Technical Paper
A New Model Describing the Formation of Heat Cracks in Brake Discs for Commercial Vehicles
2018-10-05
2018-01-1882
During the development process of brake discs for commercial vehicles, heat cracks are a frequent problem. Since no profound model to forecast the occurrence of cracks has been presented yet, their prediction is hardly ever possible. The standardized heat crack test puts the brake disc under severe thermomechanical load and therefore forces it into cracking. In this paper, results from a series of heat crack tests on the dynamometer are presented, which provide insight into the hidden processes that accelerate or slow down the heat crack propagation in brake discs. This includes an extensive experimental setup using a thermographic camera, a set of capacitive displacement sensors, a pyrometer, and sliding thermocouples as well as a unique eddy-current heat crack detector that was developed at TU Darmstadt. Continuous monitoring of disc deformation, surface temperature, and crack propagation at high sampling rates provides the base for a new, profound causal model.