Analysis of disc brake temperature distribution during single braking under non-axisymmetric load

This paper aims to study and compare the temperature distributions caused by mutual sliding of two members of the disc brake system basing on two- and three-dimensional FE modelling techniques and complexity of the phenomenon. First step of the analysis based on the previously developed model where the intensity of heat flux was assumed to be uniformly distributed on the friction surface of disc during braking process, and the heat is transferred exclusively in axial direction, whereas during the second, the three-dimensional rotor is subjected to the non-axisymmetric thermal load to simulate realistic thermal behaviour of the brake action. Operation conditions, thermo-physical properties of materials and dimensions of the brake system were adopted from the real representation of the braking process of the passenger vehicle. Arbitrarily selected four values of the velocities at the moment of brake engagement were applied to the models so as to investigate theirs influence on the obtained solutions of the temperature evolutions on the contact surface of the disc volume referring to two separated finite element analysis. The large amount of heat generated at the pad/disc interface during emergency braking indisputably evokes non-uniform temperature distributions in the domain of the rotor, whereas the pad element is constantly heated during mutual sliding. The obtained results of the original code of three-dimensional modelling technique implemented to the conventional FE software revel high agreement with the solution of simplified process of friction heating.

Research highlights
► FEA enables to predict temperature variations in a real disc brake.
► Mean temperatures on the contact surface correspond with results of 2D model.
► Velocity affects advisability of use of two-dimensional FE modelling.