Minia Journal of Engineering and Technology, (MJET)

Vol. 32, No 1, January 2013

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF DISC BRAKE VIBRATION CONSIDERING SURFACE ROUGHNESS

Amr M. M. Rabia, Nouby M. Ghazaly, M. M. M. Salem, Ali M. Abd-El-Tawwab
Automotive and Tractor Eng. Dept., Minia University, El-Minia - 61111, Egypt.

Abstract In the present paper, finite element (FE) models of the disc brake components and assembly are developed using FE software (ABAQUS 6-11). In order to obtain vibration characteristics of the disc brake components, firstly, FE modal analysis of the disc brake components is carried out up to 10 kHz. Then, convergence properties of the FE models are conducted using mesh refinement technique. After that, the FE updating is used to reduce relative errors between the two sets of results considering measured properties of the brake material. Finally, stability analysis of the disc brake assembly is examined to predict vibration considering surface roughness of friction materials. The results show that mesh sensitivity, FE updating and real surface roughness have a significant influence on validation FE model and reduce the error between experimental and simulation results. Keywords: Brake vibration; modal analysis; stability analysis; surface roughness. (NVH) issues including brake squeal in 1. Introduction Finite element analysis (FEA) has become North America alone were up to one a standard analytical tool across many billion US dollars a year. Similarly, areas of engineering. Together with the Abendroth and Wernitz [3] noted that advance in modern computing capacity, many friction material suppliers had to FEA has made it possible to analyses spend up to 50 percent of their engineering structures with a great deal of accuracy budgets on the NVH issues. It is well and detail beyond the hand calculations accepted that brake squeal vibration is due that were possible in the past. An essential to friction - induced vibration or selfstage in studying disc brake vibration excited vibration via a rotating disc brake. using FEA is the development and Over the past thirty years, several types of validation of the brake FE model. It has analyses have been performed on disc been thought that an accurate brake systems through FEA, in an attempt representation of the disc brake model to understand the problem of vibration and would later produce reliable and accurate develop a predictive design tool. The most results. The analysis of disc brake commonly used type of analysis is a vibration using FE model can mirror each complex eigenvalue analysis (CEA). detail of the brake design, while this Generally, the existence of CEA with requires a lot of effort to do substantial positive real parts indicates the presence of changes in the geometry of the brake instability and the magnitude of the real components in addition to validate the FE part is used to represent the level of system model [1]. Over decades, brake squeal instability or vibration propensity. One of vibration has been a major issue to vehicle the earliest researchers who attempted to manufacturers due high warranty payouts. incorporate the CEA with a large FE Akay [2] stated that the warranty claims model and used modal analysis to compare due to the noise, vibration and harshness natural frequencies and its mode shapes

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for each of disc brake components was Liles [4]. For the complex eigenvalue analysis of disc brake vibration, some researchers have used FE models that were validated at the components and assembly level based on modal testing data, for example, in [5-7]. Shi et al [8] performed the complex eigenvalue analysis to investigate the effect of the pad chamfer, insulators and lining materials on the squeal vibration occurrence. By cutting 20 mm chamfer both at the leading and the trailing edges, they found one interesting incident where an unstable mode became stable. Contact pressure prediction by means of numerical methods was studied in [9-11]. There are several levels of complexity in disc brake models that have been developed in order to predict dynamic contact pressure distributions through numerical methods. For example, Samie and Sheridan [12] developed a 3dimensional FE model of brake pads. Ripin [13] only considered brake pads and a rigid surface of the disc in his 3dimensional model. While Lee et al., [14] adopted a deformable disc, however the calliper and the carrier were not included in their model. Tirovic and Day [15], and Hohmann et al., [16] included a deformable disc with more brake components. Works that considered all disc brake components and used deformable-to-deformable surfaces of the disc and pads are in [17-19]. Even though various models have been reported, contact analysis should be carried out carefully in order to obtain more realistic results. In this study, ABAQUS/CAE which divided into several modules is used, where each module defines a logical aspect of the modeling process; for example, defining the geometry of disc brake with actual dimensions, defining

material properties, and generating a mesh to define the degree of freedom of the model. As moving from module to module, the models are built and generate an input file that can be submitted to the ABAQUS/Standard. The analysis product performs the stability analysis, sends information to ABAQUS/CAE to allow monitoring the progress of the job, and generates an output database. Finally, the visualization module of ABAQUS/CAE is used to read the output database and view the results of the stability analysis for perfect and real friction material surface. 2. FE Modal Analysis of Disc Brake At the first stage, actual disc brake system is disassembled and the measured dimensions of the brake components are obtained. The 3-dimensional models of the brake components are built using INVENTOR software, as shown in Figure 1. The geometry for the individual components is imported to ABAQUS as 3D solid models in IGES format. Considerable simplification and clean up of the models are required before any meshing could be performed to remove unnecessary details. For example, small fillet radii and other unnecessarily small features are removed because, while they may contribute considerably to the local stress distribution, they have negligible impact on the stiffness, and hence modal properties, of the components. All of the components in the brake system utilized hexahedral (6-sided) brick elements of the ABAQUS type C3D8. While this element type can accommodates 8 nodes. FE modal analysis is performed in the following sections.

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Figure 1 Brake components geometry. 2.1 Modal Analysis Modal analysis is used to determine the vibration characteristics (natural frequencies and mode shapes) of the brake system. The general equation of motion can be written as: [M] { } + [C] { } + [K] {U} = {R} (1) Where; [M], [C] and [K] are mass, damping and stiffness matrices respectively. {R} is the external load vector, { }, { } and {U} are acceleration, velocity and displacement vectors respectively. Assume the excitation force and damping is neglected. Then rewrite the Eq. (1) yield, [M] { } + [K] {U} = 0 (2) Assume, i = 1, 2 . DOF In this harmonic expression, (3) is a vector

of nodal amplitudes (mode shape) for the ith mode of vibration. The symbol represents the angular frequency of mode i, and denotes the phase angle. By differentiating Eq. (3) twice with respect to time yield: (4) Substitution of Eq. (4) and Eq. (3) into Eq. (2) allows cancelation of the term and re-arranged yield, ([K] (5) Eigenvalue problem Eq. (5) solved by Lanczos eigenvalue extraction method to extract natural frequencies and mode shapes of the brake system. In this section,

in order to obtain dynamic characteristics of disc brake components, FE modal analysis is performed using ABAQUS. The disc brake components are firstly simulated in free-free boundary condition and there are no constraints imposed on the components. Natural frequencies up to 10 kHz are considered using ABAQUS software. The FE model of the disc is conducted using standard industry source of the material properties and experimental tests. But, it is recommended to improve the accuracy of the FE results which is very much dependent on the mesh size of models and actual material properties as following: 2.2 Mesh Sensitivity Generally, mesh density of disc brake model determines each elements dimension, which influences the accuracy of FEA prediction results. A poor mesh of FE model may cause larger element aspect ratio than is desirable, which could lead to inaccurate prediction or convergence problem. The aspect ratio is the ratio of the longest to shortest edge of an element in ABAQUS. However, overly refined mesh of brake model scarifies the efficiency of computational analysis and more time cost is needed. Therefore, it is necessary to find a trade-off solution between brake mesh density and computational efficiency. The mesh sensitivity calculation (mesh refinement technique) is used to decide the optimum number of elements in the FE model and verify the FE results. Two different mesh sizes are applied to the same structure, where two modal data sets can be obtained. The natural frequency differences between the same modes of these two sets can then be used to determine the convergence frequency range. If the results are nearly similar, then the coarse mesh is good enough for that

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particular geometry, loading and constraints. If the results differ by a large amount however, it will be necessary to use a finer mesh for further iteration. The mesh sensitivity is conducted on disc brake components with three different levels of mesh density, coarse, fine and very fine mesh. The results in Tables 1 and 2 show that the natural frequency difference between the same modes when three different meshes are applied in the FE model of the rotor and pad. It can be seen that the maximum difference in natural frequency, in the frequency range of interest (0-10 kHz), is less than 2%, which is an acceptable value. Table 1 Natural frequency with different mesh densities of the rotor
Mode No. Coarse mesh 2571 element Fine mesh 3163 element Very fine mesh 3859 element Difference ratio

those of the physical component, a FE updating is applied. The densities of the brake components are acquired from measuring the mass and getting the volume of the components from CAD geometry. Youngs moduli are obtained experimentally for the friction material through compressibility test. Finally, the material properties of the disc brake components after mesh sensitivity and FE updating are listed in Table 3. Table 3 Material properties of disc brake component
Components Rotor Friction material Back plate Density (kg m ) 7139 3154 7750
-3

Youngs modulus (GPa) 125 0.89 210

Poissons ratio 0.3 0.3 0.3

Natural frequency (Hz)

Fine- very fine

2 5 14 22 30

1423.5 3220.0 5168.4 7225.7 9305.9

1413.2 3185.6 5114.5 7152.9 9211.8

1406.6 3167.0 5082.2 7099.9 9132.5

0.47% 0.59% 0.64% 0.75% 0.9%

Table 2 Natural frequency with different mesh densities of the pad

Mode Shape Coarse mesh Element 648 Fine mesh Element 1975 Very fine mesh Element 3168 Difference ratio

3. Results of FE Modal Analysis In this section, the FE modal analysis of the disc brake components is conducted after considering mesh refinement technique and FE updating. The results are presented in the form of displacement contour to indicate maximum (anti-node) and minimum (node) amplitudes, as shown in Figure 2. The node and anti-node should appear in the response frequency diagram as peak and anti-peak.

Natural frequency (Hz)

1st Bending 1st Twisting 2nd Bending

2302.4 5391.7 5741.3

2878.1 5609.5 7071.1

2922.9 5631.7 7185.8

Finevery fine 1.5% 0.4% 1.6%

2.3 FE Model Updating In order to increase the accuracy of the FE results and reduce the relative errors between the predicted frequencies with

Figure 2 Vibration mode of brake rotor. 3.1 Results of the Disc After conducting mesh sensitivity and FE updating, the final FE model of the rotor consists of 3163 solid elements of type C3D8 with 6274 nodes. For the free-free boundary condition of the brake disc, a number of modes up to frequencies of 10

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kHz are extracted. There are various mode shapes exhibited in the numerical results. However, only nodal diameter type mode shapes are considered because they are the dominant ones in the vibration events. The calculated natural frequencies and mode shapes are obtained, which includes 2ND up to 6ND (nodal diameters). The number of nodal diameters based on a number of nodes and anti-nodes appearing on the rubbing surfaces of the disc. The results of the typical ventilated disc with frequency extraction up to 10 kHz are presented in Figure 3. It is found that the first mode occurs at a frequency of 1413 Hz with two nodal diameter (2ND) followed by the third nodal diameter (3ND) at a frequency of 3185 Hz. The fourth nodal diameter occurs at a

1st bending at 2903 Hz

1st twisting 5583 Hz

at

2nd bending 7061 Hz

at

Figure 4 Pad brake natural frequencies and mode shape. frequency of 5114 Hz with four nodal and anti-nodal lines. The fifth and sixth nodal diameters are found at 7152 and 9211 Hz respectively. All mode shapes show equal spacing of nodes and anti-nodes which are a distinctive characteristic of an axisymmetric disc model.

2 ND at 1413 Hz

3 ND at 3485 Hz

4 ND at 5114 Hz

3.2 Results of the brake pad FE modal analysis of the brake pad, which is composed of two parts, namely back plate and friction material, is simulated. The friction material is assumed to be linear isotropic material. The finite element model of brake pad consists of 1975 solid elements type C3D8 and 2709 nodes. The natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes obtained from the FE model are shown in Figure 4. The mode shapes for the brake pad are very similar to bending and twisting modes of beams. The eigenvalue analysis of the brake pad model predicted a total of 3 modes within frequency up to 10 kHz. From the results, the first mode occurs at a frequency of 2903 Hz, which is the first bending type. It is clearly seen that anti-node appears at the center of the pad and two nodes at equal distance from the center showing the maximum displacement. The second mode occurs at a frequency of 5583 Hz is of the first twisting mode type. The displacement contour plot indicates two nodal lines running diagonally across the pad from abutments and curving to the pad center. The mode shape could be more properly described as a twisting mode. The third mode is also the bending type mode, which is generated at a frequency 7161 Hz. From the equal displacement contour plot, there are 3 nodes appear on the displaced pad; one of the nodes is located at the centerline of the pad and the other two at either end of the pad. This mode shape is known as the second bending mode. 4. FE model of Disc Brake Assembly The previous separated disc brake components must be now coupled together to form the assembly model and all

5ND at 7152 Hz

6ND at 9211 Hz

Figure 3 Rotor brake natural frequencies and mode shapes.

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boundary conditions and component interfaces are considered. Many different methods can be used in FEA modeling for the contact between components. These methods are: Merged nodes, Multi-point constraints, linear springs, and Contact surfaces. The contact surfaces are the most advanced method of coupling components together. Sophisticated contact surface models exist that allow some level of motion between components, which include specifying normal and tangential contact stiffness. Here a more realistic representation of what is a highly nonlinear feature can be applied. ABAQUS software provides three algorithms to represent interface between contact pairs. They are gap contact elements, surface-to-surface contact interaction and surface-to-node contact interaction. Direct contact interaction between disc brake components is represented by surface-to-surface contact. The surface of the rotor is defined as the master surface, since it has a coarser mesh than the pad and the rotor is a stiffer material. The pad is consequently selected as the slave surface. For each node on the slave surface software algorithm finds the closest point on the master surface of the contact pair where the master surface's normal passes through the node on the slave surface. 4.1 Structural Boundary Conditions The brake components are connected through appropriate constraint conditions. For the brake pad no constraint is applied in the out-of-plane direction of the disc surface. The pad ears constraint is fixed in the in-plane directions, x and y-directions Figure 5, which allows the pads to move freely in the axis z-direction when the brake pressure loading is applied to the backplate. To allow the disc to rotate when

rotational motion is imposed, the centre of the disc top-hat section is constrained in the axial z-direction, and is free to rotate about this axis when a rotational velocity is imposed on the disc. After the brake components are assembled considering the contact analysis and all boundary condition. The FE model will be ready to further study using the stability analysis in the next section.

Disc boundary condition

Inner pad under piston pressure

Outer pad under Finger pressure

Figure 5 presents the constraints and loadings for the pads and disc assembly. 5. Stability Analysis The motivation of present section is to determine stability of the disc brake using complex eigenvalue analysis. Experimental results are utilized for validation the FE model is described in Ref. [20]. The complex eigenvalues are solved using the subspace projection method. A description of CEA is beyond the scope of this paper, so the reader is referred to any of the large number of papers have been published on the subject, see for example [21]. The CEA can be rewritten as a damped sinusoidal wave: (6) Thus, i and i are the real part and damped natural frequency describing damped sinusoidal motion. If the real part is negative, decaying oscillations typical of a stable system result. A positive damping coefficient, however, causes the amplitude of oscillations to increase with time as shown in Figure 6. Therefore the system is

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not stable when the real part is positive. By examining the real part of the system eigenvalues the modes that are unstable and likely to produce vibration are revealed.

Figure 6 Solution of complex eigenvalue analysis. 6. Results of Stability Analysis Fifty eigenvalues are extracted between zero and 10 kHz for the base brake system with =0.35 are plotted on the complex plane in Figure 7. These result in the eigenvalues that occur in conjugate pairs that are symmetrically located about the x axis. All of the modes have zero value (lie on the x axis) except where pairs of modes have become coupled and formed a stable/unstable pair. In this case eleven unstable modes can be seen. While there is no direct proportionality between vibration propensity and the level of real value, it has been suggested that higher values tend to be associated with modes that are most likely to squeal vibration. The unstable modes can be compared to the baseline

noise and vibration performance of the system reported in experimental results. Unstable modes have been found that correspond closely to the frequency range of interest at 4.5 kHz. Several other unstable modes are also predicted that have not presented a concern in testing. This is a significant issue with the over predictive nature of complex eigenvalue in that not all of the modes predicted will cause an actual vibration concern. Mode shapes for the eleven unstable modes are displayed in Figures 8. Note the rotor have been limited deformation since the highly magnified deformation level of the pad. The results show that the pads have serious out-of-plane modes as shown in Figure 8, this suggests that the brake pads may be the source of the disc brake squeal vibration.

Figure 7 Result of CEA of perfect pad

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Figure 8 unstable mode of CEA Roughness parameter considered is surface 7. Improvement FE Model The improvement is carried out with CEA average height (Ra), which can be by replacing perfect pad surface with measured directly at any point on the actual pad surface topography. In the FE surface. The brake pad is put on a support contact analysis, the brake pad models are and guiding element is translated along its similar to those used in the actual tests. own axis. The stylus is made to move in a Now the real surface profile of the brake direction perpendicular to the direction of pads will be considered in the sense that the brake pad. By measuring average node the surface profile information is height, the data is used to adjust the axial incorporated in the FE model of the brake coordinates of the nodes of pad surface. pad surface by adjusting its surface Figure 10 shows the perfect and real pad coordinates in the normal direction. The surface. The CEA is performed by surface average height (Ra) of the brake considering the real pad surface. From the pad is measured using roughness test, by CEA results, it is found that there are two considering the same node mapping unstable frequencies at 4789 and 5941 Hz, obtained from FE model. The real pad as shown in Figure 11. It is also found that surface topography is measured using a the predicted unstable frequencies are in a portable stylus-type profilometer (Taylor good agreement with measured Hobson Surtronic) as shown in Figure 9.

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experimental vibration frequencies 4.5 kHz as depicted in paper [20].

Figure 9 Surface roughness measuring device. The simulation results revealed that there are two unstable frequencies predicted, as shown in Figures 11, 12. It is found that using the real pad surface predicted less unstable frequencies than using the perfect pad surface. Because a smooth surface of friction material tends to increase the number of vibration frequencies than a rough surface. Therefore, the real contact interface model, as a main part of the proposed methodology, is proved to produce higher reliability and accuracy in prediction than the perfect contact interface model.

8. Conclusion FE model is used to predict brake vibration through CEA. FE modal analysis is conducted using ABAQUS software to get vibration characteristics of the brake assembly. The predicted results are compared with the vibration events observed in the experiments. It is observed that the results of the CEA using perfect pad surface are not in a good agreement with experimental test. Hence, an improvement techniqueis considered using real pad surface which is measured using roughness test in order to increase the prediction accuracy of CEA results. It is also found that the predicted unstable frequencies considering the real surface roughness have a significant influence on validation FE model and reduce the error between experimental and simulation results. References
1. Liles G.D. 1989 Analysis of disc brake squeal using finite element methods SAE 891150. 2. Akay, A. 2002 Acoustics of friction J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 111, No. 4, pp. 1525-1548. 3. Abendroth, H. and Wernitz, B. 2000 The integrated test concept dyno-vehicle performance and noise S.A.E Technical Paper 2000-01-2774. 4. Dom S., Riefe M., Shi T.S. 2003 Brake squeal noise testing and analysis correlation SAE 2003- 01-1616. 5. Goto Y., Amago T., Chiku K., Matshushima T., Ishihara Y. 2004 Experimental Identification Method for Interface Contact Stiffness of FE Model for Brake Squeal Proceedings of Braking 2004 on Vehicle Braking and Chassis Control, UK.143 155. 6. Liu P., Zheng H., Cai C., Wang Y.Y., Lu C., Ang K.H., Liu G.R. 2007 Analysis of disc brake squeal using the complex eigenvalue method, Appl Acoust. 68, PP. 603615. 7. Shi, T.S., Dessouki, O., Warzecha, T., Chang, W. K. and Jayasundera, A. 2001

a) Real pad surface.

b) Perfect surface.

pad

Figure 10 meshing of the pad surface

Figure 11 Result of CEA considering real pad surface.

Figure 12 CEA mode shape considering real pad surface.

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with frictional interfaces: The Constrained Harmonic Balance Method, with application to disc brake squeal Journal of Sound and Vibration 319, PP. 11751199. 19. Amr M. M. Rabia, Nouby M. Ghazaly,M. M. M. Salem, Ali M. Abd-El-Tawwab. 2013 An Experimental Study of Automotive Disc Brake Vibrations The International Journal of Engineering and Science (IJES), Vol.2, Issue 01, PP. 194200. 20. Nouby, M. and Srinivasan, K. 2011 Simulation of Structural Modifications of a Disc Brake System to Reduce Brake Squeal, Proc. IMechE, Part D: J. Automobile Engineering, Vol. 225, No. 5, pp. 653-672. 21. AbuBakar, A. R. and Ouyang, H. 2006 Complex eigenvalue analysis and dynamic transient analysis in predicting disc brake squeal, Int. J. Vehicle Noise and Vibrations, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 143-155.

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