An experimental approach to monitor the clutch thermal condition to increase the clutch life

One of the top problems that every Indian automobile manufacturer struggles to manage is the clutch early failure less than 30000 Km. This is mainly due to the extreme heating of the friction lining due to the real-world user profile in the Indian market and users inappropriate driving behaviors like Overloading the goods more than the manufacturer’s recommendation, Non recommended attachments and increased wheel size, Thick traffic leading to high level of clutch modulation and Clutch riding while running and launching the vehicle at higher gears. Although many simulation and testing are done during the development phase, above listed real world user profile and customer driving habits are inevitable by any automobile manufacturer. Hence the prime goal of this experimental research is to indicate or alert the user on the clutch thermal condition due to the driving habit and to encourage the user on right driving habits. This objective is met through an stand alone electronic system that consists of a set of thermocouple, a micro controller unit (ECU) and a digital LED display. Analog output of the thermocouple is fed into the ECU which contains the wear calculation logic to convert the temperature input to the heat energy dissipated through flywheel surface during every clutch engagement. ECU then estimates the friction lining temperature caused due to the heat energy and calculates the wear of the friction lining. Finally, the percentage of facing lining worn due to the launch events along with the clutch housing temperature will be displayed through the LED display which is fixed in the instrument panel. By using this system, it is expected that the user awareness with respect to the right driving behavior can be improved and thereby the clutch facing life , hence the reduced cost of warranty by the manufacturer.