Analytical Model of the Frictional Heating in a Railway Brake Disc at Single Braking with Experimental Verification

Abstract

A one-dimensional thermal problem of friction was formulated, taking into account the contact pressure increase at the beginning of the process. The obtained solution to this problem allows for the quick calculation of the transient temperature distribution in a railway brake disc during single braking application. In order to validate the developed model, the experimental tests were performed for two friction pairs consisting of the cast iron brake disc and pads comprising two composite materials. Theoretical results were compared with the data measured by thermocouples embedded in the brake disc during the full-size dynamometer tests. The maximum temperature values found based on the analytical solution are convergent with the corresponding empirical data. The consistency of the results obtained for two friction couples demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed computational model.