An Experimental Investigation and Numerical Analysis of the Thermal Behavior of a Clutch System Using the Frictional Facing of Functionally Graded Materials

Abstract

The friction clutch design strongly depends upon the frictional heat generated between contact surfaces during slipping at the beginning of the engagement. Firstly, the frictional heat generated reduces the performance of the clutch system and then leads to premature failure for contacting surfaces in some cases. The experimental effort in this work included manufacturing friction facing from functionally graded material (FGM) (aluminum and silicon carbide) for the clutch system. For this purpose, a special test rig was developed to investigate the thermal behavior of FGM and compare it with other frictional materials. The Taguchi L9 orthogonal design was selected to analyze the effect of the three factors (rotational, speed, torque, and the type of the frictional material) with three levels on the surface temperature of the contacting surfaces. A three-dimensional finite element model was built to validate the experimental results where the difference between them did not exceed 5.2%. The experimental results showed that the temperatures grew with the disc radius. Furthermore, the surfaces of the pressure plates and the flywheel were affected by frictional heat flow, and this effect increased when increasing the sliding speed. The lowest temperatures occurred when using FGM, which was lower than the other materials by 10%. This study presented an integrated approach consisting of design, manufacturing, and testing to study the complex frictional materials’ effect on the clutch system’s tribological performance.

Experimental Investigation of Thermal Effect on the Frictional Characteristics of HCC Friction Clutch Material

“…Deep investigations were conducted by Abdullah et al [8][9][10][11] to determine the temperature distribution and dissipation of energy for dry clutch during single and multi-engagements under uniform wear and pressure status. They extended their work by using two methods to show the role of applied pressures on the performance of clutch systems.…”

“…Based on what was presented in the introduction section, it is clear that there is a significant effect of high-temperature levels on the behavior and performance of the friction clutch system. Where the thermal effect will cause various types of issues and failures in parts of the clutch system [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Figure 9 summarizes the main trouble/ failure that happened in the frictional facing/ lining of the clutch system, flywheel, and pressure plate due to the thermal effect (high temperature).…”