Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 November 2012
The vehicle braking system is considered as one of the most fundamental safety-critical systems in modern vehicles as its main purpose is to stop or decelerate the vehicle. The frictional heat generated during braking application can cause numerous negative effects on the brake assembly such as brake fade, premature wear, thermal cracks and disc thickness variation (DTV). In this paper, transient and contact analysis of the brake disc is presented. The analysis was carried out using ANSYS Multiphysics 11.0 based on the thermomechanical coupled case. The temperature distribution obtained by the transient thermal analysis is used in the calculations of the stresses on the disc surface. The results presented are for the temperature during contact, for different values of time, deformations established in the disc, total stress and pressure contact distribution in the pads. The results obtained by the simulation are satisfactory compared with those of the specialized literature.