DEVELOPMENT OF A BRAKE DRUM MODEL WITH FINS INCORPORATION FOR HEAT DISSIPATION ENHANCEMENT

Abstract

Extreme heat within an automobile brake drum could cause brake failure which could as well lead to death of passengers and lost of properties. One of the ways to dissipate heat faster from an automobile brake drum is by incorporating fin on the outer surface of the brake drum as pointed out in many literatures. This work concerns converting 1/10 0f the overall height thickness of the brake drum into fins for effective heat dissipation by both conduction and convection. During the modified brake drum development process, necessary fin design formulae were taken into account. Modeling and simulation analysis were carried out using Solidworks (2013) software, followed by validation using theoretical Finite Element analysis. The minimum temperatures obtained from the simulation analysis were 4935K and 4927K for the existing and the modified brake drum model respectively. While maximum displacements obtained from the simulation analysis were 5142×10−5𝑚𝑚 and 5102×10−5𝑚𝑚 for the existing and the modified brake drum model respectively. This implies that the modified brake drum have improved strength and better heat dissipation than the existing model. This is as the result of the circumferential arrangement of the fins on the outer surface of the brake drum.