Analyzing and Simulating Brake Rotor Temperatures: A Technique Applied to a Formula SAE Vehicle

Many lightweight vehicles use non-ventilated (also called vane-less or solid) iron alloy rotors in their vehicle braking systems both on the front and rear wheels. This solid rotor configuration is also common on the rear wheels of many full size production vehicles. This paper's object is to identify the heat transfer coefficients of such a solid brake disc arrangement using different experimental methods and then show how this information can be used both as a design tool and a simulator to predict temperatures in unknown or untested conditions.