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The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to compute accurately the distributions of the frictional heat generated, contact pressure and thermal stresses at any instant during the sliding period (heating phase) of the single-disc friction clutch system works in the dry condition and the complex interaction among them.

Numerical work was achieved using the developed elastic and thermal finite element models (axisymmetric models) to simulate the engagement of the single-disc friction clutch system.

The change of distribution of contact pressure during the sliding period (heating phase) affects significantly the magnitude and distribution of the produced thermal stress. The high local heat generated appeared in the contacting surfaces because of the non-uniformity of the distribution of contact pressure during the heating phase (sliding time) and this will dramatically increase the thermal stresses.

Sequentially coupled thermal-mechanical approach was developed to investigate the thermal stresses problem in automotive clutches under dry conditions. This approach is considered a promising approach to investigate the effect of material, sliding time, torque function, etc., on the thermal stresses of different types of friction clutch.

This study aims to investigate numerically a thermomechanical behavior of disc brake using ANSYS 11.0 which applies the finite element method (FEM) to solve the transient thermal analysis and the static structural sequentially with the coupled method. Computational fluid dynamics analysis will help the authors in the calculation of the values of the heat transfer (h) that will be exploited in the transient evolution of the brake disc temperatures. Finally, the model resolution allows the authors to visualize other important results of this research such as the deformations and the Von Mises stress on the disc, as well as the contact pressure of the brake pads.

A transient finite element analysis (FEA) model was developed to calculate the temperature distribution of the brake rotor with respect to time. A steady-state CFD model was created to obtain convective heat transfer coefficients (HTC) that were used in the FE model. Because HTCs are dependent on temperature, it was necessary to couple the CFD and FEA solutions. A comparison was made between the temperature of full and ventilated brake disc showing the importance of cooling mode in the design of automobile discs.

These results are quite in good agreement with those found in reality in the brake discs in service and those that may be encountered before in literature research investigations of which these will be very useful for engineers and in the design field in the vehicle brake system industry. These are then compared to experimental results obtained from literatures that measured ventilated discs surface temperatures to validate the accuracy of the results from this simulation model.

The novelty of the work is the application of the FEM to solve the thermomechanical problem in which the results of this analysis are in accordance with the realized and in the current life of the braking phenomenon and in the brake discs in service thus with the thermal gradients and the phenomena of damage observed on used discs brake.