KYOTO ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.

Application Note
Thermal conductivity measurement of brake pad for Vehicle
Field ：Machine Metal Pats
Apparatus ：Quick Thermal Conductivity Meter
Analytical Method ：Hot Wire Method
Standard ：
Document No. ：EAPTM-0001
Date of Issue ：September 2013

1. Scope
The brake pad is a key component of the disk brake system. Two brake pads are positioned between the
calipers and the rotors. When stepping the brake pedal to stop the vehicle, brake pads squeeze the brake
rotor, thus the pressure and friction are applied to the rotor. As the result, the kinetic energy of rotor is
converted to the thermal energy by friction. Both brake pads and rotor are heated by the generated
frictional heat. The thermal conductivity property of brake pads is important to keep the maximum
performance of brake system.
The Quick Thermal Conductivity Meter makes the quality control of thermal conductivity of brake pads
easy. The details are shown as follows.
The Quick Thermal Conductivity Meter has an excellent operability and can be measured easy and
rapidly. When starting to measure with holding the probe (Figure 1) to the sample surface of uniform
temperature, it will be possible to measure in only 60 seconds.

2. Measurement principle
The probe is composed by the hot wire and the thermocouple put straight. The theoretical equation for
the temperature versus time is as follows;
𝑞
𝑇2 − 𝑇1 = ln⁡(𝑡2 − 𝑡1 )
4𝜋𝜆
where λ is the thermal conductivity, q is quantity of heat, T1 and T2 are temperature at the instants of
time t1 and t2. This means that the temperature has a liner characteristic as a function of the logarithmic
of the time. (Figure 2)
The slope of this linear line will be large due to the temperature rise quickly for the low thermal
conductivity sample. On the other hand, the slope will be small due to the temperature rise slow for the
high thermal conductivity.
Therefore the thermal conductivity of sample can be obtained from the slope of the temperature versus
the logarithmic of the time.

TT22 Thermal
Thermal conductivity
conductivity is
is
low
low
Thermocouple
temperature　(K)

TT11
temperature　(K)

Thermal
Thermal conductivity
conductivity is
is
high
high
Hot wire

tt11 tt22
Time
Time log(t)
log(t)

Figure
Figure 1.
1. Probe
Probe Figure
Figure 2.
2. log(t)vsT（℃）
log(t)vsT（℃） graph
graph

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EAPTM-0001
3. Precautions
1) The conductivity of sample is confirmed by using multimeter before starting measurement to select
the probe.
2) The standard probe (PD-11) is for non-conductive sample and the insulated moisture-proof probe
(PD-13) is for conductive sample.
3) The heater current value is decided that the temperature rise during measurement may become
within 5 ˚C to 20 ˚C. Then the decided heater current value is set from [Heater Screen] of the main
unit and the appropriate heater current value has to be selected depending on the sample.
4) Make sure the sample size is 100mm(width) x 50mm(length) x 20mm(thickness) or more. The
surface of contact side with probe makes flat to avoid the air gap between sample and probe.
5) When you measure the thin sample, please follow one of procedures as shown below;
① Pile up the sample or measure it on the material which has equivalent thermal conductivity.
② Measure with the optional Software for thin Sheet Measurement.

※ For checking the effect of the worktable, if there is more than 5% deviation for the
measurement values between on the foamed polyethylene and the alumi cooling plate, the thin
material procedure has to be used.
6) The temperature of sample is made almost equal with the environment temperature before starting
measurement.

4. Apparatus
Main unit ： Quick Thermal Conductivity Meter
Probe ： Standard probe [PD-11] (*1)
Insulated moisture-proof probe [PD-13] (*2)

*1; Standard parts of device

*2; Use for the conductive, adhesive or wet sample

The insulated moisture-proof probe is covered with the polyimide film to

protect the heater line, the thermocouple, and the base material of the probe.
The sample that is possible to measure with the standard probe can be
measured with the insulated moisture-proof probe too.

5. Measurement condition
The samples are both conductive and non-conductive.
The conductive sample is measured with the insulated moisture-proof probe, and the non-conductive
sample is measured with both of the standard probe and the insulated moisture-proof probe.

－Measurement condition－
Sample Probe Heater current value I2
Non- conductive Standard probe 4.000
Conductive Insulated moisture-proof probe 4.000

The heater current value is set that the temperature rise during measurement may become within 5˚C to
20˚C. The temperature rise is small when the heater current is small, so that the error and relative
standard deviation become large.
Moreover, the temperature rise becomes 25˚C or more when the heater current is excessive, so that the
measurement is stopped.

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EAPTM-0001
6. Result
The measurement result of the thermal conductivity of brake pad for vehicle is shown as below.
The measurement is performed three times, and a mean value, standard deviation and relative standard
deviation are applied.

－Ambient condition－
Temperature 23 ˚C

－Measurement result－
The measurement result of thermal conductivity of brake pad
Sample Non-conductive Conductive
Insulated Insulated
Probe Standard probe
moisture-proof probe moisture-proof probe
0.8430 0.8407 1.3466
Measurement 0.8332 0.8662 1.3479
value(W/mK)
0.8579 0.8416 1.3473

Mean value (W/mK) 0.845 0.850 1.35

Standard deviation
0.0124 0.0145 0.0007
(W/mK)
Relative standard
1.5 1.7 0.1
deviation(%)

7. Summary
The measurements of both the conductive and the non-conductive sample show an excellent result
within 3% of the relative standard deviation.
The result can be confirmed there is no difference when the non-conductive sample is measured with
the standard probe and the insulated moisture-proof probe.
Therefore, the insulated moisture-proof probe is recommended for the sample that has both conductive
and non-conductive.

8. Reference
None

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EAPTM-0001