Abstract: Multi-conical friction pair is a critical component of a new type of wet clutch, possessing the advantages of small size and good transmission effect. Considering the oil film load capacity, the asperity contact, the temperature rises, and so on characteristics of the friction pair with special configurations, a coupling mathematics model was established to calculate the friction torque of the clutch engagement process for multi-physical field coupling environment, and a numerical solution was carried out. The calculated results show that the error is less than 10% between the calculated friction torque and the test data, validating the high accuracy of the simulation model. And then, the friction torque characteristics under different pressures and relative speeds were investigated based on this model. And taking the Box-Behnken Design as experiment design tool, the influences of the number of the friction cones, cone angle and cone height on friction torque were analyzed based on response surface methodology. The results show that the friction torque is positively related to the loading pressure, the peak friction torque can be increased to 102.2% when increasing the loading pressure from 0.1 MPa to 0.2 MPa. Increasing the number of the cones and reducing the cone angle can enhance the torque transmission ability of the friction pair and make the synchronization time shorten. This study results can provide basic reference for the optimal design of novel multi-conical friction pairs.