Abstract
Concerns about the environmental impact of transportation are pushing manufacturers to find solutions to improve the overall efficiency of vehicles. One aspect of research focuses on weight reduction of all components of cars; and brake calipers are no exception.
Brake calipers are subjected to particularly high mechanical loads, which combined with a complex function, limited space and other constraints, require particularly well planned and carefully executed design process in order to achieve optimised designs. The authors demonstrate, through numerous Finite Element analyses and the use of topology optimisation software, how caliper designs can be optimised, in order to achieve desired stiffness level with minimum mass.
Analyses are based on a four pot, opposed piston caliper for high performance vehicles. In order to define boundary conditions, complex contact FE analyses of the entire brake assembly were conducted and the results used in the topology optimisation process. The novel caliper (body) design has 27% lower mass while retaining the same stiffness level and brake pedal travel to the original component. Considering that such mass saving has been achieved at unsprung components that are at the very corners of the vehicle, not only the weight saving increases vehicle efficiency, but further benefits are expected in improving vehicle dynamics characteristics.
Keywords: Brake, disc brake, caliper, structural analysis, topology optimisation