Investigations on the Effect of Blade Angle on Ventilated Brake Disc Using CFD

Abstract

This paper presents the investigation on the effect of blade angle to the mass flow and heat transfer coefficient of a ventilated brake disc. Six different blade angle configurations are simulated using commercial computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT. Important parameters such as mass flow rate of air through the ventilated blade and surface heat transfer coefficient are predicted and analyzed. Prediction shows reasonable estimation of mass flow rate and heat transfer coefficient on the disc brake. Linear trend is achieved on the mass flow and heat transfer coefficient as the vehicle speed increases. It is also concluded that the optimum mass flow and heat transfer coefficient are predicted at blade angle of 15°. The prediction provides an insight into the behavior of the air flow through the restricted passage of the brake disc design.