In the present work, ventilated disc brake rotors with variable diameter circular pillar configurations were analyzed to enhance the heat dissipation and obtain more uniform temperature distribution in the rotor. CFD code used in this work was validated with experimental results obtained by conducting experiments on a test rig. Experimental analysis was performed on existing taper radial vane (TRV) rotor to calculate the mass flow rate and heat transfer coefficient. Further, variable diameter circular pillar (VDCP) rotor with different configurations namely VDCP1, VDCP2 and VDCP3 were considered for the analysis. A 20° segment of rotor was considered for the numerical analysis due to its rotational symmetry. CFD results were in good agreement with the experimental analysis. The maximum deviation of numerical results were about 15% from the experimental results. It is found from the analysis that among all the rotor configurations; VDCP1 rotor configuration gives better rate of heat dissipation and more uniform temperature distribution in the rotor. Hence for modern high speed vehicles VDCP1 rotor configuration may be more appropriate. © 2016 IEEE.