Finite Element Analysis of Temperature Field in Automotive Dry Friction Clutch

The friction clutch design is strongly dependent upon the frictional heat generated between contact surfaces during the slipping at beginning of engagement. Because of that the frictional heat generated firstly will reduce the performance of clutch system and then will lead to premature failure in some cases. Finite element method was used to investigate aneffect of thermal load type on the temperature field of the clutch system. Two-dimensional axisymmetric model was used to study the temperature distribution for the clutch system (pressure plate, clutch disc and flywheel) during heating phase (slipping period) and in the cooling phase (full engagement period). Depending on basic friction clutch design two types of thermal loads were applied; load type A (uniform pressure) and load type B (uniform wear). Repeated engagements made at regular interval wereconsidered in this work. ANSYS13 has been used to perform the numerical calculation in this paper.