Study of Heat Generation in Brake Pad with and without Slots using Numerical and Experimental Analysis

Abstract: In recent days the usage of disc brake is increased acutely in commercial vehicle applications apart from the passenger vehicles. The main advantage of using disc brake is reducing the stopping distance, temperature and wear between the disc and pad. During braking the kinetic energy of the vehicle is converted into thermal energy due to the friction between disc and pad. To maintain the temperature between the disc and pad is critical for the over all performance of the disc brake and safety of the vehicle. The process of vehicle braking is a dynamically thermal-structure coupling problem which is complex in nature. In this study, temperature between the disc and pad is determined using Finite Element Analysis for various disc and pad configuration. As per recent vehicle norms by the government the axle load is increased by 20 % which requires increased braking force and will leads to high temperature in the rotor pad interface. Considering the vehicle tonnage, braking force is calculated and heat flux is derived from the clamping force. Also in this study different pad profile is considered to optimizing the pad temperature. In Finite Element Analysis transient thermal analysis is carried out to predict the exact temperature as per the vehicle norms. In this study the braking time of 720 seconds is considered and the results are verified experimentally. Key words: Transient Thermal Analysis, Optimization, Modelling and Simulation, Brake systems & disc and pad.