Tapered Brake Disk Centering Wedge Effect
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft brake systems experience unwanted vibration and uneven wear due to frictional forces between brake disks, which increases weight, reduces anti-skid response time, and requires additional machining for wear reduction, leading to increased costs and reduced wear area.
Innovation Solution
The use of tapered brake disks with non-orthogonal friction surfaces, where the rotor and stator are interleaved with complementary sloped portions to maintain center alignment during braking, reducing vibration and wear by nesting the disks in a manner that minimizes lateral movement and eliminates the need for wear grooves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional parallel friction surfaces are used in brake disks, then the brake system structure is simple, but vibration occurs due to disk runout and the brake disks move laterally causing uneven wear
Solution Approach 1:
The brake disks are designed with asymmetric tapered friction surfaces where the friction surface is angled relative to the disk face, creating a wedge effect that generates radial inward force during braking to maintain disk centering and reduce vibration
Solution Approach 2:
The friction surface geometry is changed from parallel to the disk face to being tapered at a specific angle, transforming the pressure distribution and force vectors to eliminate lateral movement and reduce vibration during braking operation
2Manufacturing precision
If wear grooves are machined into brake disks to reduce uneven wear, then wear distribution improves, but production cost increases and available wear area decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the need for wear grooves by using tapered friction surfaces that naturally prevent lateral movement and uneven wear through the wedge effect, removing the harmful feature of lateral displacement during braking
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding wear grooves to manage wear, the invention inverts the approach by designing the friction surface geometry to prevent the root cause of uneven wear (lateral movement) entirely, allowing the full disk surface to be used for braking
3Object-affected harmful factors
If hydraulic orifices are added to dampen whirl vibration, then vibration is reduced, but system weight increases and anti-skid response time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention converts the harmful lateral movement and vibration into a beneficial radial inward force through the tapered wedge geometry, where the friction force component directs the disks toward the center, eliminating the need for hydraulic damping orifices and maintaining fast anti-skid response
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 significantly reduces vibration levels, minimizes uneven wear, and enhances anti-skid response time by maintaining the brake disks on center, reducing weight, and optimizing the available wear area without the need for additional machining or hydraulic damping orifices.
Implementation Method 1
the frictional forces between the brake disks may induce unwanted vibration in the brake system
Data Source
AI summary
A brake stack comprises a stator having an annular, inner periphery section disposed substantially along a first radial plane extending normal to an axis of a wheel, and a stator side wall having a first stator contact surface, the first stator contact surface including a sloped portion which deviates away from the radial plane defined by the annular, inner periphery section. The brake stack further comprises a rotor having an annular, outer periphery section disposed substantially along a second radial plane extending normal to the axis of the wheel, and a rotor side wall having a first rotor contact surface shaped complementary to the first stator contact surface, wherein the stator and the rotor are interleaved.A brake disk may comprise a first radius of a friction surface at a first axial position and a second radius of the friction surface at a second axial position, where the first radius is different than the second radius. The brake disk may further comprise an axis of rotation orthogonal to a plane of rotation, wherein the brake disk rotates substantially in the plane of rotation, and wherein the friction surface is at an acute angle to the plane of rotation.An aircraft brake system comprises an aircraft rotor oriented orthogonally with respect to an axis of rotation and an aircraft stator configured to nest with the aircraft rotor, where a stator friction surface is non-orthogonal to the axis of rotation. The aircraft brake system may further comprise a pressure plate and an end plate configured to nest with the aircraft rotor and/or aircraft stator, and an actuator may be utilized to effectuate braking of the aircraft braking system.