A new treatment for predicting the self-excited vibrations of nonlinear systems with frictional interfaces: The Constrained Harmonic Balance Method, with application to disc brake squeal

Abstract Brake squeal noise is still an issue since it generates high warranty costs for the automotive industry and irritation for customers. Key parameters must be known in order to reduce it. Stability analysis is a common method of studying nonlinear phenomena and has been widely used by the scientific and the engineering communities for solving disc brake squeal problems. This type of analysis provides areas of stability versus instability for driven parameters, thereby making it possible to define design criteria. Nevertheless, this technique does not permit obtaining the vibrating state of the brake system and nonlinear methods have to be employed. Temporal integration is a well-known method for computing the dynamic solution but as it is time consuming, nonlinear methods such as the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM) are preferred. This paper presents a novel nonlinear method called the Constrained Harmonic Balance Method (CHBM) that works for nonlinear systems subject to flutter instability. An additional constraint-based condition is proposed that omits the static equilibrium point (i.e. the trivial static solution of the nonlinear problem that would be obtained by applying the classical HBM) and therefore focuses on predicting both the Fourier coefficients and the fundamental frequency of the stationary nonlinear system. The effectiveness of the proposed nonlinear approach is illustrated by an analysis of disc brake squeal. The brake system under consideration is a reduced finite element model of a pad and a disc. Both stability and nonlinear analyses are performed and the results are compared with a classical variable order solver integration algorithm. Therefore, the objectives of the following paper are to present not only an extension of the HBM (CHBM) but also to demonstrate an application to the specific problem of disc brake squeal with extensively parametric studies that investigate the effects of the friction coefficient, piston pressure, nonlinear stiffness and structural damping.