FE prediction of thermal performance and stresses in an automotive disc brake system

This study aims to identify thermal effects in the structure and the contact behavior of a disc-pad assembly using a finite element approach. The first analysis is performed on the disc-pad model in the absence of thermal effects. The structural performance of the disc-pad model is predicted in terms of factors such as the deformation and von Mises stress. Next, thermomechanical analysis is performed on the same disc-pad model with the inclusion of convection, adiabatic, and heat flux elements. The predicted temperature distribution, deformation, stress, and contact pressure are presented. The structural performance between the two analyses (mechanical and thermomechanical) is compared. For this contribution, we were able to find and use some experimental results on the contact pressure distributions inner brake pads to validate our thermomechanical model. This study can assist brake engineers in choosing a suitable analysis method to critically evaluate the structural and contact behavior of the disc brake assembly.