Simulation of engagement control in automotive dry-clutch and temperature field analysis through finite element model

Abstract The tribological contact under sliding condition in the clutch facing surfaces during the engagement manoeuvre is strongly affected by heat transfer occurring in the system. The frictional forces acting on the contact surfaces produce mechanical energy losses which are converted in heat with ensuing temperature increase. Reports about the temperature rise after repeated clutch engagements prove the occurrence of interface temperature peaks as high as 300 °C. Unfortunately, only few papers address their focus towards experiments and their outcomes about the influence of temperature and the other operating parameters on the frictional behaviour of the clutch facing materials. In this paper, the Authors mainly explored the frictional behaviour modification for thermal level higher than 250–300 °C, whose effect is a sharp decline of the friction coefficient related to the decomposition of the phenol resin of the facings. Moreover, this phenomenon induces not expected transition from dry friction to mixed dry-lubricated friction which explains the reasons of the friction coefficient drop. The temperature affects also the cushion spring load-deflection characteristic and the ensuing transmitted clutch torque. Thus, an original frictional map has been implemented in a control algorithm to estimate the heat flux during vehicle launch and up-shift manoeuvres. The results of the longitudinal vehicle dynamics has been used in a FEA to predict the temperature field during repeated clutch engagement on the contact surfaces. The simulation results prove that during each engagement the interface temperature increases of 30–35 °C. This means that after only few repeated clutch engagements the temperature field could reach values near the critical point of 300 °C. In such a way, this paper aims at providing useful references to control engineers in order to improve the dry-clutch transmissions performances.