The temperature distribution, the thermal deformation, and the thermal stress of automotive brake disks have quite close relations
with car safety; therefore, much research in this field has been performed. However, successful and satisfactory results have
not been obtained because the temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of brake disk materials are not sufficiently
known. In this study, the thermophysical properties (thermal diffusivity, the specific heat, and the coefficient of thermal
expansion) of three kinds of iron alloy series brake disk materials, FC250, FC170, and FCD50, and two kinds of aluminum alloy
series brake disk materials, Al MMC and A356, were measured in the temperature range from room temperature to 500 °C, and
the thermal conductivity was calculated using the measured thermal diffusivity, specific heat capacity, and density. As expected,
the results show that the two series have significant differences in respect of the thermophysical properties, and to reduce
the thermal deformation of the brake disk, the aluminum alloys with a high thermal conductivity and the iron alloys with low
thermal expansion are recommended.
Keywords Brake disk - Specific heat capacity - Thermal conductivity - Thermal diffusivity - Thermal expansion coefficient