Numerical investigation of the air-oil two-phase flow inside a wet clutch

The air-oil two-phase flow inside a wet clutch impacts its performance. It is needed to study the two-phase flow characteristics inside the wet clutch. The air-oil two-phase flow model is established based on the finite volume method and RNG k-ε turbulence model. Through the numerical analysis of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations of the air-oil two-phase of lubricating medium inside a wet clutch, the flow field distribution of lubricant oil is obtained. The study is verified by compared with experimental data. The results show that the distribution of lubrication oil inside a wet clutch is not uniform. The oil volume fraction reaches the maximum in the groove. The average oil volume fraction increases with the increase of rotary speed and groove number. With the increasing of rotation speed, drag torque first increases, then decreases, and finally remains unchanged. In the same total groove area, the maximum drag torque decreases with the increase of groove number. The present study supplies a new method to the field analysis of lubricant oil and drag torque inside a wet clutch.