A comparative study of thermo-mechanical performance of brake rotor discs using finite element analysis

Brake rotor discs are essential components in cars, requiring materials that have excellent durability and efficient frictional characteristics in different conditions. Gray Cast Iron (GCI) is frequently used because of its high melting point, excellent thermal conductivity, and cost-efficiency. Although there have been efforts to replace it with lighter alloys, GCI remains to be suggested because of its exceptional strength and machinability. The present research used Siemens NX software to perform a transient thermo-mechanical analysis in order to assess the thermal and structural effectiveness of four brake disc designs: solid, circular drilled, square drilled, and triangle drilled discs. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) results show that triangular drilled discs showed better heat dissipation, which led to a temperature decrease to 206.85 °C at 3.5 s, compared to 238.97 °C in solid discs. Furthermore, the von-Mises stress exhibited its minimum value in triangular drilled discs, at 320 MPa. Conversely, solid discs had the greatest displacement values across all time intervals. The findings underscore the importance of carefully choosing appropriate materials and optimizing the design of the brake disc to enhance its performance and guarantee safety.