The flow between a grooved and a flat plate was presented to investigate the effects of groove on the behavior of hydro-viscous drive. The flow was solved by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, Fluent. Parameters related to the flow, such as velocity, pressure, temperature, axial force and viscous torque, are obtained. The results show that pressure at the upstream notch is negative, pressure at the downstream notch is positive and pressure along the film thickness is almost the same. Dynamic pressure peak decreases as groove depth or groove number increases, but increases as output rotary speed increases. Consequently, the groove depth is suggested to be around 0.4 mm. Both the groove itself and groove parameters (i.e. groove depth, groove number) have little effect on the flow temperature. Circumferential pressure gradient induced by the groove weakens the viscous torque on the grooved plate (driven plate) greatly. It has little change as the groove depth increases. However, it decreases dramatically as the groove number increases. The experiment results show that the trend of experimental temperature and pressure are the same with numerical results. And the output rotary speed also has relationship with input flow rate and flow temperature.
The velocity, pressure and temperature distributions of the flow in the gap between hydro-viscous drive friction disks are the key parameters in the design of hydro-viscous drive and angular velocity controller. In the previous works dealing with the flow in the gap between disks in hydro-viscous drive, few authors considered the effect of Coriolis force on the flow. The object of this work is to investigate the flow with consideration of the effects of centrifugal force, Coriolis force and variable viscosity. A simplified mathematical model based on steady and laminar flow is presented. An approximate solution to the simplified mathematical model is obtained by using the iteration method assuming that the fluid viscosity remains constant. Then the model considering the effect of variable viscosity is solved by means of computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT. Numerical results of the flow are obtained. It is found that radial velocity profile diverges from the ideal parabolic curve due to inertial forces and tangential velocity profile is nonlinear due to Coriolis force, and pressure has two possible solution branches. In addition, it is found that variable viscosity plays an important role on pressure profiles which are significantly different from those of fluid with constant viscosity. The experimental device designed for this work consists of two disks, and one of them is fixed. Experimental pressure and temperature of the flow within test rig are obtained. It is shown that the trend of numerical results is in agreement with that of experimental ones. The research provides a theoretical foundation for hydro-viscous drive design.
The flow field of the oil film between frictional pairs in the hydroviscous drive test rig is investigated. A three-dimensional Navier-Stokes（N-S） equation considering viscous force and inertial force rather than Reynolds equation or modified Reynolds equation is presented to model the flow field. Pressure and temperature distribution in radial and circumferential direction under three different conditions, i.e., isothermal, that considering viscosity-temperature characteristic as well as shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid are simulated, respectively, by utilizing the commercial computational fluid dynamics（CFD） software FLUENT. The results reveal that the grooves on the driven plate make the pressure, temperature distribution present periodic variation. The oil temperature and shear rate have important effects on the flow field between frictional pairs, and the oil temperature is more important parameter. The simulation results lay a theoretical foundation for the reasonable designs ofhydroviscous drive.
