Abstract
Numerical wear simulation of the pad to rotor interface can be used in the design processes of disc brakes to optimize the positions of the pistons, study how the wear affects brake squeal and foresee the environmental impact due to particulate matter emissions. The reliability and validity of these kinds of simulations relies on an accurate prediction of the wear propagation. The aim of this work is to investigate to which extent finite element (FE) based wear simulations can be used with this purpose. A simplified FE model of a front brake in mediumsized European passenger cars has been developed in ANSYS v15 and combined with a routine that allows simulation of wear of both contact surfaces at the pad to rotor interface. The wear models implemented are based on the results from wear test conducted in a pin on disc tribometer. The FE model is used to simulate a test cycle consisting of 200 stops in a dyno bench. Three different friction materials are evaluated and the simulations are validated by comparison to experimental observations in the dyno bench. Despite the simplified FE model used, a good agreement was found between the simulations and experimentally observed results.
KEYWORDS Finite Element Analysis, Wear Simulation, Disc Brake.