Optimal shape selection of pseudo-rigid-body model compliant centrifugal clutch manufactured by thermoplastics using TOPSIS approach

This paper discusses and analyses a compliant centrifugal clutch with different materials. Compliant centrifugal clutch specimens required for investigation are prepared by an injection moulding process. Experiments are conducted based on the experiments designed as per Taguchi's Design of Experiment (DoE); an L-27 Orthogonal Array (OA) is formulated and a multi-response optimisation approach Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is adopted for optimising torque carrying capacity, wear rate and, contact temperature. Experiments are conducted for three different polymer materials viz., polypropylene (PP), Delrin (DE) and polyurethane (PU) with three different profiles, circular (CR), elliptical (EL) and square fillet (SF), along with varying rotating speeds. The outcome shows that by changing the clutch material and flexure profiles, a substantial variation in torque carrying capacity, wear rate and contact temperature is observed.

Automated summary

This paper discusses and analyzes a compliant centrifugal clutch with different materials. The compliant centrifugal clutch specimens are prepared using an injection molding process for investigation. Experiments are conducted based on Taguchi's Design of Experiment and a multi-response optimization approach is adopted. The outcome shows that a substantial variation in torque carrying capacity, wear rate, and contact temperature is observed by changing the clutch material and flexure profiles.