Silicone fluids belong to the group of pseudoplastic non-Newtonian fluids with complex rheological characteristics. They are considered in basic and applied researches and in a wide range of industrial applications due to their favorable physical and thermal properties. One of their specific field of applications in the automotive industry is the working fluid of viscous torsional vibration dampers. For numerical studies in the design and development phase of this damping product, it is essential to have thorough rheological knowledge and mathematical description about the silicone oil viscosity. In the present work, adopted rheological measurement results conducted on polydimethylsiloxane manufactured by Wacker Chemie with initial viscosity of 1000 Pas (AK 1 000 000 STAB silicone oil) are processed. As a result of the parameter identification by nonlinear regression, the temperature-dependent parameter curves of the Carreau–Yasuda non-Newtonian viscosity model are generated. By implementing these parameter sets into a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, a temperature- and shear-rate-dependent viscosity model of silicone fluid was tested, using transient flow and thermal simulations on elementary tube geometries in the size range of a real viscous torsional vibration damper’s flow channels and filling chambers. The numerical results of the finite volume method provide information about the developed flow processes, with especial care for the resulted flow pattern, shear rate, viscosity and timing.

The crankshaft of today’s internal combustion engines with high performance output are exposed to harmful torsional oscillations originated from the unbalanced gas and inertial forces. To avoid the fatigue damage of engine components, caused by the undesired vibrations, torsional vibration dampers can be applied. Viscodampers are one type of the torsional vibration dampers, which operational fluid is silicone oil. For cost-effective R&D activities and production, finite element and finite volume numerical discretization methods based calculation techniques must be involved into the engineering work supported by the modern computer technology. The aim of this paper is to provide an insight into the multidisciplinary design and development process of visco-dampers in vehicle industry applications. Four different examples as structural, fatigue, CFD analyses and structural optimization have been introduced in the present work. It turned out from the static structural and fatigue analyses, that the investigated damper has safety factor over the limit for both static structural and fatigue analyses, so it is suitable for the given load conditions. In the structural optimization process 34.36% mass reduction has been achieved. According to the coupled fluid dynamic and heat transfer simulations a rather stagnating air zone evolved between the engine and the damper during the operation, which can cause efficiency reduction of cooling fins mounted onto the housing. In light of the numerical results, the suitable damper position has been determined for the highest heat transfer.

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