The automobile manufacturers have researched improving their vehicle’s fuel economy in various ways. The drag of the brake pads against the brake disc, associated with a given brake caliper, can have an effect on the vehicle’s fuel economy. The scope of this report is the prediction of the brake caliper drag by a computer aided simulation method. The caliper’s piston, the component which helps move the brake pads against and away from the disc, has a significant impact on the brake drag performance. The piston’s “rollback”, or ability to move the pads away from the disc, is a primary contributor to the brake drag performance. The rollback can be defined by the friction level against its mating rubber seal, and the seal groove shape in the machined caliper housing body. To predict the brake drag performance, the friction between the seal and piston, and between the brake pads and brake rotor, are defined through the correlation of computer aided simulation and physical test data. The simulation results demonstrated a good correlation to the experiment results.

Beom-Seok Kim, Seok-tae Jeong, Se-yeon Lee, Yeong-hun Kong; - Mando Corporation