Authors: Azodo, A.P.; S.B. Adejuyigbe; M.A. Waheed; O.U. Dairo
Pacific Journal of Science and Technology. Vol .13(2):39-56.
Abstract
In this work, software was developed which accurately determined the torque, axial thrust, and mean radius of clutch discs. Comparison was made between a conventionally designed and Computer-Aided Designed (CAD) mechanical clutch using cast iron and bronze as clutch materials. This was done using a computer system with processor speed of 2.3 GHz and JAVA programming language. The platform for the software is a Graphic User Interface (GUI). The software package contains unit conversion and code. The code was used to design two clutch discs with respective external and internal radii of 150 and 75 mm, for cast iron and, 120 and 96 mm for bronze. The results showed that the measured values of mechanical clutches designed using computer-aid over the conventionally designed ones are more accurate.
The degree of accuracy of uniform pressure are respectively 1.2965 x 10-4, 2.8629 x 10-7 and 1.3025 x 10-3, while the corresponding accuracy of axial wear are 1.2965 x 10-4, 0 and 1.2965 x 10-4 for axial thrust, mean radius, and torque for cast Iron. For bronze, similar trend was observed. Accuracy in the design of mechanical clutch was achieved using the developed code.
Keywords: clutch, computer aided design, CAD, conventional, mechanical, accuracy, develop