Behavior of a composite multidisk clutch subjected to mechanical and frictionally excited thermal load

A transient temperature-displacement coupled analysis is performed to investigate the thermomechanical behavior of a multidisk clutch, based on a carbon-carbon composite, under simulated operation conditions. The user subroutine FRIC is implemented into an axisymmetric finite element model to simulate the frictional behavior between contacting surfaces. The temperature and contact pressure distributions on the friction surfaces are obtained. High thermal stress occurs in the clutch system due to the significant temperature variation during operation. The effects of clutch disk thickness and thermal properties on the thermomechanical behavior of the clutch system are investigated to facilitate the conceptual design of a multidisk clutch system.