Effect of Normal Force and Temperature on Tribological Properties of Wet Clutch Friction Material

The tribological properties of paper-based friction materials are crucial to the performance of a wet clutch system. In this work, the friction and wear characteristics of a paper-based friction material in boundary lubrication state was experimentally investigated using a pin-on-reciprocating tribotester under various normal forces and temperatures. It was found that the wear rate of the friction material increased from $5.8{\times}10^{-6}mm^3/N/cycle$ to $5.5{\times}10^{-5}mm^3/N/cycle$ after 1,700 cycles of testing at $80^{\circ}C$ as normal force increased from 2 N to 7 N. The friction coefficient was also found to increase from 0.135 to 0.155 with increasing normal force from 2 N to 7 N. The increase in contact pressure with increasing normal force may be responsible for these results. In addition, as temperature increased from $20^{\circ}C$ to $80^{\circ}C$, the wear rate of the friction materials increased from $2.0{\times}10^{-5}mm^3/N/cycle$ to $3.6{\times}10^{-5}mm^3/N/cycle$ while the friction coefficient decreased from 0.163 to 0.146. This result may be associated with the decrease in the hardness of friction materials with increasing temperature. Furthermore, plastic deformation on the friction materials was mainly observed after the test. The outcome of this work may be useful to gain a better understanding of the tribological properties of friction materials, and therefore can contribute to the development of friction materials with enhanced performance for wet clutch systems.

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