Potential Fuel Efficiency Improvements by Dual Clutch Transmission

Authors

Dipl.-Ing. K.-H. Bauer, Dr.-Ing. J. Heinrich, Dr.-Ing. F. Günter, BorgWarner Drivetrain Engineering GmbH, Ketsch

Year

2005

Print Info

Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 595

Summary

The market for automatic transmissions in passenger cars is far greater in the US and Japan than it is in Europe today. A primary reason for this is the European customer’s demand for higher fuel efficiency. This, along with the higher purchase costs, has been the main reason for the lower popularity of automatic transmissions in Europe. When introduced into the market dual clutch transmissions were the first automatic transmissions that enabled better fuel efficiency than manual transmissions. One major reason for this efficiency increase is the low parasitic losses associated with the dual clutch system as compared to the planetary automatic transmissions. This paper describes the immanent system power losses of different transmission concepts and their effect on the overall vehicle fuel efficiency. The advantages in the specific fuel efficiency performance of the dual clutch transmission will be demonstrated on the basis of vehicle data, test rig results, and systems simulations. The potential to further improved efficiency of dual clutch transmissions will be shown on exemplary systems based on BorgWarner research and development results. Based on this systematic investigation and evaluation of the vehicle power train, customer-relevant effects on fuel efficiency will be demonstrated.

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