Understanding friction induced damping in bolted assemblies through explicit transient simulation

The design of joints is seeing increased interest as one of the ways of controlling damping levels in lighter and more flexible aeronautic structures. Damping induced by joint dissipation has been studied for more than a decade, mostly experimentally due to the difficulty of simulating large structures with non-linearities. Experimentally fitted meta-models were thus used for damping estimation at design stage without a possible optimization. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that damping estimation using local friction models is feasible and that it can be usable for design. The simulation methodology is based on an explicit Newmark time scheme with model reduction and numerical damping that can be compensated for the modes of interest. Practical simulation times counted in minutes are achieved for detailed models. The illustration on a lap-joint shows how simulations can be used to predict the amplitude dependence of modal damping, answer long standing questions such as “does the modeshape change?” or analyze the evolution of pressure fields during a cycle

Benchmarking Signorini and exponential contact laws for an industrial train brake squeal application

Contact representation of structure interactions for finite element models is nowadays of great interest in the industry. Two contact modellig strategies exist in the literature, either based on a perfect contact with no interpenetration of structures at contact points, or based on functional laws releasing the contact constraint through pressure-penetration relationships. Both strategies require very different and rarely documented numerical implementations, making difficult any objective comparison. This paper presents a benchmark between ideal contact and a functional law of the exponential type applied to squeal simulations by complex mode analysis of an industrial railway brake

Time/frequency analysis of contact-friction instabilities. Application to automotive brake squeal.

Robust design of silent brakes is a current industrial challenge. Braking systems enter in the more general context of unstable systems featuring contact friction interaction. Their simulation requires time integra- tion schemes usually not adapted to combination of large industrial models (over 600,000 DOF) and long simulations (over 150,000 time steps). The paper first discusses selection of the contact/friction model and adaptations of the integration scheme. The relation between the nominal steady state tangent modes and the system evolution over time is then evaluated. The time response shows a nearly periodic response that is analyzed as a limit cycle. It is shown that instantaneous dynamic stability predictions show stable/unstable transitions due to changes in the contact/friction state. These transitions are thought to give an understanding of the mechanism that limits levels for these self sustained vibrations. The concept is exploited to suggest novel ways to analyze complex modes

Design oriented simulation of contact-friction instabilities in application to realistic brake assemblies

This paper presents advances in non-linear simulations for systems with contact-friction, with an application to brake squeal. A method is proposed to orient component structural modifications from brake assembly simulations in the frequency and time domains. A reduction method implementing explicitly component-wise degrees of freedom at the system level allows quick parametric analyses giving modification clues. The effect of the modification is then validated in the time domain where non-linearities can be fully considered. A reduction method adapted for models showing local non-linearities is purposely presented along with an optimization of a modified non linear Newmark scheme to make such computation possible for industrial models. The paper then illustrates the importance of structural effects in brake squeal, and suggests solutions

Review of model updating processes used for brake components

To be confident in the prediction capability of a model, verification and validation steps are classically performed. Verification checks that the model is properly solved. Since the model used are fairly standard, this is not issue for brake components. Validation checks the relation between model and experiments on actual structures. Here geometry measurements and vibration tests are considered. The study seeks to perform a systematic review of how test quality is evaluated, and models are correlated and then updated. This will give a solid basis to define clear and easily used validations protocols for brake components where prediction of modes and their stability in the manufacturing process is often deemed critical. Updating the geometry before updating the material properties is shown to be very important: the residual error on frequencies is smaller and no bias is introduced in the estimated material properties. Proper pairing of modeshapes is important for broadband comparisons and the MAC criterion is used. Intermediate steps: experimental topology correlation using easy tools with accuracy evaluation, estimation of errors on test shapes, handling of mode crossing, are sources of errors that are analyzed. For the updating of contact properties, where many parameters may need update, the use of model reduction is shown to allow a major speed-up of parametric studies

Compatibility measure and penalized contact resolution for incompatible interfaces

Handling of large industrial mechanical assemblies implies structure interactions commonly modeled with contact formulations. In cases where component interfaces are discretized using non conforming meshes, classical contact solutions have difficulties producing correct contact pressure fields. The method presented in this paper gives a relevant measure of interface compatibility and shows how it can be exploited to obtain regular contact pressures or limit over-integration in the contact formulation

Time/frequency analysis of contact-friction instabilities. Application to automotive brake squeal.

Robust design of silent brakes is a current industrial challenge. Braking systems enter in the more general context of unstable systems featuring contact friction interaction. Their simulation requires time integra- tion schemes usually not adapted to combination of large industrial models (over 600,000 DOF) and long simulations (over 150,000 time steps). The paper first discusses selection of the contact/friction model and adaptations of the integration scheme. The relation between the nominal steady state tangent modes and the system evolution over time is then evaluated. The time response shows a nearly periodic response that is analyzed as a limit cycle. It is shown that instantaneous dynamic stability predictions show stable/unstable transitions due to changes in the contact/friction state. These transitions are thought to give an understanding of the mechanism that limits levels for these self sustained vibrations. The concept is exploited to suggest novel ways to analyze complex modes

Design oriented simulation of contact-friction instabilities in application to realistic brake assemblies

This paper presents advances in non-linear simulations for systems with contact-friction, with an application to brake squeal. A method is proposed to orient component structural modifications from brake assembly simulations in the frequency and time domains. A reduction method implementing explicitly component-wise degrees of freedom at the system level allows quick parametric analyses giving modification clues. The effect of the modification is then validated in the time domain where non-linearities can be fully considered. A reduction method adapted for models showing local non-linearities is purposely presented along with an optimization of a modified non linear Newmark scheme to make such computation possible for industrial models. The paper then illustrates the importance of structural effects in brake squeal, and suggests solutions

The Component Mode Tuning (CMT) method. A strategy adapted to the design of assemblies applied to industrial brake squeal

Numerical prototyping is widely used in industrial design processes, allowing optimization and limiting validation costs through experimental testing. Industrial applications nowadays focus on the simulation of complex component assemblies that are generally mass produced. Coupling properties thus have to be modelled, updated and accounted for variability. For squeal applications, simulations still fail at robustly producing exploitable results due to the systems complexity, while experimentations are limited for diagnostic and design improvement. This paper presents a new application of the Component Mode Tuning, an efficient model reduction method adapted to quick system level reanalysis as function of component free modes, to study the effect of coupling. The impact of component coupling stiffness and coupling surface topology is thus assessed on a drum brake subassembly which design is sensitive to squeal. It is shown that significant system differences can come from coupling surface variations with patterns close to experimental observations. This emphases the need for refined analyses to control coupling in the perspective of robust modelling

On the influence of geometry updating on modal correlation of brake components.

In most industries dealing with vibration, test/analysis correlation of modal properties is considered a key aspect of the design process. The success of test/analysis methods however often show mixed results. The aim of this paper is to assess and answer some classical correlation problems in structural dynamics. First an investigation of correlation problems from tests is proposed. Tools based on the modal assurance criterion are presented to provide a deeper analysis of correlation and results improvement. In a second part, the need of FEM topology correlation and update is demonstrated, using an efficient morphing technique. Tolerances in the manufacturing process that are well accepted in design and production stages are shown to lead to significant degradation of the test/analysis correlation. An application to an industrial brake part is eventually presented, in an approach of correlation procedure automatization for recurrent use