EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR THERMAL PROBLEM OF FRICTIONAL BRAKE SYSTEM

Abstract

The present work aims to validate the experimental results of a new test rig built from scratch to evaluate the thermal behavior of the brake system with the numerical results of the transient thermal problem. The work was divided into two parts; in the first part, a three-dimensional finite-element solution of the transient thermal problem using a new developed 3D model of the brake system for the selected vehicle is SAIPA 131, while in the second part, the experimental test rig was built to achieve the necessary tests to find the temperature distribution during the braking process of the brake system. We obtained high agreement between the results of the new test rig with the numerical results based on the developed model of the brake system. It was found in some cases the local zones with extreme heat generated in contacting surfaces due to the non-uniformity of the contact pressure during the braking process, where this phenomenon can be led to an increase in the magnitudes of thermal stresses. It was found that the most significant factor on the level of generated temperatures (heat generation) is the initial vehicle's velocity. Furthermore, it was found that the maximum difference between the experimental and numerical results was not exceeding 6%.