The temperatures distributions of a single-disc clutches using heat partitioning and total heat generated approaches

An accurate estimation of temperature distribution is considered necessary to avoid the premature failure of friction clutches. In this work, different approaches were used to compute the surface temperatures of the friction clutch disc. The results presented the maximum surface temperature when the contact occurs between the rubbing surfaces during a single engagement and repeated engagements. Two approaches were used to simulate the thermal models of the automotive clutches to obtain the temperature field are heat partitioning approach and total heat generated approach. The analysis was conducted using developed axisymmetric finite element models to study the thermal behavior of the friction clutches during multi-engagements. The comparison was made between the temperature distributions based on the proposed approaches to show the accuracy of each approach. It was found that the heat partitioning approach was not accurate to investigate the thermal problem of the friction clutch during the multi-engagements.