Analysis of brake squeal noise using the finite element method: A parametric study

Brake squeal noise has been under investigation by automotive manufacturers for decades due to consistent customer complaints and high warranty costs. J.D. Power surveys consistently show brake noise as being one of the most critical vehicle quality measurements. Furthermore, the development of methods to predict noise occurrence during the design of a brake system has been the target of many researchers in recent years.This paper summarizes the application of complex eigenvalue analysis in a finite element model of a commercial brake system. The effect of the operational parameters (friction coefficient, braking pressure and brake temperature) and wear on the dynamic stability of the brake system is examined. After identifying unstable frequencies and the behavior of the brake system under different conditions, the performance of some control methods are tested. Changes in material properties and the application of brake noise insulators are presented and their effects discussed.The results show that the effect of brake temperature changes the coupling mechanisms between rotor and pad, which in some cases can be useful in order to reduce the instabilities and generated noise. Wear is an operational condition that has an strong effect on the system instability, since stiffness properties of brake pads are influenced by the changes on geometry and on the friction material, leading to high-frequency noise generation when the system is in the end of its lifetime. Application of brake insulators requires a detailed investigation of the system since, for some cases, an increase on the system damping does not balance changes on stiffness, leading the system to instability and noise.     

Structural optimization of an asymmetric automotive brake disc with cooling channels to avoid squeal

Brake squeal is still a major issue in the automotive industry due to comfort complaints of passengers and resulting high warranty costs. Many measures to avoid squeal have been discussed in the engineering community reaching from purely passive measures like the increase of damping, e.g. by the application of shims, to the active or semiactive suppression of squeal. While active measures can be effective but are elaborate and therefore more expensive, passive measure are less complex in most cases. This leads to the necessity to develop passive, economic and robust measures to avoid squeal. Asymmetry of the brake rotor has been proposed to achieve this goal and the resulting split of all double eigenfrequencies of the brake rotor has lately been shown to stabilize the system.     

A systematic experimental study of squeal initiation

A large-scale systematic experimental investigation into friction-induced vibration is described. A specially designed ‘pin-on-disc’ test rig is used, with dynamical properties which can be altered to allow different aspects of theoretically predicted behaviour to be probed. These dynamical properties have been carefully characterised, including an assessment of uncertainty in each parameter. A large volume of ‘squeal’ data has been generated, involving a sequence of different test conditions repeated over many days. The results were post-processed to extract the growth phase of instabilities and automatically assess their quality in terms of linearity and time-invariance, providing a rich source of high-quality data for several thousands of initiation events. A variety of ways to present the measured results is explored, highlighting trends and assessing repeatability. The experimental test rig exhibits a wide range of squeal behaviour, at frequencies ranging from tens of Hz to tens of kHz. At first glance the results are unrepeatable and twitchy, but the large quantity of data allows significant underlying structure to be demonstrated, shedding light on the roles of symmetry, pre-load, speed and structural perturbations, and also improving understanding of ‘repeatability’ in the context of squeal.     

A numerical study on stick-slip motion of a brake pad in steady sliding

A numerical model for an elastic brake pad sliding under constant load and with constant velocity over a rigid surface is investigated by finite element analysis. The geometry is taken to be two-dimensional, the contact is assumed to follow the laws of continuum mechanics and temporal and spatial resolution are such that dynamical effects localized at the interface are resolved. It turns out that at the contact interface localized slip events occur either in the form of long-lasting slip pulses, or in the form of brief local relaxations. Macroscopically steady sliding, macroscopic stick-slip motion or slip-separation dynamics occurs, depending on the macroscopic relative velocity. While structural oscillations of the brake pad do not seem to play a significant role during steady sliding at least one structural oscillation mode becomes synchronized with the interfacial dynamics during stick-slip or slip-separation motion. Assuming a given friction law for the interface, the macroscopically observed friction coefficient depends considerably on the underlying dynamics on the interface.     

A numerical investigation of curve squeal in the case of constant wheel/rail friction

Curve squeal is commonly attributed to self-excited vibrations of the railway wheel, which arise due to a large lateral creepage of the wheel tyre on the top of the rail during curving. The phenomenon involves stick/slip oscillations in the wheel/rail contact and is therefore strongly dependent on the prevailing friction conditions. The mechanism causing the instability is, however, still a subject of controversial discussion. Most authors introduce the negative slope of the friction characteristic as a source of the instability, while others have found that squeal can also occur in the case of constant friction due to the coupling between normal and tangential dynamics. As a contribution to this discussion, a detailed model for high-frequency wheel/rail interaction during curving is presented in this paper and evaluated in the case of constant friction. The interaction model is formulated in the time domain and includes the coupling between normal and tangential directions. Track and wheel are described as linear systems using pre-calculated impulse response functions that are derived from detailed finite element models. The nonlinear, non-steady state contact model is based on an influence function method for the elastic half-space. Real measured wheel and rail profiles are used. Numerical results from the interaction model confirm that stick/slip oscillations occur also in the case of constant friction. The choice of the lateral creepage, the value of the friction coefficient and the lateral contact position on the wheel tread are seen to have a strong influence on the occurrence and amplitude of the stick/slip oscillations. The results from the interaction model are in good qualitative agreement with previously published findings on curve squeal.     

A new treatment for predicting the self-excited vibrations of nonlinear systems with frictional interfaces: The Constrained Harmonic Balance Method,with application to disc brake squeal

Brake squeal noise is still an issue since it generates high warranty costs for the automotive industry and irritation for customers. Key parameters must be known in order to reduce it. Stability analysis is a common method of studying nonlinear phenomena and has been widely used by the scientific and the engineering communities for solving disc brake squeal problems. This type of analysis provides areas of stability versus instability for driven parameters, thereby making it possible to define design criteria. Nevertheless, this technique does not permit obtaining the vibrating state of the brake system and nonlinear methods have to be employed. Temporal integration is a well-known method for computing the dynamic solution but as it is time consuming, nonlinear methods such as the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM) are preferred. This paper presents a novel nonlinear method called the Constrained Harmonic Balance Method (CHBM) that works for nonlinear systems subject to flutter instability. An additional constraint-based condition is proposed that omits the static equilibrium point (i.e. the trivial static solution of the nonlinear problem that would be obtained by applying the classical HBM) and therefore focuses on predicting both the Fourier coefficients and the fundamental frequency of the stationary nonlinear system.The effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear approach is illustrated by an analysis of disc brake squeal. The brake system under consideration is a reduced finite element model of a pad and a disc. Both stability and nonlinear analyses are performed and the results are compared with a classical variable order solver integration algorithm.Therefore, the objectives of the following paper are to present not only an extension of the HBM (CHBM) but also to demonstrate an application to the specific problem of disc brake squeal with extensively parametric studies that investigate the effects of the friction coefficient, piston pressure, nonlinear stiffness and structural damping.     

A finite element model for sandwich viscoelastic beams: Experimental and numerical assessment

Among the passive control systems for attenuation of vibrations in structures, those that use viscoelastic materials as a damping core in laminated-plate-like components are focused herein. In the present work an assessment of a time-domain formulation for numerical modelling of viscoelastic materials is made. This formulation, which is called Golla–Hughes method (GHM), is based on a second-order time-domain realization of Laplace-domain motion equations. The GHM parameters used in the characterization of a viscoelastic material are experimentally determined and a sandwich GHM-based finite element model is presented and validated through numerical comparisons with classic formulation results. Finally, a time-domain simulation of an experimentally tested sandwich beam is carried out.     

Amorphous track models: A numerical comparison study

We present an open-source code library for amorphous track modelling which is suppose to faciliate the application and numerical comparability as well as serve as a frame-work for the implementation of new models. We show an example of using the library indicating the choice of submodels has a significant impact on the modelling outcome.     

Phase conjugation of gap solitons: A numerical study

We study the effect of a nearby phase-conjugate mirror (PCM) on the gap soliton of a Kerr non-linear periodic structure. We show that phase conjugation of the gap soliton (in the sense of replication of the amplitude profile in the reverse direction) is possible under the condition of PCM reflectivity approaching unity. This is in contrast with the results for linear structures, where the wave profiles can be conjugated for arbitrary values of the PCM reflectivity. The sensitivity of the conjugation of the gap solitons to PCM reflectivity is ascribed to the fine balance of non-linearity with dispersion, necessary for their existence.     

全三维94 GHz回旋管系统数值模拟研究

为了打破传统回旋管数值模拟所采用的回旋发射产生理想电子束的局限性, 本文在理论分析94 GHz双阳极磁控注入式电子枪的结构参数的基础上, 通过共形FDTD算法对网格划分进行优化, 得到了具有横纵速度比为1.42, 最大速度零散为5.92%的高性能电子束, 并将此优化后的电子枪取代传统回旋管数值模拟时采用的回旋发射进行该94 GHz回旋 管系统的数值模拟, 并采用MPI四进程并行计算, 最终获得了具有TE₀₃模、94 GHz、平均输出功率约在40 kW、 效率达到10.5%的高性能回旋振荡管. 关键词： 双阳极磁控注入式电子枪 共形FDTD 横纵速度比 速度零散     

A numerical study of resonance contributions to nuclear sum rules

The modified form of the nuclear sum rule which was proposed by Berggren is applied to a simple solvable problem and it is demonstrated, within the confines of that problem, that the continuum contribution to the sum rule is often dominated by the contribution from a few resonances, just as Berggren had anticipated. It is further shown that the bound, virtual and resonant states of the Hamiltonian considered form a complete set of states in terms of which the internal region of space can be expanded.     

Steady-state responses of axially accelerating viscoelastic beams: Approximate analysis and numerical confirmation

Nonlinear parametric vibration of axially accelerating viscoelastic beams is investigated via an approximate analytical method with numerical confirmations. Based on nonlinear models of a finite-small-stretching slender beam moving at a speed with a periodic fluctuation, a solvability condition is established via the method of multiple scales for subharmonic resonance. Therefore, the amplitudes of steady-state periodic responses and their existence conditions are derived. The amplitudes of stable steady-state responses increase with the amplitude of the axial speed fluctuation, and decrease with the viscosity coefficient and the nonlinear coefficient. The minimum of the detuning parameter which causes the existence of a stable steady-state periodic response decreases with the amplitude of the axial speed fluctuation, and increases with the viscosity coefficient. Numerical solutions are sought via the finite difference scheme for a nonlinear partial-differential equation and a nonlinear integro-partial-differential equation. The calculation results qualitatively confirm the effects of the related parameters predicted by the approximate analysis on the amplitude and the existence condition of the stable steady-state periodic responses. Quantitative comparisons demonstrate that the approximate analysis results have rather high precision. Supported by the National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation of China (Grant No. 10725209), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10672092), Scientific Research Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. 07ZZ07), and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Grant No. Y0103)     

Dynamics of immiscible radial viscous fingering: A numerical study

In this paper we undertake a numerical investigation of the dynamics of the interface in the problem of immiscible radial viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell when the areal flow rate is maintained constant. Comparison is made with experimental results to check if there is a need to introduce velocity-dependent boundary conditions and to incorporate the effect of thickness of the film left behind by the moving interface. Some new scaling results are suggested by the numerical data. These data, along with those available from laboratory experiments, provide support for a mean field theory for radial immiscible viscous fingering published recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2680 (1990)].