Vehicle and method for operating a clutch as a starter element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10974712-B2
Application number	US-201716306131-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2017
Priority date	Jun 7, 2016
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

A vehicle, in the drivetrain of which a clutch, in particular a wet-running multi-disc clutch, is connected as a starter element between an internal combustion engine and a transmission, having a clutch controller, which, as a function of current driving operation parameters, determines a setpoint clutch torque and actuates a clutch actuator with a manipulated variable correlating with the setpoint clutch torque, in order to set at the clutch an actual clutch torque, which manipulated variable is determined as a function of the setpoint clutch torque and of a coefficient of friction stored in the clutch controller in an actuation unit of the clutch controller, and having an engine controller, which determines an actual engine rotational speed and an actual engine torque, and, in a stationary state of the vehicle with the internal combustion engine running, regulates the actual engine rotational speed to a predefined idling rotational speed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle, comprising:
a drivetrain of which a clutch, in particular a wet-running multi-disc clutch, is connected as a starter element between an internal combustion engine and a transmission, having a clutch controller, which, as a function of current driving operation parameters, determines a setpoint clutch torque and actuates a clutch actuator with a manipulated variable correlating with the setpoint clutch torque, in order to set at the clutch an actual clutch torque, which manipulated variable is determined as a function of the setpoint clutch torque and a coefficient of friction stored in the clutch controller in an actuation unit of the clutch controller, and having an engine controller, which determines an actual engine rotational speed and an actual engine torque, and, in a stationary state of the vehicle with the internal combustion engine running, regulates the actual engine rotational speed to a predefined idling rotational speed, wherein an adaptation device is assigned to the clutch controller, and, in the presence of a stationary state of the vehicle with the internal combustion engine operating in the idling mode, starts a coefficient-of-friction adaptation operation, in which, as a function of a checking clutch torque and a checking coefficient of friction, a checking manipulated variable is applied to the clutch actuator, and, in fact, is applied with an increase in the actual engine torque to a checking engine torque, while maintaining the actual engine rotational speed that is regulated to the idling rotational speed, and wherein the adaptation device has an analysis unit, which, from the checking engine torque, from the checking manipulated variable, and from the idling engine torque that is produced in the stationary state of the vehicle with a completely opened or disengaged clutch, calculates an adapted coefficient of friction, which can be stored in the clutch controller instead of the checking coefficient of friction.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the manipulated variable acting on the clutch actuator is calculated from the following equation:

Δ
⁢

⁢
p

=

M

K
,
soll

μ
×

K
geo

,

where
M K,soll : setpoint clutch torque
μ : coefficient of friction
K geo : constant.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein, in the coefficient-of-friction adaptation operation, a torque difference between the checking engine torque and the idling engine torque corresponds to an actual clutch torque applied to the clutch, which correlates with the checking clutch torque output by the clutch controller.

4. The vehicle according to claim 3 , wherein, in the analysis unit of the adaptation device, the adapted coefficient of friction is calculated from the following equation:

μ
a

=

Δ
⁢
M

Δ
⁢

⁢

p

p
⁢

⁢
r
⁢

u
¨

⁢

⁢
f

×

K
geo

,

where
ΔM : torque difference between checking engine torque M M,prüf and idling engine torque M Leerlauf
Δp prüf : checking manipulated variable, correlated with checking clutch torque M K,prüf ,
K geo : constant.

5. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the coefficient-of- friction adaptation operation is carried out automatically in a driving mode, provided that a detection unit of the adaptation device records a stationary state of the vehicle with the internal combustion engine operating in the idling mode.

6. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein, in the coefficient-of- friction adaptation operation, the checking coefficient of friction read out in the actuation unit, together with a plurality of other checking coefficients of friction, forms at least one start characteristic diagram stored in tabular form, which can be spanned in a multi-axis characteristic diagram, and in which the coefficients of friction are stored, in particular empirically, as a function of a clutch slippage and a clutch torque, and, in particular, a plurality of such characteristic diagrams are stored as a function of different cooling oil temperatures and/or volumetric flows.

7. The vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein, in the adaptation operation, the adapted coefficient of friction calculated in the analysis unit replaces the checking coefficient of friction corresponding thereto in the start characteristic diagram, and the remaining coefficients of friction in the start characteristic diagram can be adjusted to the adapted coefficient of friction, in particular by interpolation or by estimation, and, can be adjusted with the formation of an adapted characteristic diagram.

8. The vehicle according to claim 7 , wherein the adapted characteristic diagram is formed with a parallel shift of the start characteristic diagram along a coefficient of friction axis to the adapted coefficient of friction in the characteristic diagram.

9. The vehicle according to claim 6 , wherein, in addition, in each adaptation operation, a current oil temperature and a current oil volumetric flow are recorded, and, as a function of thereof, in one of the plurality of such characteristic diagrams, which are stored in the clutch controller, the adapted coefficient of friction replaces the corresponding checking coefficient of friction.

10. The vehicle according to claim 5 , wherein the coefficient-of-friction adaptation operation is carried out automatically in the stationary state of the vehicle, for which a creep torque is applied to the clutch, in order to make possible an instantaneous startup after the release of a vehicle brake, wherein the creep torque corresponds to the checking setpoint torque used in the coefficient-of-friction adaptation operation.

Assignees

• Audi Ag

Inventors

• Jonuscheit Michael

Classifications

• F16D2500/70605

  Adaptive correction; Modifying control system parameters, e.g. gains, constants, look-up tables · CPC title

• B60W2710/065

  Idle condition · CPC title

• F16D48/06 Primary

  Control by electric or electronic means, e.g. of fluid pressure · CPC title

• F16D2500/30402

  Clutch friction coefficient · CPC title

• B60W10/023 Primary

  Fluid clutches · CPC title