Basic Principle of Operation
Automotive limited-slip differentials all contain a few basic elements. First, all have a gear train that, like an open differential, allows the outputs to spin at different speeds while holding the average speed of the two outputs to be equal to the input speed.
Second, all have some sort of mechanism that applies a torque internal to the differential that resists the relative motion of the output shafts. In simple terms this means they have some mechanism which resists a speed difference between the outputs by creating a resisting torque between either the two outputs or the outputs and the differential housing. There are many mechanisms used to create this resisting torque. The type of limited-slip differential typically gets its name from the design of this resisting mechanism. Examples include viscous and clutch-based LSDs. The amount of limiting torque provided by these mechanisms varies by design and is discussed later in the article.
Read more about this topic: Limited-slip Differential
Famous quotes containing the words basic, principle and/or operation:
“It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“A certain secret jealousy of the British Minister is always lurking in the breast of every American Senator, if he is truly democratic; for democracy, rightly understood, is the government of the people, by the people, for the benefit of Senators, and there is always a danger that the British Minister may not understand this political principle as he should.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)