Effects of bubble content on the rotor behavior and characteristics of hydraulic pumps used for automatic transmissions

In automatic transmissions, hydraulic oil in the oil sump is strongly agitated by gears during operation; thus, the oil is mixed with great amounts of air. Air-mixed oil is sucked and discharged by a hydraulic pump to shift the gears. Although air bubbles mixed in the oil may affect the behavior of the rotors, driving torque, and discharge flow rate, they have hardly been measured. In this study, we measure them using a balanced vane pump and a gerotor pump used for automatic transmissions under varying air bubble contents and operating conditions. The experimental results revealed that the inclusion of air bubbles in the oil somewhat influenced the rotor behavior of both test pumps but it did not seem to increase the contact between the rotor and the surrounding stationary parts. Furthermore, as the bubble content increased, friction torque decreased to some degree, while discharge flow rate decreased to a great degree. This work proposed a new friction torque model, in which bubble content is included as a parameter, and the proposed model demonstrated relatively good agreement with the measured friction torque characteristics. The results also revealed that the rotor behavior and friction torque characteristic were mainly affected by bubble content and less so by bubble size.