Computer Aided Design of Split Power Hydrostatic Transmission Systems

Split power hydrostatic transmission systems have been proposed in applications ranging from machine tool drives to military tanks. So far only quite simple arrangements have been considered and the full potential of the transmission remains to be exploited. This paper investigates the design of the split power transmission for a vehicle drive and shows how the transmission characteristics can be matched to the particular requirements of the vehicle duty. The number of design alternatives makes a computer investigation an ideal approach to assess the most appropriate solution in a given application. To enable computer programs describing behaviour of complex transmissions to be easily constructed and altered requires a unified approach to the modelling procedure. The paper describes how such an approach can be used for the evaluation of transmission performance and emphasizes the importance of the computer model in determining the efficiency and fuel economy of the vehicle transmission system.