Modeling the clutch energy and clutch life of a heavy duty vehicle

Clutch energy is the thermal energy dissipated on the clutch disc, and it reaches its highest level during drive-off as a result of the difference between the angular speeds of the flywheel and clutch disc, and the torque transmitted. The thermal energy dissipated effects the clutch life. This study presents a new drive-off and thermal model to calculate the clutch energy for a rear wheel driven heavy-duty vehicle and to analyze the effects of clutch energy on temperatures of clutch pressure plate, flywheel and clutch housing. Three different driver profiles are used, based on the release of the clutch pedal in modulation zone: i) the pedal travels with the same speed all the way, ii) the travel speed of the pedal increases, iii) the travel speed of the pedal decreases. Vehicle test is performed to check the accuracy of the model. When compared to a simpler model that is widely used in the literature to calculate the clutch energy, the model used in this study calculates the clutch energy and angular speed behaviors of flywheel and transmission input shaft in better agreement with experimental results. Clutch wear and total clutch life are also estimated using the mean specific friction power.