Wiper Systems With Flexible Structures - Instabilities Analysis and Correlation with a Theoretical Model

Optimizing the wiper system performance motivates the design engineer to create a product as robust as possible against the occurrence of wipe defects related to vibratory phenomena between the rubber blade and the windshield. In some configurations, these vibrations generate visual or audible annoyance for the driver. These instabilities phenomena only appear under specific operating and environmental conditions characterized by windshield moisture and cleanness, contact pressure of the rubber blade on the glass, attack angle of the wiper blade on the windshield, component stiffness, windshield curvature etc. In the process of eliminating all potential instabilities, modeling the wiper system structures can contribute to understand its working dynamics. Therefore, a new computation tool is developed and validated by experimentation on a specific test bench.