Disc brake Design

And Analysis


Brake Disc Design and analysis is a
project through which we have aimed
to achieve an understanding and
learning of development of a product
straight from its conception to
manufacturing, encompassing all the
stages such as Initial Calculations,
Designing, Material Selection and
Manufacturing considerations.

Targets of the Project

To study materials generally used for
manufacturing of brake discs in the industry.
To study the kinds of loads and stresses of a brake
under use.
Try to simulate the various physical and thermal
loads on the brake disc.
To study various calculations and contributing
factors on selection of a brake disc
To research further on all the included topics and
suggest improvements in the design and materials
used
To estimate ways to better research the variation
of results found during analysis and actual use.

Brake Calculations
What we want to achieve through the
Brake Calculation ?

FBD for Brake Calculation

Excel Sheet of Brake

Calculation

Result of Brake Calculation

From the calculations, Pressure on Disc part between pads
found is 5.63 x 106 N/m2
The surface temperature in a single stop was found to be
463K, and by estimating for multiple stops, it reaches up to
600Kelvin
Brake Torque on the front disc was found through
calculations to be 873.6 N.m

Thermal Analysis of Brake

Disc
As on braking all the kinetic energy is converted into heat energywhich is generated at the brake pad-disc interface we will distribute
this as heat power supplied at the disc pad interface(only at the part
of disc in contact with pads)
Well determine kinetic energy by assuming a given speed, lets say
25m/s to be brought to a complete stop given by
0.5*mass*velocity^2.. The max coefficient of friction would provide
us with deceleration hence the stopping time, so wed know how the
power is distributed over time.
Wed analyze the disk under this heat power provided as a flux only
for the while the brakes are applied, and convection throughout the
rest of the disk surface so it is simultaneously also cooling reflecting
a real scenario. Initial temperature is assumed to be same as the
surroundings, the convection coefficient used is an estimate and
well look to calculate a closer value through CFD simulation

Thermal Boundary
Conditions
:
Temperature Allows for the definition of a temperature on a certain
Heat Flux Applies some amount of heat into a face per unit area.

entity or body
Heat Flux Applies some amount of heat into a face per unit area.
Convection applies a convection boundary condition to the selected
faces. The convection coefficient and ambient temperature are
specified and the heat lost due to convection is calculated
automatically.
Heat Power Applies some amount of heat to a vertex, edge, face or
component.
Radiation Allows surface-to-surface or surface-to-ambient radiation.
In our model, we will apply convection to all faces because all of the
faces will be exposed to the air. In addition, we will apply a heat
power to the faces that the brake pads touch.

Screenshot of the Analysis :

Ideal Properties for Brake

Disc
Properties
Justification for Required Property
Hardness

Temper Softening

Strength

Fatigue Strength

Brake disc is generally expected to have high

hardness for slower wear rates. The hardness
generally required is about 32-38 HRC
As in braking applications the temperature
reached are often as high as 400 degrees
temper softening might lead to warping and
deformation of disc under the physical loads.
The strength of the material should be high
( 450 MPa ) to withstand the loads and this is
measured in terms of its yield/compressive
strength
As it is a component that is supposed to work
for a long time of application depending on the
use, its expected to work without failure for
large number of cycles. This is measured in
terms of creep strength.

Physical Properties of General Purpose

Steels :

Carbon Ceramic
TYPES

PROPERTIES
Increased
strength with
lower density.

C/C-SiC is a
Carbon fiber
phase added to
a Silicon Carbide Ability to
matrix.
withstand high
temperatures
without failure.

PROBLEMS

IMPROVEMENT

Inefficient and
much weaker if
used in cold
condition.

Make the
material with a
higher ceramic
content in order
to achieve
higher surface
temperature.

Cracking on
occur on the
surface.

Use of more
thermally
conductive fibre
in the ceramic
matrix in order
to have high
performance.

Low Coefficient
of Thermal
Expansion.
Can withstand
surface
Temperatures of
1000C with
minimal wear.

Low demand
for high
performance
brakes.
Expensive

Aluminum Matrix Composites

TYPES

Aluminum
Matrix
Composite
( AMC )
MMC Rotor

PROPERTIES

Light weight
( 60% weight
reduction as
compared to
Cast Iron ).
Better heat
conductivity.
* Ability to
distribute wear
uniformly over
the surface.

PROBLEMS

IMPROVEMENT

Lower
coefficient of
friction and
wear rates than
classical steel
discs.

Reduce brake
noise and wear

Highly costly
as well as
difficult to
manufacture.

Improves
unsprung mass
which leads to
better vehicle
acceleration and
maneuverability.

Stainless Steel
TYPES

PROPERTIES
Increased
strength with
lower density.

C/C-SiC is a
Carbon fiber
phase added to
a Silicon Carbide Ability to
matrix.
withstand high
temperatures
without failure.

PROBLEMS

IMPROVEMENT

Inefficient and
much weaker if
used in cold
condition.

Make the
material with a
higher ceramic
content in order
to achieve
higher surface
temperature.

Cracking on
occur on the
surface.

Use of more
thermally
conductive fibre
in the ceramic
matrix in order
to have high
performance.

Low Coefficient
of Thermal
Expansion.
Can withstand
surface
Temperatures of
1000C with
minimal wear.

Low demand
for high
performance
brakes.
Expensive

Comparison of different
Martensitic Steel

Universal Testing Machine

As an exercise to find if there
is any change in the
microstructure due to multiple
loading and unloading cycles
of the brake disc ( thermal
and physical ), we tested a
specimen from a brake disc of
motorbike which had done
40,000kms.
It was tested for its Yield
Strength and Percentage
Elongation in the UTM in the
SOM lab of our college and the
results were 300MPa Yield
Strength and 20% Percentage
Elongation indicated it to be

Conclusion
Producing a high performance vehicle one must consider the
components, the materials used and the purpose of the vehicle. The
disc brakes on a racecar emphasize different properties than a
motorcycle, or airplane. A racecar would be focused on high thermal
resistance since there is a great amount of friction compared to a
motorcycle would focus in weight reduction since it doesnt produce as
much heat. For optimal performance and efficiency there must be a
balance of mechanical properties of the material used, its performance
and cost. In a racecar like the one selected for our project, the
performance benefit due to using carbon ceramic discs does not justify
its cost, also the heat generated is not enough for a significant
advantage. Aluminium matrix provide insufficient friction coefficient,
and their weight advantage is nullified due to need of a larger caliper.
Hence our choice would be to use a Martensitic steel which can
provide good performance(coefficient of friction and heat dissipation).

Future Prospects and Further

Study :
Well aim at optimizing weight and convection rates through iterations
of simulations using different designs adding ribs or holes, varying
them in number and diameter to reach an optimum solution for the
selected test vehicle.
We had stumbled upon some research on using a closer to real value
of convection through a CFD simulation of air around the brake disc.
Im personally in contact with totalsim.co.uk. It would lead to a closer
value of the convection coefficient that would result in a more
accurate result.
We have gone through a number of research papers on the Ideal
brake disc materials, its something we might look into. We have
scouted for various active temperature sensing and data logging
units, Id attached a few pdfs of some products along by motec and
texense

Thank You

Presented By :
Ananya Bharadwaj
Ashwani Saini
2k12/AE/10
2k12/AE/18

Chanchal Krishna
2k12/AE/26