A Fundamental Study on the Heat Partition Ratio of Vehicle Disk Brakes

The interface tribolayer (ITL) in an automotive brake friction pair is a layer of material created from transfer films, wear particles, and surface transformations between the rotor and stator. Its presence in a brake friction interface has been proven, e.g., by the existence of a temperature “jump” across the friction interface. In this paper, two 1D static transient heat transfer models have been used to investigate the ITL behavior and obtain an equivalent thermal conductance value which will reduce computational requirements and software restrictions. The approach is developed into a more realistic 2D coupled temperature–displacement model using commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software (abaqus) that utilizes the contact pressure, real contact area, and the ITL equivalent thermal conductance to estimate the effective thermal conductance at the friction interface. Subsequently, the effective thermal conductance relationship is combined with the 2-D coupled temperature–displacement model to provide a new method of heat partition prediction in brake friction pairs where heat partition is neither uniform nor constant with time.