Structural Optimization of Vented Brake Rotors with a Fully Parameterized Model

Yao-Tien Huang,Yueh-Mei Lai,Ying-Chieh Liu,Kun-Nan Chen

doi:10.3390/app12042184

Yao-Tien Huang, Yueh-Mei Lai + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app12042184

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Abstract

Vented brake rotors used in an automobile behave similarly to centrifugal fans, drawing cool air from the inboard side, passing it through the disc vents, and exhausting it from the periphery. A vented brake rotor with a better heat dispersing ability is often superior to a solid rotor, in both thermal performance and brake efficiency. In this research, a fully parameterized model for a ventilated brake rotor is created using the ANSYS Parametric Design Language, to uniquely define the rotor’s geometry. With this parameterized model, two structural optimization cases are studied in this paper. The first one investigated is a modal frequency separation problem: The frequency differences in a tangential mode sandwiched between two nodal diameter modes of the brake rotor model are maximized. An automatic identification scheme for extracting correct mode orders is implemented in the program to track the correct modes during optimization. The second case is a thermal deformation problem: The distortion on the frictional surfaces of the rotor loaded with heat flux generated during the braking process is minimized. The optimization results show that a brake rotor design with a thinner outboard disc and a thicker inboard disc provides a great choice for rotor coning reduction.

Highlights

Disc brakes are commonly installed in vehicles as one of the critical safety components.Substantial thermal and mechanical loads applied to the disc brake system to stop a moving vehicle can cause severe noise and vibration problems, which are categorized among the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) phenomena and are uncomfortable to the passengers but can sometimes damage the braking system and the vehicle as well
Sci. 2022, 12, 2184 equivalent stress of the model using the ANSYS software and the response surface methodology and achieved approximately 10% reduction in both deformation and stress
An important issue is to avoid the coupling of nodal diameter (ND) and T modes, i.e., to prevent T modes from growing too close to ND modes in frequency

Summary

Introduction

Disc brakes are commonly installed in vehicles as one of the critical safety components. Substantial thermal and mechanical loads applied to the disc brake system to stop a moving vehicle can cause severe noise and vibration problems, which are categorized among the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) phenomena and are uncomfortable to the passengers but can sometimes damage the braking system and the vehicle as well. The braking performance of a vehicle can significantly be affected by the temperature rise in the brakes. The frictional heat generated on the interface of the brake rotors and the braking pads can lead to high temperatures. The temperature may exceed the critical value for a given material, which leads to undesirable effects, such as thermoelastic instability, premature wear, brake fluid vaporization, bearing failure, thermal cracks, and thermally excited vibration [1].

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