On the Coupling Stiffness in Closed-Loop Coupling Disc Brake Model through Optimization

The study and prevention of unstable vibration is a challenging task for vehicle industry. Improving predicting accuracy of braking squeal model is of great concern. Closed-loop coupling disc brake model is widely used in complex eigenvalue analysis and further analysis. The coupling stiffness of disc rotor and pads is one of the most important parameters in the model. But in most studies the stiffness is calculated by simple static force-deformation simulation. In this paper, a closed-loop coupling disc brake model is built. Initial values of coupling stiffness are estimated from static calculation. Experiment modal analysis of stationary disc brake system with brake line pressure and brake torques applied is conducted. Then an optimization process is initiated to minimize the differences between modal frequencies predicted by the stationary model and those from test. Thus model parameters more close to reality are found. Unstable mode prediction results using parameters before / after optimization are compared with those from brake noise bench test. The results after parameter optimization are in good correlation with test result and illustrate obvious improvement of predicting accuracy. Finally, the presented method is used to study the relationship between the coupling stiffness and brake conditions, i.e. brake-line pressure. The result shows accordant with literature.