Reduction of automotive brake squeal through pad geometrical modifications: A numerical study

Reducing brake squeal noise for the improvement of ride comfort is one of the most important issues in today´s automotive industry. This study details an investigation into the design modification of a brake pad for the front disc brake system as found on a typical passenger vehicle, and reports how the design modification can be improved to reduce the occurrence of squeal. As an extension to earlier finite element (FE) brake models described in literature, a detailed FE model of the whole disc brake corner is developed and validated using experimental modal analysis. Stability analysis of the disc brake corner using the FE software ABAQUS is carried out to predict squeal occurrence. To reduce squeal noise, stability analysis was conducted for several geometrical modifications on the pad. The results show that squeal could be reduced if the back plate and friction material thickness are increased.