Probleemstelling:

In high performance vehicles, high amounts of power are transferred through the driveline. With these high powers, the demand for cooling and lubrication increases. A challenge in transmission design is optimizing the cooling and lubrication system to prevent overheating or excessive wear from occurring. As an excess of oil negatively impacts weight and efficiency, and different components in the transmission have different requirements, optimization plays an important role in the overall.

Doelstelling:

The goal of this thesis is to establish an approach and model to accurately characterize the thermal behaviour of a high performance transmission. This model will be a continuation of the modelling done in a previous thesis. Considering several heat sources, oil flow paths and heat transfer paths, the model should be able to predict how each section of the transmission heats up/cools down under several driving conditions. It should be able to tell the right amount of cooling oil is reaching the correct areas in the transmission to avoid overall, but also local, overheating. In the end, the model could be used as verification of new driving conditions (e.g. new drive cycle, new application, ...) and allow fast optimizations in lubrication and cooling strategies.

This project aids in achieving sustainable development goal (SDG) 7: affordable and clean energy, by enabling the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable electricity as an energy source for the transport sector.

Goal 7 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs