Judder vibration in disc brakes excited by thermoelastic instability

Friction vibrations and noises which are common in brakes, have attracted a great deal of attention lately. This paper analyses low frequency vibrations in disc brakes excited at high car speed This vibration, called judder, has a frequency in the range 10 to 300 Hz and usually comes in association with hum noises. The dynamic phenomenon shows two principal components, one normal and the other one tangential to the disc brake surface. It is explained how variations of friction coefficient, and thermoelastic instability caused by the tangential component, contribute to the appearance of judder. A numerical analysis in 3D using the finite element method has been implemented combining both tangential and normal components, and solving the thermoelastic process. Special attention is dedicated to the simulation of the thermoelastic process showing the correlation with experiments.