Computational thermo-fluid analysis of a disk brake

We present computational thermo-fluid analysis of a disk brake, including thermo-fluid analysis of the flow around the brake and heat conduction analysis of the disk. The computational challenges include proper representation of the small-scale thermo-fluid behavior, high-resolution representation of the thermo-fluid boundary layers near the spinning solid surfaces, and bringing the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) calculated in the thermo-fluid analysis of the flow to the heat conduction analysis of the spinning disk. The disk brake model used in the analysis closely represents the actual configuration, and this adds to the computational challenges. The components of the method we have developed for computational analysis of the class of problems with these types of challenges include the Space-Time Variational Multiscale method for coupled incompressible flow and thermal transport, ST Slip Interface method for high-resolution representation of the thermo-fluid boundary layers near spinning solid surfaces, and a set of projection methods for different parts of the disk to bring the HTC calculated in the thermo-fluid analysis. With the HTC coming from the thermo-fluid analysis of the flow around the brake, we do the heat conduction analysis of the disk, from the start of the breaking until the disk spinning stops, demonstrating how the method developed works in computational analysis of this complex and challenging problem.