Design and Heat Transfer Analysis of Automotive Disc Brakes

In the recent scenario of braking system for automobiles, disc brake takes up a wide range of applications, because of its simplicity in construction, operation and not self energizing as in the case of drum brakes. Since the disc brakes takes up a wide range of application, it is essential to ensure the reliable function of the braking system under varied operating conditions. The reliable function of the disc brake system is purely depends on the system based design. In this work, a linear regression technique is used for the optimal design of the disc brake rotor for varied operating conditions. Various forces involved during braking, energy generated during braking and the corresponding effective stopping distances were also calculated using appropriate governing relations and equations. In the varied operating conditions, the heat energy generated during braking should be driven away form the working surfaces of the components. To analyze this thermal loading and cooling phenomenon, a conventional convective heat transfer approach was also formulated and developed in this work. The analytical findings of the above approaches are demonstrated at the end and it is found to be quite satisfactory.© 2003 ASME