Pressure Distribution of a Multidisc Clutch Suffering Frictionally Induced Thermal Load

ABSTRACT

The transient thermal and thermoelastic analysis of an automotive multidisc clutch is performed to investigate the thermal deformation and the contact pressure distribution of the friction surfaces. An alternating finite volume method (FVM) and finite element method (FEM) for temperature distribution and contact pressure distribution, including the coupling between temperature, displacement, and contact pressure, is employed in MATLAB. A penalty function method is used to impose the constraints on the contact boundary. The computational results indicate that the contact pressure distributions on the surfaces near the pressure plate are more uniform than those near the opposite plate, and the nonuniformity is enlarged with the temperature rise. The contact pressure and temperature distributions on the two friction surfaces of the separate plate are dissimilar and asymmetric, which is in good agreement with the test results. The results further show that the contact pressure peaks diminish and the noncontact regions reduce due to the heat conduction and convection when the engagement ends.

KEYWORDS:

• Multidisc clutches
• frictional contact
• alternating FVM–FEM
• contact pressure distribution

Funding

The authors thank the China Scholarship Council for supporting the lead author during his research leave at the Center for Vehicle Systems & Safety at Virginia Tech; furthermore, the authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 51175042) for funding this research.