A New Clutch Actuation System for Dry DCT 2015-01-1118
Dry dual clutch transmission (DCT) has played an important role in the high performance applications as well as low-cost market sectors in Asia, with a potential as the future mainstream transmission technology due to its high mechanical efficiency and driving comfort. Control system simplification and cost reduction has been critical in making dry DCT more competitive against other transmission technologies. Specifically, DCT clutch actuation system is a key component with a great potential for cost-saving as well as performance improvement.
In this paper, a new motor driven clutch actuator with a force-aid lever has been proposed. A spring is added to assist clutch apply that can effectively reduce the motor size and energy consumption. The goal of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of this new clutch actuator, and the force-aid lever actuator's principle, physical structure design, and validation results are discussed in details. A prototyping of the proposed system is developed for the engagement of the clutch with a position-tracking controller. The advantages of the design and the performance of the control system developed are demonstrated through bench testing. It can be a promising low-cost clutch actuation system for a DCT transmission
