IMPROVING BRAKE SQUEAL PROPENSITIY PREDICTION BY MODEL UPDATING

Brake squeal as a significant warranty-claim related costs problem to the automotive industry is difficult to model numerically and analyse because of inherent nonlinearities, uncertainties in material properties, contact and boundary conditions, and system complexity. Often, model components are linearised and not experimentally validated. Sophisticated contact or friction models as well as stiffness in joints are often not considered owing to difficulties in experimental validation. In this study, a full brake system is modally updated at the component level and then at the subassembly level (pad assembly alone, pad in bracket). Squeal prediction using the complex eigenvalue analysis on a finite element model of the system is compared to squeal results from a noise dynamometer test. The results are discussed with respect to further refinement of the modelling approach and improvements to brake squeal prediction.