Wear 257 (2004) 47–58

Finite element analysis of transient thermoelastic

behaviors in disk brakes
Ji-Hoon Choi, In Lee∗
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,
373-1 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Taejeon 305-701, South Korea
Received 29 October 2002; received in revised form 31 July 2003; accepted 31 July 2003

Abstract
A transient analysis for thermoelastic contact problem of disk brakes with frictional heat generation is performed using the finite element
method. To analyze the thermoelastic phenomenon occurring in disk brakes, the coupled heat conduction and elastic equations are solved
with contact problems. The numerical simulation for the thermoelastic behavior of disk brake is obtained in the repeated brake condition.
The computational results are presented for the distributions of pressure and temperature on each friction surface between the contacting
bodies. Also, thermoelastic instability (TEI) phenomenon (the unstable growth of contact pressure and temperature) is investigated in the
present study, and the influence of the material properties on the thermoelastic behaviors (the maximum temperature and contact ratio
on the friction surfaces) is investigated to facilitate the conceptual design of the disk brake system. Based on these numerical results, the
thermoelastic behaviors of the carbon–carbon composites with excellent mechanical and thermal properties are also discussed.
© 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Disk brakes; Frictional heat; Thermoelastic instability; Finite element method

1. Introduction The mechanism of TEI in sliding systems involving

Extreme thermal environments are an important issue in
the design of sliding contact systems such as brakes and
clutches. Thermal stresses due to high temperatures may
induce a number of unfavorable conditions such as surface
cracks and permanent distortions. Frictional heating, thermal
deformation and elastic contact in sliding contact systems
affect the contact pressure and temperature on the friction
surfaces. If the sliding speed is excessively high, these
coupled thermal and mechanical behaviors can be unstable
leading to localized high temperature contact regions called
“hot spots” on the sliding interface [1,2]. The appearance
of these hot spots is known as frictionally excited thermoe-
lastic instability or TEI and is observed in many practical
applications, especially brakes and clutches. Hot spots can
cause material damage and thermal crack, and induce an
undesirable frictional vibration known as “hot judder” in
automotive disk brake systems [3–6]. Accordingly, TEI im-
poses design constraints on high performance systems such
as aircraft and automotive brakes and clutches, and has been
of interest to researchers and engineers for many years.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-42-869-3717; fax: +82-42-869-3710.
E-mail address: inlee@asdl.kaist.ac.kr (I. Lee).
frictional heating was first explained by Barber [7,8], who
observed experimentally the resulting hot spots in railway
brakes. Burton et al. [9] presented the first analytical model
based on a perturbation method to investigate the stability
of contact between two sliding half planes. Lee and Barber
[10] extended Burton’s model to more a practical model,
disk brake model, in which there is a finite thickness layer
sliding between two half planes. It was shown that the finite
thickness layer of this system influences the thermoelastic
contact stability. Lee and Barber’s model has also been
quite widely used for thermoelastic instability analysis in
the brakes and clutches industry [11–13]. Jang and Khon-
sari [14] derived a general set of governing equations and
investigated a thermoelastic instability for a lubricated sys-
tem composed of a conductor with finite thickness and an
insulator with a rough frictional surface. Recently, Burton’s
perturbation method was implemented numerically, leading
to an eigenvalue problem to determine the stability bound-
ary of the sliding system using a finite element method
[15,16]. However, these solutions all assume that the slid-
ing speed is constant, whereas actual sliding systems such
as brakes and clutches experience intense periods of opera-
tion with varying sliding speed. A more realistic approach
to this problem is to use a numerical method to simulate

0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2003.07.008
48 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58

Nomenclature transient thermoelastic analysis for axisymmetric multidisk

clutches and brakes without making this assumption. It was
c specific heat shown that thermal deformations have a great influence on
CT capacity matrix the distributions of normal pressure on the friction surfaces
D elasticity matrix of multidisk brakes and clutches. Sonn [20] investigated the
E Young’s modulus transient thermoelastic behaviors of composite aircraft-type
h heat convection coefficient multidisk brakes. He showed that as a brake friction mate-
k thermal conductivity rial, the orthotropic disk brakes have better thermoelastic
K stiffness matrix characteristics than the isotropic ones because of the larger
KHT conductivity matrix contact region of the friction surfaces. Recently, Zagrodzki
P normal pressure et al. [21] implemented a transient finite element simulation
P force vector for the two-dimensional thermoelastic contact problem of a
Ph hydraulic pressure stationary layer between two sliding layers with frictionally
q heat flux excited thermoelastic instability using the Petrov–Galerkin
r, θ, z cylindrical coordinates algorithm. Choi and Lee [22] developed a finite element
R heat source vector model for an axisymmeric coupled thermoelastic contact
T temperature problem simulating a disk brake and investigated the TEI
T∞ ambient temperature phenomena of disk brakes during the drag braking process.
U displacement vector Comprehensive understanding of both transient thermoe-
w normal component of displacements lastic behavior and TEI phenomenon is needed for the ef-
fective design of disk brake systems. In this paper, repeated
Greek letters brake processes with varying sliding speeds are applied in
α thermal expansion coefficient the numerical computations of the transient thermoelastic
ε strain vector behavior of disk brakes. The fully implicit transient scheme
µ coefficient of friction for the thermoelastic analysis is used to improve the compu-
ν Poisson’s ratio tational accuracy at every time step. The TEI phenomenon
ρ density of disk brakes is investigated during repeated brake cycles.
σ stress vector Also, the influence of the material properties on thermoe-
ω angular velocity lastic behaviors is investigated to facilitate the conceptual
design of the disk brake system. Based on the numerical
Subscripts results, the thermoelastic behaviors of carbon–carbon com-
f body force posites with excellent mechanical and thermal properties are
i, j subregions i and j, respectively also discussed. The wear during the brake action is assumed
n normal direction to be negligibly small and is not considered in this analysis.
τ surface traction
T temperature rise
2. Finite element formulation

the behavior of the coupled transient thermoelastic contact 2.1. Heat transfer problem
problem. However, there are only a few investigations in
the literature that deal with coupled transient thermoelas- The unsteady heat conduction equation of each body for
tic behavior of disk brakes. Kennedy and Ling [17] were an axisymmetric problem described in the cylindrical coor-
first to obtain numerical simulations of thermomechanical dinate system is given as follows:
behaviors occurring in aircraft-type multidisk brakes. In


∂T 1 ∂ ∂T ∂ ∂T
their study, they took into account the effect of thermal ρc = rkr + kz (1)
deformation and wear on the normal pressure on friction ∂t r ∂r ∂r ∂z ∂z
surfaces, but assumed that thermomechanical phenomena with the boundary conditions and initial condition
of each disk are in symmetry about the disks’ mid-planes.
T = T∗ n Γ0 (2)
The analysis of temperatures and stresses of a steel multi-
disk wet clutch has been performed by Zagrodzki [18]. An qn = h(T − T∞ ) on Γ1 (3)
assumption was made in the analysis that the distribution
of normal pressures on friction surfaces has no relation qn = qn∗ on Γ2 (4)
with that of temperatures and that it is uniform. The nu- T = T0 at time = 0 (5)
merical computation under this assumption gives rise to the
underestimation of thermal stresses in the disks. In order where ρ, c, kr and kz are the density, specific heat and ther-
to overcome this shortcoming, Zagrodzki [19] performed a mal conductivities in the r and z direction of the material,
 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58 49

respectively. Also, T ∗ is the prescribed temperature, h the 3. Model of disk brakes

heat transfer coefficient, qn∗ the heat flux at each contact in-
terface due to the friction, T∞ the ambient temperature, T0
the initial temperature and Γ0 , Γ1 and Γ2 are boundaries on
which temperature, convection and heat flux are imposed,
respectively.
Using Galerkin’s approach, a finite element formulation
of unsteady heat Eq. (1) can be written in the following
matrix form as
CT Ṫ + KHT T = R
where CT is the capacity matrix, KHT is the conductivity
matrix, and T and R are the nodal temperature and heat
source vector, respectively. The detailed derivations and ex-
pressions of Eq. (6) may be found in our previous study [22].
The most commonly used method for solving Eq. (6) is
the direct integration method based on the assumption that
temperature T t at time t and temperature T t+ t at time t+ t
have the following relation:
T t+ t = T t + [(1 − β)Ṫ t + βṪ t+ t ] t
Eq. (7) can be used to reduce the ordinary differential Eq. (6)
to the following implicit algebraic equation:
3.1. Contact model of disk brakes
In the numerical modeling of contact problems, special
attention is required because the actual contact area between
the contacting bodies is usually not known beforehand. In
contact problems, unlike other boundary problems, nodes on
the contact surface do not have prescribed displacements or
tractions. Instead, they must satisfy two relationships: (1) the
(6)
continuity of normal displacements on the contact surface
(no overlap condition of contact area), and (2) the equilib-
rium conditions (equal and opposite tractions). Even if the
contacting bodies are linear materials, contact problems are
nonlinear because the contact area does not change linearly
with the applied load. Accordingly, iterative or increment
schemes are needed to obtain accurate solutions of contact
problems. The iterations to obtain the actual contact surface
are finished when all of these conditions are met [25].
Fig. 1a shows the interfaces of two adjacent subregions i
(7) and j of elastic bodies. The elastic contact problem is treated
as quasi-static with standard unilateral contact conditions at
the interfaces. The following constraint conditions of dis-
placements are imposed on each interface:

(CT + b1 KHT )T t+ t wi = wj , if P > 0 (12)

= (CT − b2 KHT )T t + b2 Rt + b1 Rt+ t (8)

where the variables b1 , b2 are given by subregion j

z
b1 = β t, b2 = (1 − β) t (9)
uj
wi = wj
For different values of β, the well-known numerical r
integration schemes can be obtained [23]. In this study,
ui
0.5 ≤ β ≤ 1.0 was used, which is an unconditionally stable
scheme.
subregion i

2.2. Elastic problem

(a)
The constitutive equation for the elastic problem with
thermal expansions can be written as:
σ = D(ε − ε0 ) (10) subregion j
where σ and ε0 (=α T) are the stresses and initial strain
z qhj qhj
q∗nj Tj
vectors, respectively, and D and α are the elasticity matrix
and thermal expansion coefficient vectors, respectively. r
In order to derive the equation of equilibrium for ther-
moelastic problems, the variational principle was applied q∗ni Ti
[24], resulting in the thermoelastic finite element equation qhi qhi
of equilibrium in the following form: subregion i

KU = P f + P τ + P T (11)
(b)
where K is the stiffness matrix, U the vector of nodal dis-
placements, P f , P τ and P T are the body force, surface Fig. 1. Contact model for the (a) elastic and (b) heat conduction problem
traction, and thermal load vectors, respectively. in two adjacent subregions.
50 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58

wi ≤ wj , if P = 0 (13) q n = h (T − T ∞ )
where P is the normal pressure on the friction surfaces. pad
The radial component of the sliding velocity resulting
from the deformations is considerably smaller than the

q n = h (T − T ∞ )
q n = h (T − T ∞ )

circumferential component. Therefore, the frictional forces

in radial direction on the friction surfaces are disregarded disk
in this study [19]. Fig. 1b shows thermal phenomena of
two adjacent subregions of bodies. The interfacial thermal
boundary conditions depend on the state of mechanical con-
tact. Two unknown terms qni ∗ , q∗ exist on each interface. To
nj pad
fully define the heat transfer problem, two additional condi-
tions are required on each contact interface. If the surfaces − h (T − T ∞ )
qn −
are in contact, the temperature continuity condition and the
heat balance condition are imposed on each interface: Fig. 3. Heat finite element models for the transient thermoelastic analysis.

Ti = Tj ,if P > 0 (14)


q∗ = µrωP = − qn∗ = −(qni
∗ ∗
+ qnj ), if P > 0 (15) pressure is applied to the boundary along the radius of the
piston side pad and the immobility condition in the axial
where µ and ω are the coefficients of friction and angu- direction is applied to the boundary along the radius of the
lar sliding velocity, respectively. Then, using the aforemen- finger side one. The heat finite element model of disk brakes
tioned conditions, equations of one node from each pair of with boundary conditions is shown in Fig. 3. The convective
contact nodes are removed. If the surfaces are not in contact, boundary conditions are imposed on all boundaries to con-
the separated surfaces are treated as an adiabatic condition: sider more realistic heat conditions. The initial temperature
q∗ = 0 (= qni
∗ ∗
= qnj ), if p = 0 (16) is T0 = 20 ◦ C in this study.
In the thermoelastic analysis of disk brakes, the most im-
The distribution of the normal pressure P in Eq. (15) can portant variables are the pressure and temperature on the
be obtained by solving the mechanical problem occurring in friction surfaces. To efficiently obtain accurate solutions of
the disk brakes. these problems, an appropriate finite element division is in-
dispensable. In this study, axisymmetric eight-node isopara-
3.2. Finite element models metric elements were used for the finite element analysis.
There are 68 elements and 247 nodes per pad, and 136 ele-
Fig. 2 shows the elastic finite element model of disk brakes ments and 459 nodes per disk. The total system has 272 ele-
with boundary conditions. The inner radius, outer radius, ments and 953 nodes. To allow the gradient of the variables
and thickness of a disk are 0.080, 0.131 and 0.024 m, re- at the interfaces and boundaries, the finer mesh near those
spectively. The thickness of a pad is 0.010 m. The hydraulic of disk brakes was adopted using the mapping function.

Fig. 2. Elastic finite element model for the transient thermoelastic analysis.
 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58 51

4. Solution method for the transient thermoelastic 300

problem f. s. : friction surface

The present study is based on the coupled theory in which 270 at f.s. 2
temperatures and displacements are mutually influenced. If
the solution is known at time t, the solution for the next
temperature, T( C)

time step t + t needs the information of Rt+ t on the

o

240 at f.s. 1
right hand side of Eq. (8). However, the distributions of
pressures P on the friction surfaces at this time step, which
appear in the thermal boundary conditions of Eq. (15), are 210
unknown. When solving the frictional contact problems in
time domain, Zagrodzki [19] assumed the contact pressure
P to be the change in time of the total force represented by steady
180
the applied hydraulic pressure Ph of the known time function unsteady(t = 10 sec)
steady
as follows: unsteady(t = 10 sec)
Ph (t + β t)
P(t + β t, r) ≈ P(t, r) (17) 150
Ph (t) 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13

radius, r(m)

Table 1 Fig. 5. Temperature distributions on the friction surfaces for steady and
Material properties and operation conditions for the validation of the unsteady (at t = 10 s) solutions.
transient thermoelastic scheme
Pad and disk

Material properties
Thermal conductivity, k = kr = kz (W/(m K)) 50 180 1.2
Density, ρ(kg/m3 ) 1800 braking acceleration driving
time time time
Specific heat, c(J/(kg K)) 1.88
Poisson’s ratio, ν 0.3 150 1.0
Thermal expansion, α (10−6 /K) Ph
hydraulic pressure, Ph(MPa)

0.3
(rad/s)

Elastic modulus, E (GPa) 50.2

Coefficient of friction, µ 0.2 120 0.8

Operation conditions
angular velocity,

Angular velocity, ω (rad/s) 50 90 0.6

Hydraulic pressure, Ph (MPa) 1

60 0.4
2.0
f. s. : friction surface
30 0.2

1.6
at f.s. 2
contact pressure, P(MPa)

0 0.0
0 4 8 12 16 20

time, t(sec)
1.2
Fig. 6. Brake engagement process used in transient thermoelastic analysis.

at f.s. 1
0.8

Table 2
steady
Material properties for the transient thermoelastic analysis
0.4 unsteady(t = 10 sec)
steady Material properties Pad Disk
unsteady(t = 10 sec)
Thermal conductivity, k = kr = kz (W/(m K)) 5 57
0.0 Density, ρ(kg/m3 ) 1400 7100
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13 Specific heat, c(J/(kg K)) 1000 452
Poisson’s ratio, ν 0.25 0.25
radius, r(m) Thermal expansion, α (10−10 /K) 10 11
Elastic modulus, E (GPa) 1 106
Fig. 4. Pressure distributions on the friction surfaces for steady and Coefficient of friction, µ 0.0667
unsteady (at t = 10 s) solutions.
52 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58

However, the solutions using the assumption of Eq. (17)
are generally unreasonable in case of the variation in time
of contact areas or specially, the drag braking condition
(constant hydraulic pressure Ph ). Consequently, for fric-
tional contact problems where the time evolution of con-
tact pressures is important, the fully implicit scheme should
be used.
The numerical simulation for the coupled transient ther-
moelastic contact problem is carried out in the following
way: At time t, it is assumed that the temperature distri-
bution T is given. Using this temperature, the thermal load
vector P T in Eq. (11) can be obtained. To solve the contact
problem, elastic Eq. (11) is iteratively calculated to satisfy
the no overlap condition and the equilibrium state on the
contact surfaces. As a result of this calculation, new pressure
distributions and new contact conditions on the contact sur-
faces can be obtained. Then, using new heat flux vector R
in Eq. (8) constructed from the relation of Eq. (15) and new
contact conditions, the heat Eq. (8) and the elastic Eq. (11)
can be solved at time t + t. The fully implicit transient it-
erations are repeated to calculate the equilibrium state of the
coupled thermoelastic equations at every time step. In this
way, the solutions of thermoelastic state at any time could
be obtained.

450
2.5 f.s. : friction surface 1st braking
1st braking 4th braking
f.s. : friction surface
4th braking 7th braking
7th braking 360 10th braking
2.0 10th braking
contact pressure, P(MPa)

temperature, T( C)
o

270
1.5

180
1.0
at f.s. 1
90
0.5
at f.s.1

0
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
0.0
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
radius, r(m)
radius, r(m)
(a) Friction surface 1
(a) Friction surface 1 450
2.5 f.s. : friction surface 1st braking
1st braking 4th braking
f.s. : friction surface
4th braking 7th braking
7th braking 360 10th braking
2.0 10th braking
contact pressure, P(MPa)

temperature, T( C)
o

270
1.5

180
1.0
at f.s. 2
90
0.5
at f.s.2

0
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
0.0
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
radius, r(m)
radius, r(m)
(b) Friction surface 2
(b) Friction surface 2
Fig. 8. Temperature distributions on friction surfaces in various braking
Fig. 7. Pressure distributions on friction surfaces in various braking steps. steps.
 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Validation of finite element code
First of all, to validate the present finite element code,
a comparison of the transient results with the steady state
solution of thermoelastic behaviors was performed for the
operation condition of the constant hydraulic pressure Ph =
1 MPa and angular velocity ω = 50 rad/s (drag brake appli-
cation) during 10 s. If the transient solution for this operation
condition converges to the steady solution as time elapses, it
can be regarded as validation of the applied transient scheme.
The thermal boundary conditions used are adiabatic on the
boundary of the inner and outer radius and the prescribed
temperature condition T = 20 ◦ C on both boundaries along
the radius of the lower and upper pad by the assumption
of the cooling state. The material properties and operation
conditions used for the validation of the transient thermoe-
Fig. 9. Temperature contours of disk brake in various braking steps: (a)–(d) Case 1, (e)–(f) Case 2.
53
lastic scheme are given in Table 1. Note that a lower than
realistic value of specific heat (related to thermal capacity)
was used for the fast convergence to the steady state in the
transient thermoelastic analysis. The time step t = 0.005 s
was used in the numerical computation.
Fig. 4 shows the pressure distributions on the friction
surfaces for the steady and transient (at t = 10 s) solutions.
Actually, after the time t = 3 s, a change of pressure dis-
tributions does scarcely occur, and then the steady state is
reached. Also, this result indicates that the pressure distri-
butions on each friction surface occur dissimilarly as time
elapses. The major cause of these phenomena is that the
contact conditions on the friction surfaces are changed to
satisfy the new equilibrium state due to the rise in temper-
ature. Fig. 5 presents the temperature distributions on the
friction surfaces for the steady and transient (at t = 10 s)
results. As the preceding results, the trend is for the tem-
perature distribution to converge towards the steady state.
54 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58
Therefore, the present finite element computational pro-
grams give accurate convergence for the coupled transient
thermoelastic contact problem of disk brakes.
5.2. Thermoelastic behaviors in the repeated brake
application
To investigate the transient thermoelastic behaviors of
disk brakes, the numerical simulation is obtained in 10
repeated brake applications. In actuality, variation of the
rotating speed during braking must be determined through
vehicle dynamics. However, in this study, the rotating speed
of the disk was considered to be a known value. The time
history of hydraulic pressure Ph and angular velocity ω
assumed for a brake cycle is shown in Fig. 6. One cycle
is composed of braking (4.5 s), acceleration (10.5 s), and
constant speed driving (5 s). In each brake process, the
hydraulic pressure Ph was assumed to linearly increase to
1 MPa by 1.5 s and then kept constant until 4.5 s. Also, the
angular velocity ω was assumed to linearly decay and finally
became zero at 4.5 s. The time step t = 0.001 s was used
in the computations. The material properties adopted in the
computations are shown in Table 2. The heat convection
coefficient considered is h = 100 W/(m2 K).
Fig. 7 presents the computed normal pressure distributions
on the friction surfaces in various braking steps. Though the
pressure distribution on the friction surfaces is uniform in
the early stages of repeated brake applications, it becomes
non-uniform in the radial direction as the braking step pro-
gresses. Comparing Fig. 7a with Fig. 7b, the pressure distri-
bution on friction surface 2 changes more excessively than
that of friction surface 1 and is followed by the contrac-
tion of contact surfaces, leading to the localized pressure
rise. In general, the distribution of pressures on friction sur-
faces can undergo changes due to the thermal deformations,
which is referred to as thermoelastic transition [26]. The pro-
cesses of change in pressure distributions described above
can be unstable, and the TEI phenomenon takes place in
the sliding system. This appearance is predicted in our re-
sults. An attempt was made to determine the critical speed
of the system for the drag braking conditions. It was found
that the critical rotational speed of this system is about ω =
52 rad/s. Fig. 8 depicts the corresponding temperature distri-
butions on the friction surfaces. The temperature increases
due to the increment of normal pressure as a whole and
specially, the temperature profiles on friction surface 2 par-
tially change on account of the localized rise in normal pres-
sures. As shown in Fig. 8, more intensive thermal loading
in spots where larger pressure occurs causes the thermal
cracks and deformations of the disk to worsen the subsequent
engagement process.
In order to obtain a clear view of the thermoelastic be-
haviors of the present disk brakes, the transient responses
of the thermal state at various braking steps are illustrated
in Fig. 9a–e. In cases of Fig. 9a–d, the hydraulic pressure
increases linearly to 1 MPa and the angular velocity linearly
decays from 150 rad/s (Case 1). The temperature distribu-
tions show high gradients near the region of friction sur-
faces and is almost symmetric about the disk’s midplane at
the early steps of brake application as shown in Fig. 9a. As
the braking step progresses, due to the non-uniform growth
of normal pressure on the friction surfaces, the distribution
of temperature of disk brakes becomes non-symmetric and
unstable as shown in Fig. 9b–d. This is the phenomenon
of thermoelastic instability. Fig. 9e and f present the re-
sults for an increase of Ph to 3 MPa and a decrease of
ω from 150 rad/s (Case 2). Unlike in the previous results
in Fig. 9b–d, the distribution of temperatures of the disk
brake is almost symmetrical about the disk’s midplane and
the TEI phenomenon does not occur during the braking
process.
The contacted state of the disk brake is also investigated
for the previous two cases. The criterion used to consider
the contacted state on friction surfaces is defined as the con-
tact ratio CR, which means the ratio of contacted area to all
friction surfaces area. A large value for CR is expected to
result in the low and uniform temperatures and pressure dis-
tributions on the friction surfaces. Fig. 10 shows the values
of CR for the above-mentioned two cases. As the braking
step progresses, the values of CR continuously decrease in
Case 1. However, in Case 2, the values of CR are kept as
one during all braking steps. In the former case, the local-
ized frictional heating due to TEI increases the temperature
in the disk brake, and hence can promote undesirable sur-
face cracks.
Table 3 shows the maximum and minimum stress com-
ponents of the disk brake along the braking step. The hoop
stress σθ has the greatest compressive stress values of the
various stress components. Also, in comparison to the other
1.1
Case 1
Case 2
1.0
Contact Ratio, CR
0.9
0.8
Contacted areas on all friction surfaces
CR =
0.7 Areas on all friction surfaces
0.6
0 2 4 6 8 10
No. of braking application
Fig. 10. Variation of contact ratio CR on friction surfaces during the
entire engagement process.
 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58 55

Table 3
Extreme values of stresses of disk brake along the braking steps
Braking (step) Stresses (MPa)

σr σz σrz σθ

Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max.

1st −52.937 23.149 −39.573 6.390 −11.101 11.153 −63.470 23.144

4th −53.111 22.547 −34.725 5.676 −10.230 10.348 −75.917 23.512
7th −56.665 22.490 −29.204 4.592 −9.308 9.471 −87.272 22.446
10th −60.211 22.326 −24.783 3.720 −8.461 8.545 −100.752 22.621

1.1 1.1
Contacted areas on all friction surfaces Contacted areas on all friction surfaces
CR = CR =
Areas on all friction surfaces Areas on all friction surfaces

1.0 1.0
Contact Ratio, CR
Contact Ratio, CR

0.9 0.9

0.8 0.8

thermal expansion ratio specific heat ratio

α/α0 = 0.5 0.7 c/c0 = 0.5
0.7 /
α α 0 = 1.0 c/c0 = 1.0
α/α0 = 2.0 c/c0 = 2.0

0.6 0.6
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

No. of braking application No. of braking application

(a) Thermal expansion coefficient (b) Specific heat

1.1 1.1
Contacted areas on all friction surfaces
CR = Contacted areas on all friction surfaces
Areas on all friction surfaces CR =
Areas on all friction surfaces
1.0
1.0
Contact Ratio, CR

Contact Ratio, CR

0.9
0.9

0.8
elastic modulus ratio
0.8
E/E0 = 0.5
0.7
E/E0 = 1.0
thermal conductivity ratio
E/E0 = 2.0
0.7 k/k0 = 0.5
0.6
k/k0 = 1.0
k/k0 = 2.0

0.5 0.6
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10

No. of braking application No. of braking application

(c) Elastic modulus (d) Thermal Conductivity

Fig. 11. Effect of material properties of pad on contact ratio CR.
56 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58

stress components, the compressive stress σθ gradually 2.5

grows along the braking step. Therefore, for thermal stress f. s. : friction surface
failure, compressive stress σθ should be considered as the f.s. 1
f.s. 2
dominant stress component. 2.0
contact pressure, P(MPa)

In this study, in addition to the TEI phenomenon of disk

brakes, the influence of the material properties of the pad
on the contact ratio of friction surfaces is considered to 1.5 at t = 10 sec
facilitate better conceptual design of the disk brake system.
The original material properties of Table 2 were designated
by the subscript 0. This issue has been already treated in 1.0
some detail by other authors. For example, Joachim-Ajao
at t = 1 sec
and Barber [27] showed the effect of material properties
in a thermoelastic contact stability problem with one body 0.5
in contact with a rigid plane surface. However, the present
results in Fig. 11 further show the relative importance of
each parameter on the variation of thermoelastic behaviors.
0.0
The thermal expansion coefficient and the elastic modulus 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
of pad materials have a larger effect on the thermoelastic radius, r(m)
behaviors of disk brakes. In particular, when the elastic
modulus of pad material is halved, all friction surfaces be- (a) Isotropic
tween the disk and pad are in perfect contact for all of the
braking steps. Therefore, the softer pad improves the contact 2.5
f. s. : friction surface
pressure distribution and results in a more even temperature
f.s. 1
distribution. Also, similar analyses were carried to investi- f.s. 2
gate the effects of disk material properties. It was found that 2.0
contact pressure, P(MPa)

the thermal expansion coefficient and the specific heat of

disk materials have a larger influence on the thermoelastic
behaviors. 1.5
Based on these numerical results, the thermoelastic be- at t = 10 sec
haviors of the carbon–carbon composite disk brake are also
investigated in this paper. Carbon–carbon composites are 1.0
extensively used as aircraft disk brakes, rocket re-entry
at t = 1 sec
nose tips, and high speed railway brakes on account of their
excellent material properties (high temperature resistance, 0.5
low density, high thermal conductivity and heat capacity,
and low thermal expansion) [28,29]. In this section, the
transient thermoelastic analysis of the carbon–carbon com- 0.0
posite disk brake is performed for the drag brake application 0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13

(Ph = 1 MPa, ω = 100 rad/s) for 10 s, and then the re- radius, r(m)
sults in the case of carbon–carbon composites (orthotropic
case) are compared with those using the material properties (b) Orthotropic
Fig. 12. Comparison of pressure distributions on friction surfaces at t = 1
Table 4 and 10 s.
Material properties of carbon–carbon composites [20]
Material properties Pad and disk listed in Table 2 (isotropic case). The material properties
Thermal conductivity, kr (W/(m K)) 50 of carbon–carbon composites used in the computations are
Thermal conductivity, kz (W/(m K)) 10 presented in Table 4. Figs. 12 and 13 show the pressure and
Density, ρ (kg/m3 ) 1800 temperature distributions on the friction surfaces at time
Specific heat, c (J/(kg K)) 1420
t = 1 and 10 s for the isotropic and orthotropic cases, re-
Poisson’s ratio, νrθ 0.3
Poisson’s ratio, νrz 0.33 spectively. Compared with the isotropic case, the pressures
Thermal expansion, αr (10−6 /K) 0.31 of the orthotropic one are very uniformly distributed along
Thermal expansion, αz (10−6 /K) 0.29 the friction surfaces and results in a more even temperature
Elastic modulus, Er (GPa) 50.2 distribution, namely, a thermoelastic stable state. These
Elastic modulus, Ez (GPa) 5.89 results show that the orthotropic disk brakes can provide
Shear modulus, Grz (GPa) 2.46
better braking performance than the isotropic metal ones.
 J.-H. Choi, I. Lee / Wear 257 (2004) 47–58 57

350 tion surfaces between the contacting bodies has been inves-
f. s. : friction surface tigated. The hoop stress component in disk brakes has the
f.s. 1
300 f.s. 2
largest compressive stress value and must be considered as
a dominant stress component from the viewpoint of stress
failure. The effects of the friction material properties on the
250
contact ratio of friction surfaces are examined and the larger
temperature, T( C)
o

influential properties are found to be the thermal expansion

200
at t = 10 sec coefficient and the elastic modulus. Based on these numeri-
cal results, the thermoelastic behaviors of the carbon–carbon
150 composite disk brakes are also investigated. It is observed
that the orthotropic disk brakes can provide better brake per-
100 formance than the isotropic ones because of uniform and
mild pressure distributions.
50 The present study can provide a useful design tool and
at t = 1 sec
improve the brake performance of disk brake system.
0
0.08 0.09 0.10 0.11 0.12 0.13
Acknowledgements
radius, r(m)
(a) Isotropic The present study has been supported by a grant from the
350 National Research Laboratory Program of the Ministry of
f. s. : friction surface Science and Technology, Korea. The authors gratefully ac-
f.s. 1 knowledge this support (Subject No. 2000-N-NL-01-C-250).
300 f.s. 2

at t = 10 sec
250 References
temperature, T( C)
o

200
150
100
at t = 1 sec
50
0 high-speed brake judder, SAE 980594, 1998.
0.08 0.09 0.10
radius, r(m)
(b) Orthotropic
Fig. 13. Comparison of temperature distributions on friction surfaces at
t = 1 and 10 s.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, the transient thermoelastic analysis of disk
brakes in repeated brake applications has been performed.
The finite element method is applied to the thermoelastic
contact problem with frictional heat generation. To obtain
the numerical simulation of thermoelastic behavior appear-
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equations are solved with contact problems. Also, the fully
implicit scheme is used to improve the accuracy of compu-
tations in the transient analysis. Through the axisymmetric
disk brake model, the TEI phenomenon on each of the fric-
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