Patent Document ID: 10161513
Application ID: 15010610
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of evaluating a thermal effect of torque converter clutch slip speed calibration settings on a torque converter of a transmission, the method comprising: defining a test drive cycle to include a plurality of drive cycle inputs over a pre-defined period of time; defining a slip speed calibration table that defines a desired amount of slip in the torque converter clutch for differing values of a plurality of vehicle operating parameters; estimating values of the plurality of vehicle operating parameters with a drive simulation model saved in a memory of a computer, wherein the drive simulation model uses the drive cycle inputs of the test drive cycle and the slip speed calibration table to estimate values of the plurality of vehicle operating parameters over the pre-defined period of time for the test drive cycle; defining a plurality of discrete regions of the torque converter, with each discrete region representing a discrete thermal mass of the torque converter; estimating the temperature of each of the plurality of discrete regions of the torque converter with a temperature model saved in the memory of the computer, wherein the temperature model uses the estimated values of the plurality of vehicle operating parameters during the pre-defined period of time of the test drive cycle to estimate the temperature of each discrete region of the torque converter at different times during the pre-defined period of time of the test drive cycle; and comparing the estimated temperatures for each discrete region of the torque converter during the pre-defined period of time during the test drive cycle to a threshold temperature value to determine if the temperature of any of the discrete regions of the torque converter at any time during the pre-defined time period of the test drive cycle were greater than the threshold temperature value.