Thermal Imaging Shows How Brake Rotors Bake
You’ve never seen brake rotors like this before.
Have you ever experienced brake fade? If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s a condition where the stopping power of your car’s brakes is diminished after multiple hard stops. Brake fade occurs when the fluid in your car’s braking system gets increasingly hot. But how exactly does your car’s brake rotor work to dissipate heat to avoid this condition?
In the video above, Engineering Explained‘s Jason Fenske uses some high-tech FLIR imaging equipment and his personal Honda S2000 to give you a first-hand look at the way heat levels rise under braking.
Hot and Getting Hotter
The thermal imaging camera demonstrates a number of interesting patterns as Fenske puts the car in gear, and then slowly engages the parking brake, braking only the rear wheels.
The camera’s sensitivity is immediately apparent in its ability to recognize minute vibrations in the brake rotor through heat inconsistencies. As braking is applied, it can clearly be seen that the portion of brake rotor exiting the caliper is hotter than the rotor entering the caliper.
Track Day Daze
In a close-up shot, you can see the way that the hottest parts of the brake pad don’t spread heat deep into the pad. Rather, they remain hot only on the surface. Fenske’s example displays temperatures of around 140 degrees Celsius. But he notes that during track days, temperatures could reach up to 500 degrees Celsius. The fluid in the brake lines also remains relatively cool, a good sign that the S2000 can resist brake fade.
Lastly, Fenske points out the way that wheels can function as heat-sinks for your brakes, providing surface area for heat to dissipate into the atmosphere. It might be interesting to see, as our host points out, how different wheel materials and designs dissipate heat more or less efficiently.
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via [Motor Authority]
