Brake Caliper Structural Optimization of a Formula SAE Vehicle

Lucas Farias¹; Carlos Eduardo de Souza¹; Bruno Haselein¹

¹ Universidade Federal de Santa Maria

doi:10.20906/CPS/CON-2016-1466

Resumo

In competition vehicles, brake calipers must meet a number of design conditions. They should be rigid for a minor pedal stroke and to obtain a quick response, light to collaborate with the overall performance of the vehicle and capable of withstanding high temperatures. In order to improve the brake system of the previous years prototype, a Formula Student team developed a study of structural optimization in the brake caliper body previously used in order to get a new lighter and more rigid structure. To conduct such a study, the understanding of boundary conditions is of great importance. Thus, it was necessary an experimental analysis to determinate the maximum pressure in the brake system with pressure gauges and the axial displacement in the brake calipers through the use of Strain Gauges. This axial displacement data were compared with the finite element analysis to get an initial simulation model. This model, with loads and boundary conditions was transferred to the optimization software. After optimization, a new geometry was created with mass reduction from 210 grams of the initial model to 166 grams in the final model. The reduction in the maximum axial displacement was also observed in the finite element simulation, where in the initial model the maximum displacement was 0,46mm and went up to 0,31mm in the final model. These results represent an approximately 21% of reduction in weight and 32.6% of reduction in the maximum axial displacement, i.e., the structural optimization method can be extremely useful if properly known the boundary conditions, objectives and constraints of the analysis.

Palavras-chave: Formula Student; Structural optimization; Topology; Brake Caliper; Brake system