International Journal of Automotive Technology, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.

161171 (2008) Copyright © 2008 KSAE

DOI 10.1007/s122390080021x 12299138/2008/03906

ANALYSIS OF DISC BRAKE INSTABILITY DUE TO FRICTION-INDUCED

VIBRATION USING A DISTRIBUTED PARAMETER MODEL

Y.-G. JOE1), B.-G. CHA2), H.-J. SIM1), H.-J. LEE1) and J.-E. OH3)*
1)
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seou1 133-791, Korea
2)
Institute of Industrial Technology, Samsung Electronics Co., 3 Maetan-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si,
Gyeonggi 443-742, Korea
3)
School of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Korea

(Received 9 March 2007; Revised 10 November 2007)

ABSTRACTThis paper deals with friction-induced vibration of a disc brake system with a constant friction coefficient. A
linear, lumped, and distributed parameter model to represent the floating caliper disc brake system is proposed. The complex
eigenvalues are used to investigate the dynamic stability, and, in order to verify simulations which are based on the theoretical
model, an experimental modal test and dynamometer test are performed. The comparison of experimental and theoretical
results shows good agreement, and the analysis indicates that modal coupling due to friction forces is responsible for disc
brake squeal. Also, squeal type instability is investigated, using a parametric analysis. This indicates which parameters have
influence on the propensity of brake squealing. This is helpful for validating the analysis model and establishing confidence
in the experimental results of the modified system. These results may also be useful during system development or diagnostic
analysis.

KEY WORDS : Disc brake, Squeal, Complex eigenvalue, Friction force, Modal coupling

1. INTRODUCTION
A brake system is one of the most important safety and
performance components of automobiles. Research on
brake systems has focused on braking power and reliabi-
lity. However, the refinement of vehicle noise and vibration
through improvement in other aspects of vehicle design has
been more important. Most importantly, noise during brak-
ing is a kind of self-excited vibration due to the friction
between the disc and the pad. This is generally prevalent
and disturbing to both vehicle passengers and the environ-
ment. Therefore, disc brake noise is a problem that continues
to confront automobile manufacturers, and customer com-
plaints result in significant warranty costs yearly.
More importantly, customer dissatisfaction may result in
a loss of future business. In order to produce quality auto-
mobiles that can compete in today’s marketplace, the
occurrence of disc brake noise must be reduced.
The most common type of noise, and most annoying,
investigated in this study is squeal. It is generally agreed
that squeal is a sustained, high frequency of 1000 Hz or
higher with excessively high and irritating sound pressure
levels during a braking action. The occurrence of squeal is
intermittent or even random. Especially in certain condi-
tions, even when the vehicle is brand new, it often gene-
*Corresponding author. e-mail: jeoh@hanyang.ac.kr
rates squeal noise, which has been extensively studied with
the goal of eliminating the noise in mind. However, mech-
anistic details of squeal noise are not yet fully understood.
This is mainly because squeal noise is the result of complex
causes. Although there are many theoretical models ex-
plaining squeal noise, there is no universally applicable
model that describes various types of squeal phenomena.
Thus, it is necessary to develop an analytical model to
predict real brake squeal.
The dynamic instability of a disc brake is strongly
related to a self-excited oscillation, induced by friction
interaction at the vibrating interface. The most common
phenomenon may be squeal noise. Many studies have been
based on either the lumped parameter method (Brooks et
al., 1993; Crolla and Lang, 1990; Earles and Chamber,
1987, 1988) or the Finite Element Method (FEM). Parti-
cularly, Matsui et al. have combined these two methods
(Matsui et al., 1992) and introduced other methods, such as
the holographic image method (Fieldhouse and Newcomb,
1993) and the experimental method (Nosseir et al., 1998).
The most extensively studied topics in friction-induced
disc brake noise may be the friction mechanism at the
interface and modeling of the friction coefficient. Stability
analysis of disc brake noise has been employed widely
over the last few decades. Much of this research is based on
the finite element method and some analytical mode sum-
mation approaches have been investigated (Ouyang and

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