The investigation of disc brakes from the point of design characteristics and tribological properties

In traditional brake moment calculation methods, the uniform interface pressure and theuniform pad wear are validated. In disc brakes, it?s generally accepted that the pressuredistribution between rotor and pads interface is uneven. The pressure changes can?t bedetermined certainly because there is no experimental method available for directly measuringdisc brake pad pressure while it?s operating.In this study, it has been represented a new method to predict the brake moment by usinguneven pressure distribution at the rotor and pads interface. At the beginning of brake process,the leading and the trailing edge have been occured at the rotor and pads interface dependingon rotating direction of disc. There?s higher pressure between the rotor and the pad on theleading side than the trailing side. In order to calculate the brake moment under variouspressure distributions, the pressure changes have been determined by using mathematicalequations in linear and non linear forms.A test rig, which is modeling one axle of a vehicle was designed and manufactured for theexperimental study. The disc brake of Tofaş Şahin car has been used as test brake system. Theexperiments were carried out by using various parameters due to the experimental set up wascapable of simulating brake system under specified conditions. All the experiments wereverified again and again by changing the rotating direction of disc. It was seen that theexperimental results were reliable and clear. The theoretical analysing method has beendiscussed by comparing the theoretical and repetable experimantal results.The result of the measurement of temperature showed that the temperature at the beginning ofleading edge was higher than the temperature at the end of trailing edge for both rotationdirection. This should be a strong evidence of the uneven pressure distribution between discand pad.Keywords: Disc brake, brake lining, leading-trailing side, pressure distribution