MEASUREMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FRICTION IN AUTOMOTIVE DRIVESHAFT JOINTS

The typical design of automotive driveshafts generally utilizes Constant Velocity(CV) joints as a solution to NVH. CV joints are an integral part of vehicles and significantly affect steering, suspension, and vehicle vibration comfort levels. Thus, CV joints have been favored over universal joints due to the constant velocity torque transfer and plunging capability. Although CV joints are common in vehicle applications, current research works on modeling CV joint friction and assumes constant empirical friction coefficient values. However, such models are long known to be inaccurate, especially under dynamic conditions, which is the case for CV joints. In this paper, an instrumented advanced CV joint friction apparatus was developed to measure the internal friction behavior of CV joints using actual tripod-type joint assemblies. The setup is capable of measuring key performance of friction under different realistic operating conditions of oscillatory speeds, torque and joint installation angles. The apparatus incorporates a custom-installed triaxial force sensor inside of the joint to measure the internal CV joint forces(including friction). Using the designed test setup, the intrinsic interfacial parameters of CV joints were investigated in order to understand their contact and friction mechanisms. The results provide a better understanding of CV joint friction characteristics in developing improved automotive driveshafts.