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Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Campus Access Master's Report

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Gregory Odegard

Committee Member 1

Paul Sanders

Committee Member 2

Susanta Ghosh

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the cooling characteristics of ventilated brake rotors using ANSYS CFD codes. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to determine the airflow through the vanes of the rotor and a validation study was performed for experimental test performed by Ford Motor Company. The results obtained from the simulation were satisfactory as compared to the experimental results. A comparative study of cooling performance between aluminum brake rotor and cast iron rotor was performed using ANSYS CFX. Aluminum showed better cooling performance than Cast Iron under similar test conditions. Design optimization study was performed to improve cooling performance of the brake rotor using ANSYS Fluent. Introduction of perturbations (known as turbulators in pipe flow) in the vane region was suggested in order to increase turbulence and hence effectively increase the convective heat transfer coefficient of rotor.

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