Aerodynamic and thermal modelling of disc brakes - Challenges and limitations
Review article, 2020

The brake system is a critical component for any passenger vehicle as its task is to convert the kinetic and potential energy of the vehicle into heat, allowing the vehicle to stop. Heat energy generated must be dissipated into the surroundings in order to prevent brake overheating. Traditionally, a lot of experimental testing is performed to ensure correct brake operation under all possible load scenarios. However, with the development of simulation techniques, many vehicle manufacturers today are looking into partially or completely replacing physical experiments by virtual testing. Such a transition has several substantial benefits, but simultaneously a lot of challenges and limitations need to be addressed and understood for reliable and accurate simulation results. This paper summarizes many of such challenges, discusses the effects that can and cannot be captured, and gives a broader picture of the issues faced when conducting numerical brake cooling simulations.

Thermal simulations

Test replication

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulations

Brake cooling

Author

Alexey Vdovin

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems

Gael le Gigan

Volvo Cars

Energies

1996-1073 (ISSN) 19961073 (eISSN)

Vol. 13 1 203

Subject Categories

Energy Engineering

Vehicle Engineering

Energy Systems

DOI

10.3390/en13010203

More information

Latest update

3/5/2021 3