Handling Comfort Study Of Automobile Clutch Based On Handling Comfort Index

Automobile clutch is one of the important operating equipments in a car, and the manipulation comfort has a direct influence on the automotive manipulation performance, the work efficiency, the safety, the comfort and the health of the operator. But the measurement and optimization of the vehicle clutch from the point of the manipulation comfort are quite few. Based on this, in this dissertation, the production mechanism of the clutch manipulation comfort is studied, then the influence factors of the vehicle clutch manipulation comfort in the operating process are extracted. Further, the comfort index of the manipulation comfort is built to achieve the valid measurement of the vehicle clutch manipulation comfort performance. The optimization method of the vehicle clutch manipulation comfort is researched to provide theoretic reference and tech support for the optimal design of the vehicle clutch.In the process of using a clutch, mechanical characteristics of operating force and human physiological and psychological characteristics are interrelated. Based on the analysis of the production mechanism of the clutch manipulation comfort, mapping between mechanical characteristics of operating force and human physiological and psychological characteristics is established. The analysis reveals the clutch mechanical characteristics critical parameters’ impacts on manipulation comfort. By analyzing the parameters of human physiological and psychological characteristics, determine local muscle fatigue, body pressure distribution, joint force as the key biomechanical characteristics of human, accordingly discuss the effect on manipulating comfort. Through the above research and analysis, a theoretical basis for subsequent quantitative description of manipulation comfort metrics is provided.Regarding to the clutch manipulation comfort measure as our study target, the manipulation comfort indexes of the vehicle clutch are established based on mechanical characteristics of the vehicle clutch and biomechanical characteristics of human body respectively. On the basis of the analysis of the influences which automobile clutch pedal force and pedal stroke make on manipulation comfort, using principal component analysis and theory of value function to build automobile clutch manipulation comfort index. This index can be used to measure the operating comfort in the pressing process of the clutch, which means that the operating force and travel are served as parameters to describe the manipulation comfort performance. According to the mapping between mechanical characteristics of operating force and human physiological and psychological characteristics, using mechanical characteristic parameters such as the clutch operating force and travel in the clutch stampede process, inversely analyzing their influences on human’s operating gesture and force situation of the joints, and then build manipulation comfort index according to the key feature of human biomechanics. Dimensionless metric system of the operating comfort is established by the two proposed indexes above, this system can be used to realize the valid measurement of the vehicle clutch operating comfort performance.For acquiring all kinds of clutch mechanics characteristic parameters and the biological mechanics characteristic parameters needed for building automobile clutch manipulation of the comfort index,, complete the related needed data collection, analysis and processing of automobile clutch operating comfort through building comprehensive experiment platform of automobile clutch manipulating comfort. Thus achieve the comprehensive metrics and feedback optimal design of automobile clutch operating comfort. Then verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method in this paper.Taking a vehicle clutch as the test object, using our self-developed integrated experimental platform of automobile operating comfort, combine with the measurement methods of automobile clutch manipulation comfort which is mentioned above. The clutch comfort index of clutch operating process through testing and analysis is obtained, and the parts which lead to the operator uncomfort and the influencing factors in the manipulating process is analyzed. Thus,conduct feedback design for clutch operating mechanism. Eventually the optimal design based on manipulation of the comfort index is given.