• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2014

As the importance of transmission efficiency to reducing fuel consumption and conserving the environment rapidly increases, reducing the drag torque in an automotive wet clutch is emerging as an important issue in the automotive industry. The drag torque in a clutch occurs from viscous drag generated by automatic transmission fluid in the narrow gap between separate friction plates. In this study, the drag torques in an automotive wet clutch are investigated with respect to the angle and density of the grooves between separate friction plates by three-dimensional finite element simulation of a single set of wet clutch disks considering the two-phase flow of air and oil. The simulation results shows that the drag torque generally increases with the rotational speed to a critical point and then decreases at the high-speed regime. The grooves between the plates plays an important role in reducing the drag peak, and the inclined angle of the grooves affects the oil flow. The grooves with an angle of $50^{\circ}$ shows the lowest drag torques at both low and high speeds. The flow vectors inside the $50^{\circ}$ grooves shows clear evidence that the fluid flows out more easily from the grooves compared with the flow vectors inside grooves with lower angles. The simulation results shows that increasing the number of grooves (density of grooves) decreases the drag torque.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.77-83
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• 2020

4WD technology is being actively applied to passenger cars. Therefore, dry multi-plate clutches are used for transfer cases. On the other hand, dry clutches have problems related to large vibrations and poor ride quality. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a multi-plate clutch with an MR fluid. When fastening the multi-plate clutch in the transfer case, the proposed MR clutch was applied to reduce the shock and friction, which is a key component in a four-wheel-drive system. MR multi-plate clutch has a fluid coupling mode and a compression mode. A torque model equation was derived for the optimal design. The analysis was performed using Ansys Maxwell to optimize the design parameters of the multi-plate clutch. Electromagnetic field analysis confirmed the strength of the magnetic field when the number of disks and plates were changed, and the maximum strength of the magnetic field was 0.45 Tesla. By applying this to the torque equation, the spacing between the plates was 2 mm, and the inner and outer diameters of the plates were selected to be 45 mm and 55 mm, respectively. Overall, this paper proposes an optimal design technique to maximize the performance of an MR multi-plate clutch.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.23 no.6 s.165
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• pp.1055-1064
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• 1999

In this wort ER(electro-rheological) clutch and MR(magneto-rheological) clutch are devised and their performance characteristics such as response time and controllability are compared. As a first step, field-dependent yield stresses of ER and MR fluids are distilled in shear mode. For reasonable comparison between two clutches, a nondimensional design model is established by choosing same design parameters of gap size and number. Following the manufacturing of two clutches, field-dependent torque level, response time to step input, mechanical Power generation to electric power consumption are experimentally measured and compared. In addition, in order to investigate torque controllability of the clutches a sliding mode controller is formulated and experimentally realized. Control bandwidths of two clutches are identified and tracking control responses for desired torque trajectories are presented.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.546-549
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• 1995

This paper presents a control of washing machine using ER clutch and brake actuators. After analyzing field- dependent torque of the actuators on the basis of Bingham model of the ER fluid, two sets of cylindrical ER clutch and brake are manufactured. The governing equation of motion for washing and dehydrating are derived by considering actuators' dynamics. Subsequently, PID controllers are designed to achieve desired rotational motions and tracking control results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.225-229
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• 1996

This paper presents an active position control of a moving table utilizing ER(electro-rheological) brake and ER clutch. A transformer oil-based ER fluid is composed and its Bingham properties are evaluated with respect to electric fields. The dynamics of the actuators : ER brake and ER clutch, are identified through experiments, and subsequently the governing equation of motion of the moving table system is formulated from the governing equation, a sliding mode controller is designed to achieve an accurate position control. Both simulation and experimental results and presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.269-274
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• 2017

Currently, fuel efficiency becomes one of critical issues for automotive industries as concerns about environmental and energy problems grow. In an automatic transmission of an automobile, a drag torque due to a viscous drag of a fluid between friction and clutch plates is one of factors that degrade fuel economy. In this work, the drag torque characteristics of a wet clutch was experimentally investigated with respect to rotational speed, temperature of automatic transmission fluid (ATF), and gap between friction and clutch plates. The experimental results showed that drag torque increases to a certain level, and then decrease to the steady state value with increasing rotational speed. This behavior may be associated with two-phase flow of air and ATF at gap between friction and clutch plates. Also, it was found that the maximum drag torque value decreased as ATF viscosity decreases with increasing temperature. However, it was shown that the point at which the maximum drag torque occurs was not significantly affected by the ATF temperature. In addition, maximum drag torque was found to decrease as the gap between friction and clutch plates increased from 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm. Furthermore, it was observed that the generation of maximum drag torque was delayed as the gap increased. The outcomes of this work are expected to be helpful to gain a better understanding of drag torque characteristic of a wet clutch, and may therefore be useful in the design of wet clutch systems with improved performance.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.47-56
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• 2020

As a shift control of automatic transmission was managed with the electronic control unit (ECU), shift quality which is a measure of shift shock during gear change has markedly improved. However, the initial clutch pressure control of the clutch filling phase should continue to rely on the predetermined control input since the input and output speeds are unchanged until the shifting process attains the inertia phase. It is critical to minimize the clutch response time and control the clutch pressure accurately at the end of clutch fill to achieve quick shift response and smoothness. Advanced transmission companies have adopted an auto calibration method which establishes the databases for the clutch piston fill-up attributes and the frictional characteristics of the disks. In this study, a distinctive auto calibration algorithm for forklift transmission under development is proposed and verified with the real-vehicle test. The experimental calibration results showed consistent turbine dynamics at the initial stage of shifts with the properly calibrated clutch-fill control parameters. By using this technique, it is necessary to finalize the shift control for the various operation conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.500-505
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• 2009

This paper presents temperature control of engine cooling system using a controllable magnetorheological (MR) fan clutch. An appropriate size of MR fan clutch is devised and modeled on the basis of Bingham model. Subsequently, an optimization to determine design parameters such as width of housing is undertaken by choosing the reciprocal of the controllable torque as an objective function. Under consideration of spatial limitation, design parameters are optimally determined using finite element analysis. A sliding mode controller is then designed to control the angular velocity of the MR fan clutch using experimentally determined parameters. The designed controller is experimentally implemented and control performances of the MR fan clutch system are evaluated.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2010

This paper presents temperature control of engine cooling system using a controllable magnetorheological(MR) fan clutch. An appropriate size of MR fan clutch is devised and modeled on the basis of Bingham model. Subsequently, an optimization to determine design parameters such as width of housing is undertaken by choosing the reciprocal of the controllable torque as an objective function. Under consideration of spatial limitation, design parameters are optimally determined using finite element analysis. A sliding mode controller is then designed to control the angular velocity of the MR fan clutch using experimentally determined parameters. The designed controller is experimentally implemented and control performances of the MR fan clutch system are evaluated.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

Clutches are an integral part of the automatic transmission for changing gears. Modern automatic transmissions make extensive use of wet multiple-disc clutches employing hydraulic actuation mechanism with electronic control. Although nowadays, highly advanced shifting algorithm implements the superior shift quality and transmission efficiency, its performance should be based on smooth, reliable engagement with a reasonably durable friction material as well as stable clutch piston dynamics. Particularly, clutch filling control is the crucial part of shifting process because only the open-loop control is available due to the lack of measurement. In this paper, the effect of clutch-fill control parameters on clutch piston dynamics is experimentally investigated by using clutch piston test equipment which enables the clutch piston to actuate similar to real shifting conditions. The experimental analysis results can be expected to be utilized for the calibration of proportional solenoid valve as reference current profile data in vehicle test.