Author : Deepak Biradar, M. R. Chopade and S. B. Barve

In recent years a trend towards faster vehicles with powerful engines has developed. Heavy braking force & high retardation leads to high temperature at disc brake. An upper limit on the temperature of the brake assembly is dictated by certain material properties. Hence heat energy has to be disposed of more efficiently. Possibilities of increasing conduction and radiation are restrained by material properties and temperature limits. Therefore the focus is on convection. Different ventilated disc brake rotors are analyzed with CFD and the most optimum ventilated disc rotor is found for automobile industry. Various disc brake designs are used to describe a method for calculating temperatures of disc brakes. For the calculations a CFD code is employed that determines distributions of local temperatures in the flow field as well as on the disc brake rotor. In a ventilated disc brake rotor air must be circulated through the rotor to provide adequate cooling. The passages formed by the radial vanes between the braking surfaces, act as a centrifugal fan, facilitating the required air flow for cooling. To improve the performance of a ventilated disc brake rotor, radial vanes are modified and analysis is done for the same. After the CFD analysis the experimental verification is done with actual experimental setup. The CFD results are verified with the experimental results obtained on test rig.

Keywords: Disc Brake, Heat Transfer, CFD, Number of Vanes.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.4, No.5 (Oct-2014)