Experimental Analysis and Investigation for Thermal Performance of Ventilated Disc Brake Rotor Using CFD

In the present work, different ventilated disc brake rotor configurations were analyzed to enhance the heat transfer rate and obtain the uniform temperature distribution in the rotor. CFD code used in this work was validated using experimental results obtained by conducting experiments on a test rig. The experimental analysis was performed to calculate the mass flow rate and heat dissipation through the rotor. Further, different types of rotor configurations viz. straight radial vane (SRV), Tapered radial vane (TRV), Alternate long and short vane (ALSV), variable diameter circular pillars (VDCP) were considered for the analysis. A rotor segment of 20° was considered for the numerical analysis due to its rotational symmetry. CFD results were in good agreement with the experimental analysis. The maximum deviation of the numerical results were about 12% from the experimental results. It is found from the analysis that among the different types of rotor configurations; variable diameter circular pillars (VDCP) rotor gives better rate of heat dissipation with more uniform temperature distribution in the flow passages. Hence for modern high speed vehicles VDCP rotor may be more appropriate.