Author : Gorakh B. Kudal and Mahesh R. Chopade

The heat generated during braking operation is stored in brake disc and this heat is rejected to surrounding mainly by forced convection. Effective design of ventilated brake rotor is an essential to achieve proper cooling of braking system. The ventilated brake discs are available in various configurations such as radial type and pillared type brake rotors. It is found that thermal failure of brake disc is not only due to high temperature, but also due to high thermal stresses developed within rotor passages. The temperature distribution within vane passage of radial vane rotors is not uniform and it leads to high thermal stresses. Pillared rotors are alternative to radial vane rotors as they have more uniform temperature distribution within rotor passages. This topic mainly focuses on understanding of air flow and heat transfer characteristics of diamond pillared brake rotor. The CFD code is used to analyze and improve convective heat dissipation through passages of diamond pillared brake rotor. Validation is done for tapered radial vane (TRV) rotor, for which the experimental and numerical results are in good agreement. The modified configuration of diamond pillared brake rotor shows 11 % improvement in convective heat transfer coefficient as compared to baseline design of diamond pillared brake rotor.

Keywords: Brake disc, ventilated, thermal failure, thermal stresses, diamond pillared rotor, CFD