Effect of Lubricating Phase on Microstructure and Properties of Cu⁻Fe Friction Materials

An Effect of a Carbon-Containing Additive in the Structure of a Friction Material on Temperature of the Wet Clutch Disc

This paper consists of two parts. The first one contains a description and methodology of the composite material used as friction material in clutches. Four variants of such material, differing in the type of carbon additive (the elemental graphite, pencil graphite and foundry coke powder of various fractions) were considered. Thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity as well as the specific heat all materials were determined experimentally. On the inertial IM-58 stand, a simulation of the braking process of the friction pair consisting of a steel disc with friction material and a counterpart in the form of a homogeneous steel disc was carried out. On this basis, averaged coefficients of friction, unchanging in the entire sliding process, were found for the four friction pairs. The experimental data obtained in the first stage were used in the second stage to develop two (2D and 3D) numerical models of the friction heating process of the friction pairs under consideration. For four variants of the friction material, a comparative spatial-temporal temperature analysis was performed using both models. It was found that a simplified axisymmetric (2D) model can be used to estimate the maximum temperature with high accuracy. The lowest maximum temperature (115.6 °C) obtained for the same total friction work was achieved on the friction surface of the material with the addition of GP-1.

Influence of Material Parameters on the Contact Pressure Characteristics of a Multi-Disc Clutch

As an essential part of the transmission, the life of the clutch directly affects the stability of the transmission. In this paper, a finite element model and a thermodynamic numerical model of a multi-disc clutch are established to investigate the influence of material parameters on the contact pressure distribution. The pressure distribution index (PDI) is firstly proposed to evaluate the pressure difference among friction pairs. Moreover, the correctness of the numerical model is verified by the clutch static pressure experiment. The results show that increasing the elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the backplate can effectively improve the uniformity of the contact pressure. However, the variations in material parameters of other clutch components can not easily smooth the pressure difference. Therefore, optimized material parameters for the clutch are proposed, where the maximum pressure and temperature differences are reduced by about 27.2% and 10.3%, respectively.

Effect of Cold-Sintering Parameters on Structure, Density, and Topology of Fe-Cu Nanocomposites

The design of advanced nanostructured materials with predetermined physical properties requires knowledge of the relationship between these properties and the internal structure of the material at the nanoscale, as well as the dependence of the internal structure on the production (synthesis) parameters. This work is the first report of computer-aided analysis of high pressure consolidation (cold sintering) of bimetallic nanoparticles of two immiscible (Fe and Cu) metals using the embedded atom method (EAM). A detailed study of the effect of cold sintering parameters on the internal structure and properties of bulk Fe–Cu nanocomposites was conducted within the limitations of the numerical model. The variation of estimated density and bulk porosity as a function of Fe-to-Cu ratio and consolidation pressure was found in good agreement with the experimental data. For the first time, topological analysis using Minkowski functionals was applied to characterize the internal structure of a bimetallic nanocomposite. The dependence of topological invariants on input processing parameters was described for various components and structural phases. The model presented allows formalizing the relationship between the internal structure and properties of the studied nanocomposites. Based on the obtained topological invariants and Hadwiger’s theorem we propose a new tool for computer-aided design of bimetallic Fe–Cu nanocomposites.

Comparison of the Friction and Wear Characteristics between Copper and Paper Based Friction Materials

Copper-based friction material (CFM) and paper-based friction material (PFM) are the two most commonly used clutch friction materials. The friction and wear characteristics of these two kinds of friction materials under dry conditions were investigated by the pin-on-disc test over a broad range of applied loads, rotating speeds and ambient temperatures. Before experiments, the running-in test was conducted to stabilize the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear amount of the test samples. After experiments, the metallographic micrographs of the tested samples were presented to investigate the wear mechanisms. Experimental results showed that both the COF and wear depth of the CFM are much greater than these of PFM. The COF of CFM decreases with the increase of applied load, and changes slightly with the variation of rotating speed, whereas it increases first and then decreases with the increase of ambient temperature. However, the COF of PFM decreases dramatically with the increase of the rotating speed and ambient temperature, while it remains stable at first and then decreases slowly as the applied load increases. Additionally, under such three working conditions, the wear depth of CFM changes linearly, while the wear depth of PFM varies greatly. This study can be used as a guide for selecting friction materials for clutches with different applications.