
For modern cars, an electronic controlled (computer controlled) solenoid
pack is used to detect throttle position,
vehicle speed, engine speed, engine
load, brake pedal position, etc., and to
automatically choose the best gear for a Figure 15 Hydraulic system. Image is from HowStuffWorks, Inc.,
http://auto.howstuffworks.com
moving vehicle.
Figure 17 Hydraulic System with Maze Structure. Image is from Charles Ofria, A Short Course on Automatic
Transmission, The Family Car Web Magazine, http://www.familycar.com/
A torque converter consists of four parts, a pump (impeller), turbine, stator, and transmission fluid. The
pump is connected to the engine and transfers engine power to the transmission fluid. The fluid
causes the turbine, which is connected to the input shaft, to spin. The stator is used to redirect
fluid returning from the turbine before it hits the pump, again to increase the efficiency. In this
design, even when the vehicle is in gear but not moving (the turbine is forced to stop), the pump
can still keep spinning without causing the engine to stall.
When the vehicle speed is slow, the turbine
is always spinning more slowly than the
pump. However, when the vehicle moves at
high speed, the turbine can spin at almost the
same speed as the pump. Therefore, for modern cars, a lock up will occur between
pump and turbine when the vehicle is at high
speed in fourth gear, which makes the torque
converter work more efficiently.
Tiptronic transmission is a special type of
Figure 19 The Structure of a Torque Converter. Image is from
automatic transmission with a computer
What is a Torque Converter? Pacific Driveline,
controlled automatic shift. The driver can
http://www.pacificdriveline.com/torque.htm
switch the transmission to manual mode,
which lets her shift the gear at her wish sequentially up (+) or down (-) (see Figure 20) without
disengaging the clutch. This works just like a manual transmission; however, it still uses a torque
converter to transfer power from the engine. Unfortunately, this is less efficient than a manual
transmission.
Figure 20 Tiptronic transmission. Image is from Test Drive: 2002 Audi A4 1.8T, Canadian Driver,
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/pw/02a4cvt.htm
all of the clutch disengaging, gear shifting, and clutch engaging. This not only makes the gear
shifting faster than manual transmission, but also prevents the vehicle from stalling when the car
is stationary. Like a tiptronic transmission, a semi-automatic transmission can also be switched
to manual mode to perform gear shifting at the drivers wish. The two most common semiauto- matic transmissions are direct shift transmission (aka dual-clutch transmission) and
electrohydraulic manual transmission (aka sequential transmission).
The direct shift transmission was designed and developed by the Audi and
Volkswagen auto groups. Figure 24
shows the structure of the direct shift
transmission. Like a conventional manual
transmission system, it uses a collar, synchronizer, and gear set to perform gear
shift. The clutch set is like that inside the
automatic planetary gear transmission
system, which controls the gear ratio
change. Unlike the conventional manual
transmission system, there are two different gear/collar sets, with each connected
to two different input/output shafts. One
set contains odd (1st, 3rd, 5th) gears,
while the other contains even (2nd, 4th,
6th) gears. It is just like two conventional manual transmission gear boxes in
Figure 24 6-Speed Direct-Shift Gear Box. Image is from How Dualone. To automatically shift from 1st gear
clutch Transmissions Work? HowStuffWorks Inc.,
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/dual-clutch-transmission.htm
to 2nd gear, first the computer detects
that the spinning speed of the input shaft is too high, and engages the 2nd gears collar to the
2nd gear. The clutch then disengages from 1st gears input shaft, and engages the 2nd gears
input shaft. Controlled by computer, the gear shift becomes extremely fast compared with a
conven- tional manual transmission. Using direct contact of the clutch instead of fluid coupling
also im- proves power transmission efficiency. Another advanced technology used for direct
shift trans- mission allows it to perform double clutching by shifting the gear to neutral first,
adjusting the spinning speed of the input shaft, and then shifting to the next gear. This makes
gear shifting very smooth.
However, an automatic transmission system is easy for a new driver to learn to use quickly, because engaging/disengaging the clutch by foot is not necessary, and the car will never stall during gear shifting. The CVT uses solid coupling instead of fluid coupling, which not only solves
the power loss problem but also prevents the clutch from engaging/disengaging to perform the
gear ratio change. However, the CVT is also heavy, and the strength of the driving belt is the
critical issue which determines the CVTs performance. The infinite number of gear ratios makes
gear change smooth, and the result is better fuel efficiency. However, some drivers who enjoy
quick acceleration may not like the CVTs slow and smooth acceleration.
Two different semi-automatic transmission systems are the most advanced transmission systems
used in race cars and luxury cars. They use computers to perform gear shift faster than conventional manual transmission, and also with better fuel economy. However, the direct shift transmission has too many machine parts, and also a complex clutch set, which makes the gear box
heavy, and easily broken. The high repair cost is also an issue. The electrohydraulic manual
transmission has a simpler gear structure with a rotating drum to perform gear ratio change. The
drum can be rotated manually, or by computer control. This makes the gear shift extremely fast,
and due to its simple structure, the gear box is not heavy, and only occupies a small space. That
is why its also used for manual transmission on motorcycles. However, if you need to make a
sudden stop at high speed, its impossible to shift from 6th gear directly to 1st gear. You will
need to go through all gears from 5th to 2nd. Without a clutch design, the gear shift is not
smooth. Thats why it is only used for some high speed race cars like Toyota MR2 and
Ferrari, which only consider speed but not comfort.
The Future Development of Automotive Transmission Systems
It is likely that, with the progress of new material technology, the CVT will gradually replace the
conventional automatic transmission due to its high fuel efficiency and smooth gear shift. The
technology of semi-automatic transmission systems will also be improved to perform smooth
gear shift and extend the cars lifetime, without losing fast acceleration and fuel efficiency.
The torque converter with fluid coupling may be improved, or may no longer be used for cars in
the future due to its low-efficiency power transfer. The gear shift of the manual transmission will
be controlled by computer instead of engaging/disengaging the clutch and moving the gear
selector by hand. For some modern cars, using push-buttons behind the steering wheel, instead
of a con- ventional shift lever or stick, also saves gear shift time when shifting manually. An
adaptive transmission control (ATC) has also been invented by using a computer to recognize
and memo- rize different drivers styles, and determining the best shifting timing for different
drivers. As mentioned in the Introduction, a transmission system is needed for a vehicle due to
the internal combustion engines property of running at high pressure at high speed but low
pressure at low speed. If someday an engine with different properties is invented, the
transmission system may no longer be necessary, but can still get the vehicle to reach its
maximum speed in a couple of seconds.
References
1. Steam Engine Invented, Antique Farming.
http://www.antiquefarming.com/steamengine.html
2. How Steam Engines Work? HowStuffWorks, Inc.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/steam.htm
3. Steam Engine Operation, HowStuffWorks, Inc.
http://static.howstuffworks.com/flash/steam-engine.swf
4. Self-Adjusting Clutch Mechanism, PatentStorm LLC.
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5456345-fulltext.html
5. Double Clutch, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_clutch
6. Semi-Automatic Transmission, Wikipedia Foundation, Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-automatic_transmission
7. How Automatic Transmission Works? HowStuffWorks, Inc.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission3.htm
8. Charles Ofria, A Short Course on Automatic Transmission, The Family Car Web.
Magazine, http://www.familycar.com/
9. Internal-Combustion Engine, Answers Corporation
http://www.answers.com/internal%20combustion%20engine
10. How Two-Stroke Engines Work? HowStuffWorks, Inc.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/two-stroke2.htm
11. How Car Engines Work? HowStuffWorks, Inc.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine1.htm
12. Magura Motorcycle Components, Sand Wizards Racing.
http://www.sandwizards.com/Magura_review.htm