CFD INVESTIGATION OF TRANSIENT THERMAL

ANALYSIS OF DISC BRAKE

MOHAMAD HUSNUN NAZRI BIN MOHAMED HUSSAIN 1325073

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

KULLIYAH OF ENGINEERING
INTERNATION ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECEMBER 2018
CFD INVESTIGATION OF TRANSIENT THERMAL
ANALYSIS OF DISC BRAKE

MOHAMAD HUSNUN NAZRI BIN MOHAMED HUSSAIN 1325073

Project Supervisor: Dr. Hanan Binti Mokhtar

A REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR A DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
ENGINEERING (MECHANICAL - AUTOMOTIVE) (HONOURS)
 ABSTRACT

In this research, it can be stated that using the right material of disc brake is very important

in order have a better performance of the disc brake itself. The frictional force generated

between the disc brake and the brake pad will produce heat energy. Thus, the temperature

of the disc brake increase continuously as the braking is applied. Braking system represents

one of the most primary safety critical components in modern vehicles. The function of the

disc brake is to absorb the kinetic energy from the rotating wheels and dissipate it in the

form of heat energy. The objective of this research is to study temperature distribution of

disc brake by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using different material at speed

60 mph in a fixed stopping time. In order to illustrate it without using actual prototype or

actual model, ANSYS CFX software is chosen for its trust in determining the temperature

distribution. The results from the simulation can improve a better understanding about

temperature distribution of disc brake by using different material and also for the

automotive disc brake industry. The main output of this research is find the maximum

temperature of the disc brake while rotating at a speed of 60 mph in a fixed stopping time.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful”

First and foremost, praised to Allah S.W.T, the Most Merciful and the Most Kind, for

granting the strength and opportunity as well as enabling me to complete my Final Year

Project 1 within the given period.

I would like to express my great appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Hanan Binti

Mokhtar who has helped me throughout this project. Apart from that, thanks to the

assistance provided by Dr. Zahir Hanouf as the coordinator for Final Year Project II, who

always guide us in organizing our project through this semester.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents (En Mohamed Hussain & Pn Nasiha) and

family for their unconditional support, encouragement and prayers throughout completing

this project, my course mates who help me in many ways. Many thanks for their

cooperation and great support.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... v

LIST OF FIGURES ...........................................................................................................vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATION ............................................................................................ viii

LIST OF TABLES ..............................................................................................................ix

NOMENCLATURE ............................................................................................................ x

CHAPTER ONE .................................................................................................................. 1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1
1.1 BACKGROUND RESEARCH ............................................................................. 1
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................... 2
1.3 OBJECTIVE.......................................................................................................... 3
1.4 EXPECTED OUTCOME...................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................. 4

LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................. 4
2.1 PREVIOUS WORK ON DISC BRAKE ............................................................... 4
2.2 PHENOMENON OF DISC BRAKE FAILURE .................................................. 6
2.2.1 Brake fade .......................................................................................................... 6
2.2.2 Brake fluid vaporisation .................................................................................... 6
2.2.3 Excessive component wear ................................................................................ 7
2.2.4 Thermal judder .................................................................................................. 7
2.3 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC (CFD) .............................................. 10
2.3.1 ANSYS CFX ................................................................................................... 11

v
 2.4 GOVERNING EQUATIONS ............................................................................. 12
2.5 TURBULENCE MODEL ................................................................................... 14
2.5.1 Standard k- ε Model ......................................................................................... 15

CHAPTER THREE ........................................................................................................... 16

METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 16
3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 16
3.2 SIMULATION PROCESS IN ANSYS CFX ..................................................... 16
3.2.1 Geometry Development ................................................................................... 16
3.2.2 Assumptions .................................................................................................... 18
3.2.3 Mesh generation .............................................................................................. 18
3.2.3 Domain ............................................................................................................ 21
3.2.5 Boundary Conditions ....................................................................................... 22
3.2.6 Material Properties .......................................................................................... 23

CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................. 24

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .................................................................................... 24

4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 24
4.2 RESULTS............................................................................................................ 24
4.2.1 Grey Cast Iron ................................................................................................. 25
4.2.2 Iron................................................................................................................... 27
4.2.3 Steel ................................................................................................................. 29
4.3 DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 31

CHAPTER FIVE ............................................................................................................... 33

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................... 33

5.1 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 33
5.2 RECOMMENDATION ...................................................................................... 33

REFERENCE ..................................................................................................................... 34

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Title Page

1.1 Factor of accident in Malaysia 2

2.1 Dynamometer test, overheated disc brake 8

2.2 Butterfly effect due to thermal judder 9

2.3 Coning effect due to thermal judder 9

2.4 Corrugated effect due to thermal judder 9

2.5 Turbulent models in CFX 14

3.1 Isometric view of disc brake inside the fluid domain 17

3.2 Name selection for the surface involved 18

3.3 Meshing with coarse relevance centre for disc brake and fluid 19
domain

3.4 Meshing with medium relevance centre for disc brake and fluid 20
domain

3.6 Meshing with fine relevance centre for disc brake and fluid 21
domain

3.7 Fluid domain and solid domain 22

4.1 Temperature distribution of grey cast iron disc brake 25

4.2 Temperature distribution of iron disc brake 27

4.3 Temperature distribution of grey cast iron disc brake 29

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATION

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics

ADINA Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis

FE Finite Element

GUI Graphical User Interface

CAD Computer Aided Design

SST Shear-Stress Transport

BSL Baseline

SSG Speziale-Sarkar-Gatski

RAM Random Accessing Memory

TEI Thermo-Elastic Instability

viii
 LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page

3.1 Material properties 23

4.1 Summarized results 30

ix
 NOMENCLATURE

Symbol Description

C constant

E energy

𝐺𝑏 generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to buoyancy

𝐺𝑘 generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the mean velocity

gradient

h heat transfer coefficient

k turbulence kinetic energy

𝑀𝑥 x-momentum

𝑀𝑦 y-momentum

𝑀𝑧 z-momentum

p pressure

S source term

T temperature

t time

u velocity in x-direction

v velocity in y-direction

w velocity in z-direction

𝑌𝑚 contribution of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible turbulence

to the overall dissipation rate z-direction length

x
 Greek
Description
Symbol

ε dissipation rate

σ inverse effective Prandtl number

𝜌 density

μ viscosity

τ shear stress

λ thermal conductivity

xi
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND RESEARCH

Braking system is one of the most critical component in every road vehicle. The purpose of the

braking system is to remove the kinetic energy of the vehicle in order to have a safe process of

slowing motion or stopping the vehicle. In the other word, it can be described as to convert the

kinetic energy of vehicle to thermal energy. To balance the heat energy, choosing the right

material for disc brake is very important because the heat need to be dissipated very fast as

long as to improve its efficiency.

Disk brakes are using from so many years in automotive and still researches are going in this

field for decreasing the temperature effect. Many new materials are introduced for the disc

brake to withstand high temperature produced during braking action. Apart from the high

temperature property, the disc brake materials must also have high thermal conductivity

property as this property decides the amount of heat dissipation to the air stream from the disc

brake. A disc brake material with good temperature and high thermal conductivity property

gives maximum efficiency by overcoming the problem of thermo-elastic instability [TEI] in

the disc brake which is more common in low thermal conductivity brake rotor materials [1].

The rate of heat generation in friction braking system is a function of the vehicle mass, velocity

and rate of the deceleration. During braking, large amount of heat generated and been absorbed

by brake components. However, for every component, they have their own allowable

temperature to limit the amount of thermal energy a brake can store. To achieve a satisfactory

1
performance, the disc brake material should have a large specific heat capacity as to avoid the

temperature increase rapidly. High temperature responsible for most problems in the braking

system such as excessive components wear, brake fade, thermal judder and brake fluid

vaporisation. Hence, any improvement regarding to enhance the performance of braking

system will reduce risk for the above problems mentioned.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In order to avoid the high temperature of disc brake, the study of material use for disc brake is

very important. It is because every material use for disc brake has their own temperature limit

before failure occur. High temperature disc brake reduce the performance and effectiveness of

the brake traction which may lead to brake failure.

Figure 1.1: Factor of Accidents in Malaysia [2]

Figure 1.1 shows the factors of accidents occurs in Malaysia 2012. From the statement above,

it is proven that the most factor vehicle accidents in Malaysia is comes from the brake failure.

2
Moreover, it can be seen that there are not many research about the material use for disc brake

as to improve its efficiency. So, it is important to have a thermal analysis study about the disc

brake in order to improve a better performance of it.

1.3 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this final year project is to do numerical study of temperature distribution of

disc brake with different material at a speed of 60 mph in a fixed stopping time by using

Ansys CFX R 17.1

1.4 EXPECTED OUTCOME

Expected outcome is where the desired results is to determine temperature distribution of disc

brake with different material at a speed of 60 mph in a fixed stopping time by using Ansys

CFX R 17.1

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 PREVIOUS WORK ON DISC BRAKE

Passenger car disc brakes are safety-critical components whose performance depends strongly

on the contact conditions at the pad to rotor interface. When the driver steps on the brake pedal,

hydraulic fluid is pushed against the piston, which in turn forces the brake pads into contact

with the disc brake. The frictional forces at the sliding interfaces between the pads and the disc

brake retard the rotational movement of the disc and the axle on which it is mounted [3]. The

kinetic energy of the vehicle is transformed into heat that is mainly absorbed by the rotor and

the brake pad.

The frictional heat generated on the surface of the disc and the pads can cause high temperature.

Particularly, the temperature may exceed the critical value for a given material, which leads to

undesirable effects, such as brake fade, thermos-elastic instability, premature wear, brake fluid

vaporization, bearing failure, thermal cracks and thermally excited vibration [4];[5]. There was

considerable evidence to show that the contact temperature is an integral factor reflecting the

specific power friction influence of combined effect of load, speed, friction coefficient, and the

thermos physical and durability properties of the materials of a frictional couple [5]. Uneven

distribution of temperature at the surfaces of the disc and friction pads brings about thermal

distortion, which is known as coning and found to be the main cause of judder and disc

thickness variation [4]. Recent work found that temperature could also affect vibration level in

a disc brake assembly [6]. Thermal analysis on a disc brake with a combination of computer-

based thermal model and finite-element (FE)-based techniques to provide a reliable method to

4
calculate the temperature rise, thermal stress and distortion under a given brake schedule are

simulated [7]. Analysis on the thermo-mechanical behaviour of airplane carbon composite

brakes using MSC/Marc FE software which allows accurate simulation of the transient heat

transfer phenomenon coupled to disc deformations caused by frictional sliding contact is

performed [8].

A disc brake of floating calliper design typically consists of pads, calliper, carrier, disc, piston

and guide pins. One of the major requirements of the calliper is to press the pads against the

disc and should ideally achieve as uniform interface pressure as possible. A uniform pressure

between the pads and rotor leads to uniform pad wear and brake temperature, and more even

friction coefficients [9]. Unevenness of the pressure distribution could cause uneven wear and

shorter life of pads. It has also speculated that they may promote disc brake squeal. The

interface pressure distributions have been investigated by a number of people. The influence

of component geometry, material properties and contact characteristics on the interface

pressure distribution was studied by [10]. They used a simple and non-validated, three-

dimensional model of the disc brake. A method by [11] of predicting disc brake pad contact

pressure for certain operating condition by means of experimental and numerical methods.

They developed a quite detailed model and validated the model by fitting the numerical

deformations of the disc brake components with experimental results. A method of contact

analysis for the drum and disc brakes of simple three-dimensional models using ADINA

software package [12]. They showed a sticking and shifting contact area in their results. A

simple, validated three-dimensional FE model of the pad, and applied rather simple piston and

finger force onto the back plate interface in his analysis was developed [13]. He studied the

contact pressure distribution at the disc/pad interface, where gap elements were used to

represent contact effect.

5
2.2 PHENOMENON OF DISC BRAKE FAILURE

If the temperature in the braking system become too high, deterioration in braking may occur

and the most critical problem is when the brake failure happen. One of the most problem related

to high temperature of braking system is brake fade. Other problems may be occur are;

excessive components wear, disc brake deterioration and thermally excited vibration (thermal

judder). Heat generated from the friction will be conducted to the surrounding components and

may lead to damaged seal, brake fluid vaporisation, as well as the wheel bearing damage and

the heat radiated will cause damage to the tyre.

2.2.1 Brake fade

Brake fade is a temporary loss of braking because a very high temperature experienced in the

friction material. The high temperature reduce the coefficient of friction between the friction

material and the rotor and result in reduced braking effectiveness. This problem usually happen

to the vehicle which come down from the hill. The driver will keep foot on the brake pedal

frequently. With short time interval of braking, there is no way for the brake pad and rotor to

cool off. Moreover, the high temperature cause the resin that holding the material starts to

evaporating along the friction material and form a layer of gas that further comes as a problem

for the next braking.

2.2.2 Brake fluid vaporisation

Most of the braking system in the vehicle is hydraulically actuated except the heavy duty

vehicles like truck. If temperature exceed the boiling point of the brake fluid, the brake fluid

itself will be vaporised. Hence, vapour lock will be formed in the hydraulic circuit. As the gas

6
is more compressible than liquid, once the brake pedal is depressed, the gas is compressed

without actuating the brake. Besides, brake fluid is hydroscopic which is it will absorb the

water from the atmosphere. This absorption will cause the boiling point of the brake fluid

reduce.

2.2.3 Excessive component wear

High temperature of the braking system can cause thermal deformation of the disc brake which

will lead to uneven braking, accelerated wear and premature replacement. The life of the

friction material is very dependent to the temperature. At higher temperature, chemical reaction

of the friction material may cause breakdown in its mechanical strength which lead to reduce

the braking effectiveness and rapid wear. The wear of the friction material is directly

proportional to contact pressure and exponentially related to temperature [14], therefore, more

rapid wear will occur at the elevated temperature.

2.2.4 Thermal judder

On application of the vehicle brake, low frequency vibration may occur. These vibration can

be felt by the driver as the body shake, steering shake and some cases an audible drone. This

phenomenon known as ‘judder’. There are two types of judder; cold judder and thermal judder.

Cold judder is caused by uneven thickness of the disc brake, in the other word, it is called disc

thickness variation. This matter leads to deviations in contact pressure as the pad touch the disc

brake. As a result, uneven braking or brake torque variation. Second type of judder is thermal

judder which is caused by thermal deformation of the disc. When the rotor contain a cold disc

thickness variation and brake is applied, the contact pressure will be more on the thicker part

7
than thinner part. As a result, the thicker part will become hotter and cause uneven thermal

expansion of the disc brake. Furthermore, thermal judder can also be a result of ‘hotspot’ on

the disc surface. This ‘hotspot’ can cause thermal disc thickness variation and may be

permanent disc thickness variation due to phase change from pearlite to martensite when cast

iron cooled rapidly. Martensite occupies a larger volume than pearlite and therefore a cold disc

thickness variation is formed.

To understand the importance of a comprehensive design investigation of a disc brake, a deeper

understanding of the different thermal failure modes is necessary. An example of an overheated

disc brake can be seen below in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Dynamometer test, overheated disc

brake [15]

When non-uniform contact forces or overheating occur between the brake disc and the brake

pads, the effect of judder may be happen. Thermal judder, unlike cold judder, principally occurs

as an effect of thermal instabilities in the brake disc material, often due to poor disc brake

design. Examples of geometrical deflection effects like butterfly, coning and corrugated effects

8
due to thermal judder can be seen below in figure 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4.

Figure 2.2: Butterfly effect due to thermal judder [15]

Figure 2.3: Coning effect due to thermal judder [15]

Figure 2.4: Corrugated effect due to thermal judder [15]

Cracking can also appear due to non-uniform heat distribution in the disc brake material. When

non-uniform temperature distribution occurs, the disc brake will expand non-uniformly and

therefore create stress concentrations and crack propagation might occur and damage the disc.

9
The most common solutions to avoid this phenomenon is to redesign the disc brake to

maximize heat dissipation and to make the temperature distribution more uniform.

2.3 COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC (CFD)

Fluid flow can be studied on how engineering system design and analysis by two fundamental

approaches which are experimentation and calculation. Previously, some engineers used

prototype or actual model in doing the experiment and others use the differential equation,

either analytically or computationally. In the modern era, engineers work on both experiment

and CFD analyses and both of them complement each other. In the opinion of Cengel and

Cimbala [16], they stated that, “…experimental data are often used to validate CFD solutions

by matching the computationally and experimentally to determined global quantities”. CFD

applied the numerical analysis to solve the basic nonlinear differential equations that explain

the flow of fluid (the Navier-Stokes and allied equations) for predefined geometries and

boundary conditions. Furthermore, according to Kaushal and Hk [17], CFD is a simulation

tool. Therefore, it uses a computer to do the relevant science-based mathematical equation.

Beside, CFD is used to illustrate the future by predicting what will happen, when fluid flow

quantitatively. Usually, it is along with complication of heat flow, transfer of mass, change of

phase, chemical reaction or kinematic of mechanical.

In addition, Rumsey and Beutner [18] explained that CFD analysis can be performed by three

stages: pre-processing, solver, and post-processing.

Pre-processing. The process or task is done before the numerical analysis. Set geometry,

boundary condition, grid generation, meshing and model generation are included in this stage.

10
Solver. It is involving the computer to do three distinct streams of numerical calculation of

fluid flow: finite difference, finite element and spectral methods. The numerical algorithm

consists of the following: integration, discretization, iterative method.

Post-processing. This stage is where the data is being evaluated by CFD analysis so that when

the model has been solved, both numerically and graphically can be used to analyse the result

obtained. In the other hand, domain geometry and grid display, vector plots, and so on are

equipped.

The purposes of CFD to predict the properties of a region where flow occurs include flow

velocity, heat transfer coefficient, temperature, density and chemical concentrations. Various

engineering applications are using CFD to do simulations such as automotive industry,

aerospace, civil engineering and weather science. In this project, CFD is used to study the

temperature distribution of ventilated disc brake and solid disc brake.

2.3.1 ANSYS CFX

ANSYS CFX is a high-performance computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software tool that

delivers reliable and accurate solutions quickly and robustly across a wide range of CFD and

multi-physics applications. It is recognized for its outstanding accuracy, robustness and speed

with rotating machinery such as pumps, fans, compressors, and gas and hydraulic turbines.

ANSYS CFX software is a high-performance, general-purpose fluid dynamics program that

engineers have applied to solve wide-ranging fluid flow problems for over 20 years. The

advantages of ANSYS CFX are the solver is very robust and easy to make complex model to

work. Besides, it has a much more modern GUI based on QT, and fully integrated to Ansys

Workbench which allows direct connections with CAD. Unstructured meshing with ANSYS

11
CFX Mesh is very good as high quality of meshes are very easy to produce. Hybrid mesh

algorithm create meshes with prisms, tetrahedrons, pyramids and hexagon and it saves a lot of

time pre-processing.

2.4 GOVERNING EQUATIONS

The governing flow equation are mathematical statements of the conservation laws of physics.

These mathematical equation are the conservation of mass, conservation of momentum and

conservation of energy. In Ansys CFX, the equations of conservation of mass and conservation

momentum are solved. When the flow to be solved involves heat transfer compressibility, the

equation of conservation of energy is also solved. When the flow is turbulent, additional

transport equation are also solved.

The three governing equations can be basic equations which are either in the form of integral

or partial differential equation. The partial differential equations can be numerically solved by

the discretization of the partial differential equations on a computational grid, forming a set of

algebraic equations and solving the algebraic equations. This produces a discrete solution based

on the centre of the fluid element. The partial differential equation describing conservation of

mass can be written as:-

𝜕𝜌 𝜕(𝜌𝑢) 𝜕(𝜌𝑣) 𝜕(𝜌𝑤) (Equation 2.4a)

+ + + =0
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧

12
 𝜕𝜌 (Equation 2.4b)
+ 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜌𝒖) = 0
𝜕𝑡

The conservation of momentum is Newton’s second law, which states that the rate of change

of momentum is equal to the sum of the forces of a fluid particle.

𝜕(𝜌𝑢) 𝜕𝜌
+ 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜌𝑢𝒖) = − + 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜇 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑢) + 𝑆𝑀𝑥 (Equation 2.4c)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑥

𝜕(𝜌𝑣) 𝜕𝜌
+ 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜌𝑣𝒖) = − + 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜇 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑣) + 𝑆𝑀𝑦
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑦 (Equation 2.4d)

𝜕(𝜌𝑤) 𝜕𝜌
+ 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜌𝑤𝒖) = − + 𝑑𝑖𝑣(𝜇 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑 𝑤) + 𝑆𝑀𝑧 (Equation 2.4e)
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑧

The conservation of energy is the first law of thermodynamics which is that the rate of change

of energy is equal to the sum of the rate of heat addition to and the rate of work done on a fluid

particle.

In CFX, heat transfer can be modelled in both fluid and solid. When heat is involved in a

problem, CFX would solve the following energy equation:

𝜕(𝜌ℎ𝑡𝑜𝑡 ) 𝜕P (Equation 2.4f)

− + ∇. (𝜌. 𝑈 ℎ𝑡𝑜𝑡 ) = ∇. (𝜆 ∇ T) + ∇. (𝑈. τ) + 𝑆𝐸
𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡

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2.5 TURBULENCE MODEL

Turbulence consists of fluctuations in the flow field in time and space. It is a complex process,

mainly because it is three dimensional, unsteady and consists of many scales. It can have a

significant effect on the characteristics of the flow. Turbulence occurs when the inertia forces

in the fluid become significant compared to viscous forces, and is characterized by a high

Reynolds Number.

In principle, the Navier-Stokes equations describe both laminar and turbulent flows without the

need for additional information. However, turbulent flows at realistic Reynolds numbers span

a large range of turbulent length and time scales, and would generally involve length scales

much smaller than the smallest finite volume mesh, which can be practically used in a

numerical analysis. The viscous models available in CFX, shown in figure 2.5 are consist of

Laminar, k-Epsilon, Shear Stress Transport (SST), BSL Reynold Stress and SSG Reynold

Stress.

Laminar

Standard k- ε Model

Shear Stress Transport (SST)

BSL Reynold Stress

SSG Reynold Stress

Figure 2.5: Turbulent models in CFX

14
2.5.1 Standard k- ε Model

The Standard k- ε Model is a model based on model transport equations for the turbulence

kinetic energy (k) and its dissipation rate (ε). The model transport equation for k is derived from

the exact equation while the model transport equation for ε was obtained using physical

reasoning and bears little resemblance to its mathematically exact counterpart. The transport

equation for Standard k- ε Model are as follows:

(Equation 2.5a)

(Equation 2.5b)

The transport equations of Standard k- ε Model is chosen because it solves for two variables

which are k, the turbulence kinetic energy and ε (epsilon), the rate of dissipation of turbulence

kinetic energy. This model is very well-known because it has good convergence rate and

relatively low memory requirements. It also can be used to provide a good initial guess.

15
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the aim is to justify the simulation setup as well as to obtain the results from

the CFD simulation. This part is a description of the CFD simulation process which consists of

description of geometry development, assumptions, mesh generation, domain, boundary

condition assignment and material properties. The simulations are consist of the three different

material of disc brake which are Grey Cast Iron, Iron and Steel. The stopping time of the vehicle

is set to be fixed for all materials which is 6.0 second.

3.2 SIMULATION PROCESS IN ANSYS CFX

A three-dimensional computational model of disc brake is created for computational fluid

dynamics analysis. A computational fluid dynamics code consists of a pre-processor, solver

and post-processor. In this case, all the computational dynamics code are used in the CFX as

the pre-processor is used in Design Modeller, solver in CFX-Pre and post-processor in CFX-

Post.

3.2.1 Geometry Development

The geometry of disc brake was developed in the Geometry development in ANSYS Design

Modeller software. In this project, the diameter and thickness for the disc brake is 0.2 m and

0.0125 m. Brake pad is designed to be fitted between outer radius and the inner radius of the

16
disc brake. The fluid domain is considered around the disc brake in the area of 0.8 m x 1.25 m

x 0.3m. Figure 3.1 shows the isometric view of the disc brake inside the fluid domain.

Figure 3.1: Isometric view of disc brake inside the fluid domain

Then, several parameters are added to the model which are inlet, outlet, wall and inner object

inside the fluid domain. The inlet and outlet surfaces must be selected before updating the

mesh. The surfaces must be labelled by selecting the appropriate faces and right click the mouse

button on the face and choose name selection. Label them with suitable names as to ease for

selecting the correct surfaces for the setup simulation. Lastly, before proceeding to the next

stage, the mesh is generated. Figure 3.2 shows the named selection for the surface involved.

17
 Figure 3.2: Name selection for the surface involved

3.2.2 Assumptions

In this simulation, there are several assumptions have been made in order to complete the

simulation. The ambient temperature for air surrounding and disc brake are assumed to be 27 ̊C.

Second, the tire specification is 205/55/R16 which means 205 mm tire width, aspect ratio of

55 and rim diameter of 16 inches. The mass of the vehicle is assumed to be 1610 kg. Next, the

entire kinetic energy of the vehicle is dissipated through the brake rotors. Energy dissipation

split evenly between the left and right side. Lastly, the vehicle speed reduce linearly from 60

mph to 0 mph within 6.0 seconds.

3.2.3 Mesh generation

A mesh is defined as a collection of points representing the flow field where the equations of

fluid motion are calculated. In this case, the mesh is generated in ANSYS ICEM CFD. The

meshing cell types available are triangle and quadrilateral for two dimensional geometries,

tetrahedral, hexahedral, pyramid or wedge cell for three dimensional geometries. In meshing,

the analysis may be done by three options: low, medium, and high. The levels indicate the

18
simulation on how deep the model will be undergone meshing process and further processes.

The higher the option, the better the detail and result of the analysis. Time consumption will

increases along with the options. Figure 3.3, Figure 3.4 and Figure 3.5 shows the coarse,

medium and fine relevance centre of meshing for the disc brake and the fluid domain

respectively.

Figure 3.3: Meshing with coarse relevance centre for disc brake and fluid domain

19
Figure 3.4: Meshing with medium relevance centre for disc brake and fluid domain

Figure 3.5: Meshing with fine relevance centre for disc brake and fluid domain

20
Powerful processing unit of computer with high-end graphic memory and high RAM is a better

choice in simulates the fine relevance center because it uses a lots of memories to analyse the

model. From the statistic, it shows that the model contain of 236,451 nodes and 469,756

elements.

3.2.3 Domain

As mentioned in the Geometry Development section, there are two types of domain which are

the fluid domain and the solid domain. The fluid domain is named as the AirDomain. It is use

air ideal gas as the working fluid at a reference pressure of 1 atm and set to stationary relative

to the chosen reference frame. For the heat transfer option and the turbulence option, it were

set to thermal energy and standard k- ε model respectively. The solid domain is named as the

Rotor. It is use grey cast iron, iron and steel as the material and the solid motion is set to rotating

motion. Figure 3.6 shows the fluid domain and the solid domain of this simulation. As there

are two different types of domain, which are fluid and solid domain, a domain interface must

be created. If the domain interface is not created, one domain would not feel the effect of

neighbouring domain. In this case, it is named as RotorInterface. The interface type is set to

fluid solid.

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 Figure 3.6: Fluid Domain and Solid Domain

3.2.5 Boundary Conditions

The fluid domain consists of types of boundary which are inlet, outlet and opening. Inlet

boundary is named as AirIn. Mass and momentum option is set to be normal speed which is 60

mph. Heat transfer option it is set to static temperature which is 27 ̊ C. Outlet boundary is

named as AirOut. Mass and momentum option is set to average static pressure which is 0 Pa.

Opening boundary is named as AirOpening. Mass and momentum option is set to entrainment

with relative pressure 0 Pa. The turbulence option and heat transfer option are set to zero

gradient and opening temperature respectively. Next, the opening temperature is set to 27 ̊ C.

22
3.2.6 Material Properties

In this simulation, the materials used for disc brake are grey cast iron, iron and steel. Table 3.1

shows the material properties of candidate materials used for disc brake for this simulation.

Material
Grey cast iron Iron Steel
Properties
Molar mass (g/mol) 79.85 55.85 55.85

Density (g/cm3 ) 7.15 7.87 7.85

Specific heat capacity (J/kg.K) 490 447 434

Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) 53.3 80.2 60.5

Thermal expansion (× 10−6 K −1 ) 13.5 11.0 12.0

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 CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter, the CFD simulation setup was performed to obtain the result which is

the temperature distribution of the disc brake by using grey cast iron, iron and steel as the

material. This chapter consists of results and discussion from the simulation. The results are

discussed in term of the performance of selected turbulence model, k-ε model. The results may

be observed by two options: graphical and animation. For the graphical, the data obtained can

be illustrated by mesh, contour, vector and path lines. For the animation, the option include,

sweep surface, scene animation and solution animation playback. This type of results only can

be viewed from the computer. Therefore, it will not be discussed in this chapter. All the results

obtained from the simulation in ANSYS CFX R 17.1.

4.2 RESULTS

The temperature distribution for disc brake was illustrated in the form plot of contour. It shows

the temperature affected by the braking to the disc brake. The colour of the contour indicate

the differences of temperature at the surface of the disc brake. The colour involved in this

simulation are blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange and red. The temperature increase along

with the colour stated. Legend View is the indicator at left side of the disc brake shows the

scale of the temperature from the minimum to the maximum value. Figure 4.1, Figure 4.2 and

Figure 4.3 shows the temperature distribution of disc brake using grey cast iron, iron and steel

respectively.

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4.2.1 Grey Cast Iron

Figure 4.1(a): Temperature distribution of grey cast iron at 𝑡 = 1.0 𝑠

Figure 4.1(b): Temperature distribution of grey cast iron at 𝑡 = 2.0 𝑠

25
Figure 4.1(c): Temperature distribution of grey cast iron at 𝑡 = 4.0 𝑠

Figure 4.1(d): Temperature distribution of grey cast iron at 𝑡 = 6.0 𝑠

26
4.2.2 Iron

Figure 4.2(a): Temperature distribution of iron at 𝑡 = 1.0 𝑠

Figure 4.2(b): Temperature distribution of iron at 𝑡 = 2.0 𝑠

27
Figure 4.2(c): Temperature distribution of iron at 𝑡 = 4.0 𝑠

Figure 4.2(d): Temperature distribution of iron at 𝑡 = 6.0 𝑠

28
4.2.3 Steel

Figure 4.3(a): Temperature distribution of steel at 𝑡 = 1.0 𝑠

Figure 4.3(b): Temperature distribution of steel at t = 2.0 s

29
Figure 4.3(c): Temperature distribution of steel at 𝑡 = 4.0 𝑠

Figure 4.3(d): Temperature distribution of steel at 𝑡 = 6.0 𝑠

30
After obtaining all the results, it is important to present the result in the table form as to ease

the readers to see the data obtained. Table 4.1 shows the summarized result from the simulation.

Maximum temperature of disc brake (K)

Material
At 𝑡 = 1.0 𝑠 At 𝑡 = 2.0 𝑠 At 𝑡 = 4.0 𝑠 At 𝑡 = 6.0 𝑠

Grey cast iron

369 382 385 392
Iron
377 390 393 399
Steel
379 393 395 402

Table 4.1: Summarized results

4.3 DISCUSSION

The CAD model of disc brake is analysed and contour plot of temperature is plotted for

transient state thermal analysis. The temperature contour of grey cast iron, iron and steel for

transient state thermal analysis at t = 1.0 s, t = 2.0 s, t = 4.0 s and t = 6.0 s shows in Figure

4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 respectively. All the contour plots show maximum temperature at the outer

portion of disc brake where the heat flux is applied. The temperature decrease as it moves

towards the centre of the disc brake where temperature is lowering and heat is dissipated by

convection. It can be seen that from the results, the maximum temperature achieved by grey

cast iron disc brake at t = 6.0 s is about 392 K or 119 ̊ C. The maximum temperature is location

at the point where the disc brake and the brake pad in contact. Next, the maximum temperature

achieved by iron disc brake at t = 6.0 s is about 399 K or 126 ̊ C and steel disc brake is about

402 K or 129 ̊ C.

31
Based on the simulation results, different materials give different value of maximum

temperature of the disc brake. It is because they have different specific capacity. Specific heat

capacity is a measure of the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of

a pure substance by one degree K. The specific heat capacity for grey cast iron is 490 J/kg.K,

iron is 447 J/kg.K and steel is 434 J/kg.K. The lower specific heat capacity materials will absorb

heat faster compare to the high one. So, it is clearly that grey cast iron is better compare to the

other materials.

32
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 CONCLUSION

Computational simulation on the temperature distribution of disc brake using different

materials have been performed. From the results obtained, it show that material play an

important role to disc brake as it affect its performance. This project has succeed its objective

which is to do numerical study of temperature distribution of disc brake with different material

at a speed of 60 mph in a fixed stopping time by using Ansys CFX R 17.1. It can be concluded

that grey cast iron disc brake is the most suitable material used as it gives minimum temperature

which is 111 ̊ C compare to iron disc brake, 119 ̊ C and steel disc brake, 122 ̊ C with the speed

of 60 mph within 3.6 second of braking time.

5.2 RECOMMENDATION

There followings are recommendations for future research on the disc brake:

(a) To simulate further on disc brake using other turbulence models.

(b) To improve the design of disc brake by using ventilated disc brake.

(c) To simulate further on disc brake by using the other materials that low in cost.

33
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