Experimental study of convective heat transfer characteristics of ventilated passages formed by uniform diameter circular pin fins of disc brake

The heat transfer ability of ventilated passage of the disc brake has important effect on heat dissipation rate of the disc brake. The disc brake using uniform diameter circular pin fins to form ventilated passages has been widely used, but there is less reported heat transfer performance data of this type of ventilated passage. This paper investigated the heat transfer characteristics of the ventilated passage which is 10 times smaller than the real ventilated passage. The effects of the geometric parameters of the passage on its heat transfer ability are studied. The results show that the diameter and the number of the pin fin have stronger effect than the height of the pin fin has on the heat transfer. The results show great difference between the results predicted by the available correlation for ventilated passage formed by straight vane at small or large Reynolds number region. The reasons that cause the difference between the present results and other re-ported results are discussed. A correlation of Nusselt number vs. Reynolds number, the diameter, the number and the height of the pin fin is provided.