Evaluation of disc brake materials for squeal reduction

A nontraditional evaluation tool is introduced to examine the effects of different materials, in practical applications, that are used in fabricating disc brake components for commonly used or special requirements such as heavy-duty performance and racing cars. As an extension to earlier finite element (FE) disc brake models, a detailed FE model of the whole disc brake corner that incorporates the wheel hub and steering knuckle is developed and validated using experimental modal analysis. Stability analysis of the disc brake corner using the finite element software ABAQUS is carried out to predict squeal occurrence also taking into account the negative and positive damping effects and friction material real surface to increase the accuracy of prediction. A Taguchi method-based design of experiment is used to better assess the contributions of different materials and its interaction effects for effective reduction of brake squeal. The results showed that the pad friction material contributes 56% to the total system instability (squeal generation). The rotor material contributes 22% of the system instability. Caliper and bracket materials participate 11 and 11%, respectively.