Contact Analysis of a Dry Friction Clutch System

The numerical simulation of the friction clutch system (pressure plate, clutch disc, and flywheel) during the full engagement period (assuming no slipping between contact surfaces) is carried out using finite element method. Two types of load condition considered affect on the clutch elements during the full engagement period are the contact pressure of diaphragm spring and the centrifugal force. The study of the pressure distribution between the contact surfaces and the factors affecting it is one of the fundamentals in the process of designing the friction clutch to obtain accurate estimation of the temperature distribution during the slipping period and the contact stresses during the full engagement period. The investigation covers the effect of the contact stiffness factor FKN on the pressure distribution between contact surfaces, stresses, and penetration. The penalty and augmented Lagrange algorithms have been used to obtain the pressure distribution between contact surfaces. ANSYS13 software has been used to perform the numerical calculation in this paper. 1. Introduction A clutch is a very important machine element which plays a main role in the transmission of power (and eventually motion) from one component (the driving part of the machine) to another (the driven part). A common and well-known application for the clutch is in automotive vehicles where it is used to connect the engine and the gearbox. Furthermore, the clutch is used also extensively in production machinery of all types. When the clutch disc begins to engage, the contact pressure between the contact surfaces will increase to the maximum value at the end of the slipping period and will stay steady during the full engagement period. At high relative sliding velocity, high quantity of frictional heat is generated which leads to high temperature rise on the clutch disc surfaces and hence thermomechanical problems such as thermal deformations and thermoelastic instability can occur. This in turn can lead to thermal cracking and high rate of wear. The pressure distribution is essential factor effect on the performance of the friction clutch because of the heat generated between contact surfaces during the slipping period dependent on the pressure distribution. Al-Shabibi and Barber [1] used the finite element method to find the transient solution of the temperature field and contact pressure distribution between two sliding disks. Two-dimensional axisymmetric FE model used to explore an alternative method based on an eigenfunction expansion and a particular solution that can be used