Engineering >> Mechanical EngineeringPerformance Comparison of a CVT and a Manual Transmissionby Austin Jones
Submitted : Spring 2014 The goal of the project was to determine whether a continuously variable transmission would be advantageous to use in a performance aspect over a standard manual transmission. To determine this, I found the time that it took for a Nissan GT-R to reach 100 mph when paired with each of these transmissions. I began by analyzing an RPM vs. torque graph found from running a Nissan GT-R on a dynamometer. From here, I found the force, velocity, and force inverse of the vehicle using a derivation of Newton’s second law. Once the force inverse was found, I plotted force inverse vs. velocity graphs for each transmission type and found the area under the curve to find the time it took each transmission to reach 100 mph. It took the manual transmission only 7.32 seconds while the CVT took 7.97 seconds to reach 100 mph. In a real test of speed recorded by Motortrend.com, a 2012 Nissan GT-R paired with a manual transmission can be found to reach 100 mph in 7.4 seconds, which is very comparable to the results that I have found. A CVT has not been developed thus far that can handle a high torque load so this test was merely theoretical for the time when a performance based CVT is developed. Related Links:
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