Technology in F1 is everything and I love it so much, the article below explains how Brake Disc in F1 works. I hope that is interesting for you all F1 Technical fans as I am. I hope that this site continues as it is know because it is so informative on our lovable sport. Keep it up!!!!!!!!!!!.
‘When a F1 driver hits the brakes, disc temperature can peak at 1000 degrees centigrade. Small wonder, then, that it can take as many as 1000 sets to see a team through a season.
Spectacular is the word when an F1 car screams along the straight then brakes hard for a tight corner, sending break temperatures soaring to around 1000 degrees centigrade, and making all 4 brake discs glow a dramatic and brilliant red.
The driver lifts off the brakes and the car powers out a corner- and in the few seconds it takes before it’s time to slow down for the next turn, those maltreated discs made of carbon-carbon composite have to cool back to their normal operating temperature of somewhere between 400 and 500 degrees centigrade. So it’s not hard to understand just how important an efficient brake cooling process really is.
As Materials Development Engineer with the McLaren Mercedes team, Dr Jonathan Prichard is ideally qualified to sum up the brake’s function. “It’s purpose is simply to generate torque to be transmitted through the tyres to the road to stop the car. “In the process of generating this torque, tough , you generate significant stresses in the disc’s material, as well as high temperatures that need to be kept under control. As a result, the brake disc has to have a number of cooling features built into it”.
This explains a great deal about a typical brake disc’s shape- and all those cooling holes to keep the operating temperature in check. The vital importance of high temperature performance also determines the choice of materials: the disc is made from the same carbon-carbon composite materials as the brake pads, and by using the same process.
Regulations dictate that the disc has a maximum diameter of 278mm and cannot exceed a thickness of 28mm. As you’d expect, the disc is circular in shape, but it also has 10 holes around its inside edge, to provide mounting points for the bolts from the disc bell. Also on the inside edge are 10 groups of 3 radical cooling holes, to maximize the amount of surface area available for cooling the disc’s core.
“These don’t provide the only cooling though, as air is channeled across one face of the disc via the disc bell and across the other face by a turning device that’s built onto the upright assembly. The other cooling mechanism, of course, is radiation, but the reason that temperature is so vital is that wear is dependent on it. If you keep the brakes cool, the wear rate increases rapidly”.
One statistic that illustrates wear levels is that, in course of an average season, the McLaren Mercedes Team will need between 800 and 1000 sets of 4 discs to see them through.
Operational temperature would typically average around 500 degrees centigrade over the course of a lap, with peaks up to 1000 degrees centigrade when brakes are hit hard.
One get such a peak at Monza’s 1st chicane, then you go around Curva Grande and by the braking point just before the 2nd chicane the temperature ought to have fallen to 400 degrees centigrade.
So now you know why the brake discs can sometimes be seen glowing red hot as a car enters a corner-particularly when the driver is pushing hard. Like everything else in F1, a brake disc’s performance is based strictly on scientific principles, but, in practice, the result looks very much more spectacular.’
- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
