Modelling and predictive control of an electro-hydraulic actuated wet clutch for automatic transmission

Multi-plate wet clutches and theirs actuators are an important part of the automatic transmission gearboxes. Modern electronic controls operate the clutch by an electro-hydraulic actuator. In this paper a new model for a wet clutch actuated by an electro-hydraulic valve used in a real vehicle for automatic transmission is developed. The model captures the essential dynamics of the electro-hydraulic valve and clutch circuit, which operates on a given pressure range commanded by a transmission shifting signal. The model is validated against the data obtained from a test bench which includes the DQ250 wet clutch actuated by the electro-hydraulic valve DQ500 and the comparison shows good agreement. Based on the developed model, a useful clutch prediction control scheme was designed. Simulation results obtained with predictive control strategy are presented and discussed.