A novel numerical approach for investigation of the heat transport in a full 3D brake system of high-speed trains

Abstract

Recent developments of ultra-high-speed trains increased the demand for optimization of the brake systems. The interaction and mutual dependence of the heat transport and air ventilation create a very complex system, which is difficult and expensive to fully describe by experimental methods. In this paper, we develop a full direct 3D numerical approach based on the sliding mesh technique to simulate heating and ventilation of a wheel brake system. We consider the rotation and translation simultaneously. We quantify the amount of heat transferred from the friction surface into the discs and pads, the flux of heat dissipation through convection and radiation, and describe the air flow and temperature distribution. We show that the Nusselt number on the friction surface is proportional to 0.8th power of the rotational Reynolds number (Nu∝Re0.8). The current 3D numerical approach can be used as a benchmark test for different approaches to the optimization of the braking systems on high-speed trains.