CONE CLUTCH

A cone clutch serves the same purpose as a disk or plate clutch. However, instead of
mating two spinning disks, the cone clutch uses two conical surfaces to transmit torque
by friction.
The cone clutch transfers a higher torque than plate or disk clutches of the same size due
to the wedging action and increased surface area. Cone clutches are generally now only
used in low peripheral speed applications although they were once common in
automobiles and other combustion engine transmissions.
They are usually now confined to very specialist transmissions in racing, rallying, or in
extreme off-road vehicles, although they are common in power boats. This is because the
clutch does not have to be pushed in all the way and the gears will be changed quicker.
Small cone clutches are used in synchronizer mechanisms in manual transmissions.
Description

This block represents a friction clutch with a conical contact interface. The conical
interface creates a wedging action between the clutch components, a cone and a cup,
thereby reducing the normal force required for clutch engagement.
The cup component connects rigidly to the drive shaft, spinning with it as a unit. The
cone component connects rigidly to the driven shaft, which sits in axial alignment with
the drive shaft. The clutch engages when the cone slides toward the cup and presses
tightly against its internal surface.

Friction at the cone-cup contact interface enables the clutch to transmit rotational power
between the drive and driven shafts. The friction model of this block includes both static
and kinetic friction contributions, the latter of which leads to power dissipation during
slip between the cone and cup components.
Cone clutches find real-world application in synchromesh gearboxes, which synchronize
the drive and driven shaft speeds to enable smoother engagement between transmission
gears. For block model details, see Cone Clutch Model.
Ports
B and F are rotational conserving ports representing, respectively, the clutch input (base)
and output (follower) driveshaft axes. The clutch motion is measured as the slip = F
B, the angular velocity of follower relative to base.
The clutch requires a physical signal input N that represents the normal force (in
newtons) applied between the friction surfaces in contact. This signal should be positive
or zero. A signal N less than zero is interpreted as zero.
Cone Clutch Model
The Cone Clutch is based on the Fundamental Friction Clutch. For the complete friction
clutch model, consult the Fundamental Friction Clutch block reference page. This section
discusses the specialized model implemented in the Cone Clutch.
When you apply a normal force FN, the Cone Clutch block can apply two kinds of
friction to the driveline motion, kinetic and static. The clutch applies kinetic friction
torque only when one driveline axis is spinning relative to the other driveline axis. The
clutch applies static friction torque when the two driveline axes lock and spin together.
The block iterates through multistep testing to determine when to lock and unlock the
clutch.

Clutch Geometry and Variable Summary

The figure shows the cone clutch geometry and some model parameters. Refer to the
table for a summary of variable descriptions.

Relation to Fundamental Friction Clutch

The Cone Clutch is based on the Fundamental Friction Clutch. Instead of requiring the
kinetic and static friction limit torques as input signals, the Cone Clutch calculates the
kinetic and static friction from the clutch parameters and the input normal force signal FN.
See the Fundamental Friction Clutch reference page for more information about the
friction clutch.

Kinetic Friction
The kinetic friction torque is the product of four factors:
K = kKFNreffsgn() .

The kinetic friction torque opposes the relative slip and is applied with an overall minus
sign. It changes sign when changes sign.
You specify the kinetic friction coefficient kK as either a constant or a tabulated discrete
function of relative angular velocity . The tabulated function is assumed to be
symmetric for positive and negative values of the relative angular velocity, so that you
need to specify kK for positive values of only.

The effective torque radius reff is the effective radius, measured from the driveline axis, at
which the kinetic friction forces are applied at the frictional surfaces. It is related to the
geometry of the conical friction surface geometry by:
reff=13sin o3 i3 o2 i2
d d d d

do and di are the contact surface maximum and minimum diameters, respectively.
Static Friction
The static friction limit is related to the kinetic friction, setting to zero and replacing the
kinetic with the static friction coefficient:
S = kSFNreff 0 .
kS > kK, so that the torque needed across the clutch to unlock it by overcoming static
friction is larger than the kinetic friction at the instant of unlocking, when = 0.
The static friction limit defines symmetric static friction torque limits as:
S S+ = S .
The range [S, S+] is used by the Fundamental Friction Clutch.
Engagement and Locking Conditions
The clutch engages (transmits torque) when the conical friction surfaces are subject to a
positive normal force and generate kinetic friction: FN > 0 and K> 0.
The clutch locks if and only if it is engaged, and the slip is less than the velocity
tolerance: || < Tol.
Power Dissipated by the Clutch
The power dissipated by the clutch is |K|. The clutch dissipates power only if it is both
slipping ( 0) and applying kinetic friction (K > 0).