Thermal Analysis of the Space Shuttle Wheel and Carbon Brake

This paper presents an overview of a modeling technique developed at BFGoodrich Aerospace for the thermal design optimization of aircraft braking systems. The model is demonstrated by application to the Space Shuttle wheel and carbon brake. Compliance of the final design with the specification requirements was verified by dynamometer tests. Results of the prototype tests showed an acceptable correlation to the analysis and substantiated the accuracy of the thermal model.