M INING

SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Mining Science and Technology 20 (2010) 0904–0907
www.elsevier.com/locate/jcumt

Transient temperature field of a friction pair in

a HVD device of a belt conveyor
XIE Fangwei*, HOU Youfu
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221008, China

Abstract: To show the distribution of a temperature field on a steel disk and to prolong the service life of a friction pair in a Hy-
dro-Viscous Drive (HVD) device, a theoretical model of a transient temperature field was established, based on the theory of heat
conduction. This theoretical model was solved using a finite element method. The results show that the surface temperature of the
steel disk does not increase consistently as a function of the radius; the highest temperature appears short of the maximum radius.
The relationship between the surface temperature and the mixed friction time is exponential. With a friction time of 15 s, the tem-
perature reached 465.9°C. Simultaneously, the internal thermal stress is larger than the yield stress of the material, causing a
warping deformation of the steel disk. The largest axial deformation is 0.32 mm. The results of the experiment suggest that the de-
formation is the same as that obtained from numerical simulation. Therefore, deformation of the steel disk must be considered dur-
ing the study of the characteristics of a HVD.
Keywords: hydro-viscous; steel disk; temperature field; deformation; numerical simulation

1 Introduction
Hydro-Viscous Drive (HVD) devices transmit
power by using oil film shear stress, while stepless
speed regulation is realized by changing the thickness
of the oil film synchronously. The device is widely
used in belt conveyors, fans, pumps and other high
power and heavy duty machines and, as well, it is the
optimal equipment in energy saving[1-4]. The starting
process of HVD device consists of three stages: hy-
dro-viscous friction, mixed friction and boundary
friction. Research shows that large amounts of heat
are produced during the process of mixed friction,
which raises the surface temperature sharply. This
heat causes steel disk deformation, burning and even
scuffing and in the end, the HVD device can no
longer work normally[5-7]. Therefore, it is necessary to
study the temperature field of a friction pair at a
mixed friction stage, in order to discover the distribu-
tion of the transient temperature field and to provide a
theoretical and reliable basis for the design of HVD
devices.
2 Friction pair model
2.1 Physical model of friction pair
A friction pair, composed of a friction disk and a
Received 22 January 2010; accepted 13 May 2010
*Corresponding author. Tel: 86 13952163257
E-mail address: cumtxfw@126.com
doi: 10.1016/S1674-5264(09)60304-5
steel disk, is the main part that transmits power. The
structural scheme of a friction pair is shown in Fig. 1,
where r1 and r2 represent the inner and outer radius
respectively. Cooling oil flows along the grooves on
the friction disk surface and through the slight pores
in the friction lining, so that the temperature of the
friction disk is half of that of the steel disk[8-11]. Thus,
only the temperature field of the steel disk required to
be investigated by us.
Fig. 1 Structural scheme of friction pair
2.2 Temperature field of the steel disk
The contact area of the friction pair is asymmetric;
there is no inner heat source. Hence, the heat conduc-
tion differential equation was established, based on
heat conduction theory, and can be presented as fol-
lows[12-17]:
∂T § ∂ 2T ∂T ∂ 2T ·
ρ1c1r = k1 ¨ r 2 + +r 2 ¸ (1)
∂t © ∂r ∂r ∂z ¹
where T(r, z, t) is the transient temperature of the
XIE Fangwei et al Transient temperature field of a friction pair in … 905

steel disk, °C; ȡ1 the density of the steel disk, kg/m3; § [ N ] · T = P + [ N ] ­ ∂T ½

c1 the specific heat of the steel disk, J/(kg·°C); k1 the ¨[K ] + ¸ { }t { }t ® ¾ (8)
© Δ t ¹ Δt ¯ ∂t ¿t −Δt
thermal conductivity of the steel disk, W/(m·°C); t the
contact time, s; while r and z represent radial and ax- where [K] is the temperature stiffness matrix; [N] the
ial direction, respectively. unstable variable temperature matrix; {T} the tem-
During the working process of the HVD device, perature column vectors in question; {P} the node
the gap between the friction pair decreases gradually load column vectors and Δt the time step.
until engagement. A great deal of heat is produced. 3.2 Calculation conditions
The heat flux between the friction pair can be written
as follows: Taking a high power belt conveyor used in mines
q (r , t ) = μ rωr (t ) p (r , t ) (2) as an example, we studied the transient temperature
field of the steel disk. The high power belt conveyor
where ȝ is the friction coefficient; p(r, t) the radial is characterized by a long distance, large loads and a
pressure on the surface and Ȧr the relative angular long starting time. Its starting curve is a Harrision
velocity. curve, with starting times of 80, 120 and 180 s. Given
At the mixed friction stage there is only an ex- the characteristics of the Harrision curve, three condi-
tremely thin discontinuous oil film between the fric- tions were studied with mixed friction time of 8, 10
tion pair. Considering the cooling effect of this small and 15 s.
oil film, a modified coefficient Į is induced. The heat The steel disk used was made of 65 Mn, with a
flux of the steel disk is calculated by modulus of elasticity of 210 GPa, a Poisson ratio of
α ρ1c1k1 0.3, a surface friction coefficient of 0.09, a thermal
q1 (r , t ) = q(r , t ) (3) expansion coefficient of 1.1×10–5 K–1, an inner radius
ρ1c1k1 + ρ 2 c2 k2 of 130 mm and an outer radius of 180 mm. The disk
where q1 is the surface heat flux of the steel disk, was 6 mm thick. Table 1 shows the thermophysical
W/m2; ȡ2 the density of the friction lining, kg/m3; c2 parameters of the steel disk.
the specific heat of the friction lining, J/(kg·°C) and Table 1 Thermophysical parameters of steel disk
k2 the thermal conductivity of the friction lining,
Parameter Value Parameter Value
W/(m·°C).
3 2
At the initial condition, i.e., when time t=0, the ini- ȡ1 (kg/m ) 7800 Į11 (W/(m ·°C)) 1890
tial temperature T0 of the friction pair, T(r, z, t)=T0(r, c1 (J/(kg·°C)) 460 Į12 (W/(m2·°C)) 630
z). k1 (W/(m·°C)) 46 Te (°C) 50
Based on the characteristics of the steel disk struc-
ture (Fig. 1) and the friction pair transmission, the
boundary conditions are written as follows: 4 Results and discussion
∂T (4)
=0 Fig. 2 shows the surface temperature curves under
∂z z =0
three conditions.
∂T (5)
k1 = q1
∂z z=h / 2
7HPSHUDWXUH ƒ&

∂T
k1 = −α11 (T − Te ) (6)
∂z r = r1

∂T
k1 = −α12 (T − Te ) (7)
∂z r = r2

where Į11 and Į12 represent interior and exterior sur-

face convective heat transfer coefficients, respec-
tively and Te is the initial temperature of the oil film.
3 Theoretical calculations
3.1 Theoretical analysis
The transient temperature field of the steel disk is a
function of both its space and time domain and is
solved by using a finite element method[18-20]. The
basic transient temperature field function of the steel
disk is deduced as follows:
Fig. 2 Surface temperature curves under three conditions
1) The distributions of surface temperature on the
steel disk are quite similar for the three levels of fric-
tion time. The surface temperature of the steel disk
increases as a function of the radius: the highest tem-
perature appears at r=170 mm, not at the outer radius
r=180 mm, for working oil convection heat is trans-
ferred at the outer radius. The temperature at the inner
radius r=130 mm is the lowest, where the convection
heat transfer coefficient is the largest.
2) Permissible temperature [ T ] of the 65 Mn steel
906
disk is 400 °C. Fig. 2 shows that the highest surface
temperature of the steel disk is 174.3 °C at a mixed
friction time of 8 s and 233.2 °C at 10 s. When the
mixed friction time is 15 s, the highest temperature is
465.9 °C. Simultaneously, the internal thermal stress
is larger than the yield stress of the material, which
easily causes the steel disk to have residual thermal
stress, being burnt and even subjected to scuffing.
Fig. 3 shows axial deformation of the steel disk
relative to the inner radius under the three time condi-
tions. It shows that the axial deformation increases as
a function of engagement time. The axial deformation
is approximately linear with the radius. The largest
axial deformation is 0.32 mm when the engagement
time is 15 s. Therefore, the mixed friction time must
be reduced as much as possible, to reduce heat pro-
duction and deformation of the steel disk when start-
ing the belt conveyor.
7HPSHUDWXUH ƒ&
Fig. 3 Relative axial deformation under three conditions
At the mixed friction stage, thermal stress of the
steel disk is produced by uneven levels of tempera-
ture. The yield stress of the steel disk is 430 MPa.
When a mixed friction time of 8 s, the equivalent
(a) t=8 s
Fig. 4







   
7KLFNQHVV PP
(a) t=8 s
Fig. 6 shows the measured axial deformation of the
steel disk when the mixed friction time is 15 s. From
Mining Science and Technology Vol.20 No.6
thermal stress on the steel disk surface is 166.3~261.4
MPa, at 10 s it is 251.1~391.6 MPa and at 15 s
449.7~685.2 MPa. It is seen that the thermal stress
reached its maximum value at 15 s. This value ex-
ceeds the yield stress of the material, so that the steel
disk becomes deformed to the point at which it can no
longer be recovered. The theory of fluid dynamics
suggests that the dynamic behavior of the oil film
within the friction pair changes after the deformation
of the steel disk[21]. It affects the transmission charac-
teristics of the HVD device. Therefore, at present,
some authors assume that the rigid plane for the fric-
tion pair is not comprehensive. Further research
should be carried out on the effect of deformation and
in turn, its effect of deformation on the hydro-viscous
drive. This should be able to provide a theoretical and
reliable basis for the design of HVD devices and the
decision on a control strategy.
Fig. 4 shows the surface temperature of the steel
disk at r=130, 150, 170 and 180 mm. The relationship
between surface temperature and mixed friction time
is exponential. Because there is only an extremely
thin discontinuous oil film between the pair of fric-
tion disks at the mixed friction stage, 70 percent of
the heat produced by the friction pair is absorbed by
the steel disk.
The axial temperature at different points is shown
in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the surface temperature
of the steel disk is the highest when the temperature is
low and decreases with an increase in the thickness of
the steel disk. The internal temperature is lower than
the surface temperature because of thermal resistance.
Thus, the surface of the steel disk is burnt easily.
(b) t=10 s (c) t=15 s
Temperature at different points as a function of time



 U PP
 U PP
 U PP
U PP
 
 
       
7KLFNQHVV PP 7KLFNQHVV PP
(b) t=10 s (c) t=15 s
Fig. 5 Axial temperature at different points
our experiment, we found that the deformation is the
same as that obtained by numerical simulation. The
XIE Fangwei et al Transient temperature field of a friction pair in …
largest axial deformation was 0.38 mm. Studies show
that steel disks will deform over time. Therefore, fur-
ther studies on the effect of deformation of the fric-
tion pair and its deformation effect on the hy-
dro-viscous drive must be carried out.
'HIRUPDWLRQ PP
Fig. 6 Measured axial deformation
5 Conclusions
1) At the mixed friction stage, the surface tem-
perature of the steel disk does not consistently in-
crease as a function of the radius; the highest tem-
perature appears at r=170 mm, for there is a transfer
of convection heat of the working oil at the outer ra-
dius.
2) The relationship between the surface tempera-
ture and the mixed friction time is exponential. At a
friction time of 15 s, the temperature reached 465.9
°C. The axial deformation is approximately linear
with the radius. Deformation increases as a function
of engagement time. Therefore, the mixed friction
time must be reduced as much as possible, in order to
reduce heat developing and deformation of the steel
disk in the starting process.
3) With a mixed friction time of 15 s, the tested
axial deformation basically agreed with the results of
theoretical analysis. The experiment verifies the cor-
rectness of our theoretical analysis.
These conclusions suggest that the friction pair is
not a plane and it will deform during power transmis-
sion of a HVD. After the deformation of the steel disk,
the dynamic behavior of the oil film between the pair
of friction plates changes, affecting the transmission
characteristics of the HVD device. Therefore, a thor-
ough study should be carried out on the effect of de-
formation and in turn, its effect on the deformation of
the HVD device. Such an investigation can provide a
theoretical and reliable basis for the design of HVD
devices and the decision on a control strategy.
Acknowledgements
Financial support for this work by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No.50975275)
is gratefully acknowledged.
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