Brake Disk Transverse Cooling Elements Windage Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional brake disks with radial cooling ribs in rail vehicles experience significant windage, leading to increased energy consumption due to the rapid outward airflow, which is not effectively managed, resulting in overheating.
Innovation Solution
The brake disk design incorporates elongated transverse cooling elements that are smaller in the radial direction than perpendicular to it, arranged tangentially and spaced apart to reduce windage by allowing air to flow outward without high turbulence, maintaining a constant mass flow and reducing energy consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If radial cooling ribs are used in brake disks, then heat dissipation is improved, but windage increases leading to higher energy consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling elements are designed with asymmetric geometry where the dimension perpendicular to the radial direction is greater than the radial dimension. This asymmetric configuration redirects airflow patterns to reduce windage while preserving heat dissipation effectiveness, resolving the contradiction between thermal management and energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from traditional radial cooling ribs to transverse cooling elements that extend primarily in the circumferential direction rather than radially. This dimensional reorientation changes the airflow interaction mechanism, allowing heat dissipation through a different geometric configuration that produces less windage and lower energy consumption.
2Use of energy by moving object
If transverse cooling elements are used instead of radial ribs, then windage is reduced, but heat dissipation efficiency may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention modifies the geometric parameters of cooling elements by changing their orientation from radial to transverse, and by adjusting the dimensional ratios (making the circumferential dimension greater than the radial dimension). These parameter changes optimize the balance between windage reduction and heat dissipation maintenance, allowing effective thermal management with lower energy consumption.
3Temperature
If cooling elements extend radially outward, then heat dissipation is enhanced, but air turbulence and windage increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of extending cooling elements radially outward as conventionally done, the invention inverts the approach by using transverse elements that extend primarily in the circumferential direction. This inversion of the traditional radial configuration reduces air turbulence and windage while maintaining heat dissipation capability through alternative airflow pathways.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration effectively dissipates heat with lower windage, reducing energy consumption and preventing overheating, as the air expands radially outward through the flow channels formed by the transverse elements, maintaining a constant mass flow and reducing the energy required for the train's forward motion.
Implementation Method 1
the heat introduced into the brake disk may be discharged as a flow of heat to the ambient air
Implementation Method 2
the air is unable to flow, as rapidly outward in the radial direction. The transverse elements facing in the circumferential direction, i.e., also configured as cooling ribs, during the movement of the brake disk around the wheel axle, additionally permit air contact to be produced without a high level of air turbulence
Data Source
AI summary
A brake disk for mounting on a rail vehicle wheel that comprises a multitude of elongate cooling elements on one side, wherein a plurality of cooling elements are configured as transverse elements, and the size of the transverse elements is smaller in the radial direction than in the direction perpendicular to the radius of the brake disk at the location of the transverse element so as to reduce windage.