Abstract: Automotive brake systems are energy conversion devices that convert kinetic energy into heat energy. Several mechanisms, mostly related to noise and vibration problems, can occur during brake operation and are often related to non-uniform temperature distribution on the brake disk. These problems are of significant cost to the industry and are a quality concern to automotive companies and brake system vendors. One such problem is thermo-elastic instabilities in brake system. During the occurrence of these instabilities several localized hot spots will form around the circumferential direction of the brake disk. The temperature distribution and the time dependence of these hot spots, a critical factor in analyzing this problem and in developing a fundamental understanding of this phenomenon, were recorded. Other modes of non-uniform temperature distributions which include hot banding and extreme localized heating were also observed. All of these modes of non-uniform temperature distributions were observed on automotive brake systems using a high speed IR camera operating in snap-shot mode. The camera was synchronized with the rotation of the brake disk so that the time evolution of hot regions could be studied. This paper discusses the experimental approach in detail. !16
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