This study aims to analyse the influence mechanism of friction block shape on the heat convection characteristics of high-speed brake pads, providing a theoretical basis for brake pad design and thermal boundary condition setting.
By building the fluid–solid coupling heat transfer simulation validated through 1:1 braking experiments, the flow patterns, ventilation performance, heat transfer characteristics and temperature distribution of three friction-block shapes (hexagon, chamfered hexagon and circle) are comparatively analysed.
The progression from hexagonal to circular shapes smooths internal flow, increasing the average mass flow rate by 102.2%, raising the maximum average convective heat transfer coefficient from 79.7 to 97.3 W/(m²·K) and lowering the peak temperature from 908.4 °C to 861.1 °C. Outer blocks contribute the most to heat transfer (>50%), while geometric rounding improves the per-block heat transfer contribution of the middle region from 4.00 % to 4.39 %.
This study shows the impact of geometric rounding on the heat convection performance of brake pads and quantifies regional cooling contributions, providing a basis for the structural design. The developed general heat convection model, combined with the regional heat transfer contribution, allows refined boundary conditions in simulations, effectively improving the simulated accuracy.
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-12-2025-0577/
