Abstract: A method for determining clutch temperature. The method provides an accurate real-time clutch temperature that can be used to improve shift quality and protect against failure due to clutch overheating. A counter is incremented every time the clutch exceeds a threshold temperature to track cumulative high temperature conditions. Determining the clutch temperatures includes taking account of heat generation, clutch cooling by transmission oil flow from a groove when the clutch is engaged, clutch cooling by open transmission oil flow when the clutch is disengaged, oil vaporization, and heat conduction.

Abstract: A method for determining clutch temperature. The method provides an accurate real-time clutch temperature that can be used to improve shift quality and protect against failure due to clutch overheating. A counter is incremented every time the clutch exceeds a threshold temperature to track cumulative high temperature conditions. Determining the clutch temperatures includes taking account of heat generation, clutch cooling by transmission oil flow from a groove when the clutch is engaged, clutch cooling by open transmission oil flow when the clutch is disengaged, oil vaporization, and heat conduction.

Abstract: The present invention is a new design topology for solar/wind inverters using a new hybrid DC/DC converter design. This hybrid converter topology eliminates a difficult design compromise between lowering the minimum input voltage to harvest more solar/wind energy and achieving high power conversion efficiency when the input voltage is high in a conventional solar/wind inverter design. This invention uses both a forward converter and a flyback converter to deliver superior performance over a design that only uses one of the two converter topologies.

Abstract: The present invention is a new circuit topology to improve the efficiency of a flyback or push-pull converter or any other DC/DC converter that incorporates a transformer and whose switching device's active node (drain for MOSFETs and collector for IGBTs) has no direct energy releasing path to the power supply. The present invention uses an auxiliary DC/DC converter separate from the main DC/DC converter to reroute the parasitic energy stored in the transformer's or inductor's leakage inductance, allowing for the output of the main DC/DC converter to be augmented with the energy that would otherwise be lost. The energy stored in the leakage inductance is converted and redirected to either the load side or the power supply side of the main DC/DC converter in a series or a parallel configuration. The present invention significantly increases the overall efficiency of the system by eliminating the power loss.