How can automotive friction-induced noises be related to physical mechanisms?

Three main physical mechanisms are found in the literature to explain the occurrence of friction-induced noises: the stick-slip, the sprag-slip and the mode-coupling instabilities. In order to improve the understanding of the automotive friction-induced noises and regarding the variety of these noises and the systems concerned, the consideration of these three physical mechanisms in a unique model, called phenomenological model, is proposed. The relationships between the mechanisms at the origin of friction-induced noises and the different kinds of friction-induced noises that can be perceived in a vehicle are particularly investigated. First, a simple classification of automotive-friction induced noises is proposed and highlights three noise categories: squeal, squeak and creak noises. Time simulations carried out on the phenomenological model show the qualitative reproduction of the vibrational behaviors at the origin of these three noise categories. Conditions are then proposed to define the three noise categories, based on the contact states ratios encountered in the time response. In order to understand the relationships between the three physical mechanisms and the three noise categories, a fullfact design of experiments is carried out with the phenomenological model. A system with realistic dynamic properties is used and submitted to a large number of conditions of use, allowing the appearance of a wide diversity of responses. The results show that the three mechanisms as well as the three noise categories can be obtained on a same dynamic system. They also show that creak is caused by a stick-slip phenomenon, squeal is mainly due to a mode-coupling phenomenon, while squeak can be caused either by mode-coupling or stick-slip phenomena. Finally, the occurrence of each mechanism and noise category is independently analyzed for the given dynamic system, giving quite significant trends towards model parameters. These trends highlight some interesting design levers to reduce the propensity of noise for an automotive structure. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.