Internally Ventilated Rotor With Textile Cooling Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fibre-reinforced ceramic brake discs face challenges in achieving optimal braking power with minimum weight due to limitations in mouldability, leading to broad cooling fins and reduced geometric flexibility.
Innovation Solution
An internally ventilated rotor design featuring disc elements connected by cooling elements with a textile fabric that extends between contact regions, allowing for efficient heat dissipation and tensile load transfer, thereby achieving lighter weight and improved braking performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If conventional casting methods are used to produce fibre-reinforced ceramic brake discs, then the structural integrity is maintained, but the cooling fins become broad and geometric flexibility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The brake disc is divided into separate components (friction rings, cooling elements, support elements) that are manufactured independently and then connected. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function, enabling delicate cooling element geometries that would be impossible in a monolithic cast structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses fibre-reinforced ceramic composite materials that combine the high-temperature resistance and strength of ceramics with the flexibility and strength-to-weight ratio of fibre reinforcement. This composite structure enables the creation of broad, delicate cooling elements that maintain structural integrity while achieving complex geometries.
2Temperature
If cooling elements are made broader to compensate for limited mouldability, then manufacturing becomes simpler, but heat dissipation efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the brake disc into separate cooling elements that can be manufactured independently, the design achieves high heat dissipation efficiency through optimized cooling fin geometries without being constrained by monolithic casting limitations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the manufacturing parameters and material state during production, using fibre-reinforced ceramics that can be formed into delicate structures before final sintering and infiltration, enabling complex geometries that optimize heat dissipation.
3Weight of moving object
If the rotor weight is reduced for better performance, then fuel efficiency improves, but braking power and structural strength may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The fibre-reinforced ceramic composite material provides exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, allowing significant weight reduction compared to conventional metal brake discs while maintaining or even improving braking power capability through the high-temperature resistance and structural strength of the ceramic matrix.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the brake disc are assigned different material properties and structures optimized for their specific functions: friction rings for heat resistance, cooling elements for heat dissipation, and support elements for structural strength, achieving overall weight reduction while maintaining braking power.
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
The design enables efficient heat dissipation and maintains rigidity, allowing for higher braking power with reduced weight by utilizing delicate cooling elements and strategically arranged textile fabrics, which enhance tensile strength and thermal performance.
Implementation Method 1
the at least one cooling element comprises a textile fabric which extends from a disc element contact region of the cooling element, by means of which the cooling element is in contact with a disc element, as far as a different disc element contact region of the cooling element, by means of which the cooling element is in contact with another disc element
Implementation Method 2
In order to improve this dissipation process, the aim is to rapidly dissipate the heat to the environment. This occurs by means of forced convection in the internally ventilated region.
Implementation Method 3
Internally ventilated brake discs primarily have the function of decelerating a body that is moved in a rotational manner. The kinetic energy is thereby converted into heat.
Data Source
AI summary
An internally ventilated rotor, including at least two disc elements which are interconnected by at least one cooling element, the at least one cooling element having a textile fabric which extends from one disc element contact region of the cooling element, by which the cooling element is in contact with one disc element, as far as into another disc element contact region of the cooling element, by which the cooling element is in contact with another disc element.