Dynamic performance prediction and experimental analysis of wet clutch actuator considering thermal flow characteristics

The hydraulic actuator system (HAS) for wet clutches in heavy-duty vehicle transmissions is required to have a fast response and high precision in the pressure regulation procedure. Conventional pressure control valves for HAS are almost slide spool structures, which perform a large flow force at a high flow rate. An open-center spool structure is designed and developed in this paper, which is a combination of a traditional slide spool and a valve sleeve. It has an orifice-groove combination throttling orifice, which can take into account the large through-flow capacity and small flow force. Firstly, to deeply understand the mechanism of pressure variation in the clutch chamber, a high-fidelity dynamic characteristic mathematical model of HAS considering the oil temperature is proposed. Secondly, the functional relationship between the oil temperature on the medium physical property parameters and the orifice thermal flow parameters in the model is deduced in detail. An experimental bench to measure the pressure valve dynamic performance and actuator pressure regulation characteristics in a wide temperature domain is then designed and implemented to validate the accuracy of the simulation model. Finally, the mechanisms of oil temperature and system pressure on pressure impact and pressure response are quantitatively analyzed in association with a supervised learning algorithm. The feasible domains of the two adjustable variables are also explored. This study provides a new perspective on dynamic control and energy saving of HAS pressure valves and a new method for the prediction of HAS performance under complicated operating conditions.