Performance Evaluation of Two Wheeler Brake System Using Coupled Thermo-Mechanical Simulation

Safety aspect has been a key requirement in designing braking system. However, non-safety aspect like NVH and thermal performance are gaining equal importance. High engine capacity (cc) motorcycles are prone to thermal and NVH issues as braking energies are more. Therefore, virtual validation of brake disc system by considering both dynamic and thermal load with predefined assumptions is a toughest challenge when confronted with reality boundary conditions.

Thus, the paper comes in a unique way of coupling dynamic and thermal load executed between multi body dynamics (MBD) and heat transfer equation which will convey results closer to real time scenario. MBD solves motion and the dynamic influence on heat transfer is calculated using “sliding boundary condition”. A series of repeated braking condition are performed on front brake disc of motorcycle. The results obtained from the analysis shows critical temperature rise. As a consequence, disc thickness variation (DTV) due to thermal expansion are aggregated when coupled with dynamic friction. DTV will prove to be critical in concerning NVH and durability issues of brake disc.

Braking conditions are numerically simulated on finite element method (FEM) using nonlinear approach and results are summarized with test data.