Research on Brake Pad Particle Emissions and Temperature Reduction of a Brake Disc in Air Controlling System

This paper addresses the brake pad particle emission during the braking process of a vehicle in motion. The frictional-constant contact between the disc brake and pads results in an increased temperature and wear of the pads. The emission of brake pad particles into the atmosphere leads to an increase in air pollution and hence becomes hazardous to the human body. In this paper, a wheel brake disc is installed in a ventilation system where the specific air flow is introduced in order to investigate the thermal performance and the emission of particles from the brake pads. A mathematical model using the fundamental parameters of the brake disc and ventilation system is established. The behavior of the heat transfer is studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The particle emission rate from the pads is calculated under the assumption of uniform constant pressure distribution at the contact surface of the brake disc and pad. The results of the analysis show that circumferential airflow within the ventilation system is uniform with the rotation direction of the brake disc and that the particles of the pad are dispersed in the axial direction of airflow. The CFD simulation also shows that the airflow around the brake disc reduced the temperature of the disc by 20%. The validity of the ventilation model is verified with Finite Element Method (FEM).