Numerical Study to Obtain a Robust Design of Metallic Disc Present in the Clutch System through Test Bench Correlation

The main components present in the clutch disc assembly are friction facing, metallic disc, damper spring, drive plate, retainer plate, washers and hub. Among the parts, metallic disc is the weakest component present in the clutch system and moreover it is subjected to higher fatigue load during the vehicle operating condition. Hence it is necessary to make the design as more robust to withstand the worst loading conditions. The metallic disc is subjected to axial load, torque, speed and axial misalignment during vehicle operating condition. Through bench test, it was observed that higher severity in metallic disc was due to axial misalignment. Initially, metallic disc was tested for axial misalignment condition up to failure through bench test and the number of cycles were determined. Structural simulation was simulated as the same as bench test using ANSYS workbench 19.2. From this better correlation arrived between FEA and bench test. To make FEA result more robust, tolerance study was done using six sigma methodology. Therefore, this Numerical method was useful to obtain a sturdy design of metallic disc without investing much time through bench test. Optimization study was performed on metallic disc by considering all the possible design parameters without affecting the functionality of the component. A Novel Y shaped design profile was introduced in the metallic disc to increase the life cycle of the component, which is the main novelty of the current research work. This design pointed 15% and 20% reduction in stress and 10% and 62% least stiffness when equated with the initial design for gearbox side (GBS) and flywheel side (FWS) respectively. Hence the Novel Y shaped design was considered as robust design for the current disc assembly of the automotive application.