Study of Heat Generation in Brake Pad with and without Slots using Numerical and Experimental Analysis

In recent days, the usage of disc brake is increased acutely in commercial vehicle applications apart from the passenger vehicles. The main advantage of using disc brake is reducing the stopping distance, temperature and wear between the disc and pad. During the braking, kinetic energy of the vehicle is converted into thermal energy due to the friction between disc and pad. To maintain the temperature between the disc and pad is critical for the overall performance of the disc brake and safety of the vehicle. The process of vehicle braking is a dynamically thermal structure coupling problem which is complex in nature. In this study, temperature between the disc and pad is determined using Finite Element Analysis for two different pad configurations. As per recent vehicle norms by the government the axle load is increased by 20 % which requires increased braking force and will leads to high temperature in the disc pad interface. Considering the vehicle tonnage, braking force is calculated and heat flux is derived from the clamping force. Also, in this study different pad profile is considered to optimizing the pad temperature. In Finite Element Analysis, transient thermal analysis is carried out to predict the exact temperature as per the vehicle test condition of 720 seconds.