Structural Effects of Fins Inclination Angles on Vented Brake Disc

Abstract

An automobile brake disc is speed control mechanism used in most vehicles. The component is subjected to high mechanical stress, because it converts the kinetic energy of a moving vehicle into thermal energy. Therefore the component is prone to damages which can leads to brake failure resulting to lost of lives and properties. However, most researchers are more concern with methods to improve the heat dissipation of the vented brake disc, without giving much emphasis to the angle of inclination of the vents which can leads to some structural problem. Therefore, this paper aimed at investigating the effects of the internal fins inclination angles on the vented brake disc. A static state structural analysis was performed using Solidworks Simulation software on three brake disc models, with fins at 90o, 60o, and 30o inclination. The results shows that the model with fins at 90o inclination has the lowest von misses stress (714,044.9N/m2), deformation (1.7x10-4mm) and strain (9.135x10-6)which leads to its high Factor of Safety than the two models. It is hereby recommends that, the length of the fins or vents should be position along R, R1 and R2 in order to reduce stress generation on the brake disc. However, further research work should be done to investigate the thermal performance of these three models. However, another work should be carryout by elongating the length of these fins to be position along R, R1and R2.