Braking Force Investigation

by Nathaniel Ewers

Submitted : Fall 2017

This investigation explores the brake torque on a motorcycle created by a varying the force acting on a disc brake at a specified radius within the front wheel. The given force function is multiplied by a constant r (radius) and integrated over a distance of 142.86 radians, or 50.0 meters. When the torque is integrated over the displacement in radians, the result is the total work done on the motorcycle. The work done on the wheel is related to the change in translational and rotational kinetic energy by the Rotational Work-Energy Theorem. Because this investigation already contains several known quantities, such as the mass of the motorcycle and its rider, the velocity, the displacement, and the varying force function, the effective radius of a massless disc brake placed on the tire can be evaluated.

Given the combined mass of the motorcycle and rider of 300.0 kg, the velocity of the motorcycle as 10 m/s, the displacement as 50.0 meters (142.86 radians), a varying force function ofand the wheel radius to be 0.35 meters, the effective radius for the disc attached to the center of the tire is equated to be 0.2954 meters; this proves that a large front disc is needed to stop this motorcycle system. The integral of the force function is set equal to the total kinetic energy of the system which is the sum of the change in translational kinetic energy and change in translational kinetic energy The final integral is equated to the change in total kinetic energy and solved to determine the radius of a massless disc brake.

[ Back ]