Prediction of the cooling factors of a vehicle brake disc and its influence on the results of a thermal numerical simulation

In the process of developing the brake disc, it is necessary that we predict the suitability of the design. In this manner, we can affirm that even the first prototype will satisfy all of the customer homologation requests. Usually those comprise different sequential braking tests in which the maximal achieved temperature is the criterion that governs brake disc suitability. The knowledge of how to predict the behavior of a brake disc in the early pretesting phase has a significant impact on development costs and time. The common method that is used for predicting the temperatures in the brake disc during braking is numerical simulation analysis. With the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics, the flow through a vehicle ventilated brake disc of known geometry was determined, and the wall heat transfer coefficients for all vehicle speeds and brake disc temperatures were calculated. The results were then imported into a thermal numerical simulation of a sequential-braking vehicle test. The results showed that the consideration of cooling factors has a significant impact on temperature courses. To obtain accurate results from the numerical simulation and to simulate the vehicle test precisely, the proper wall heat transfer coefficients must be considered. The proposed method produces more accurate numerical results and enables the development engineer to develop suitable brake disc geometry in the early pretesting phase.