Influence of Design Parameters in the Brake Squeal in Electric Cars

Resumo

Electric cars have many advantages over vehicles that require fossil fuels for their use. However, both types of cars are subject to problems related to brake squeal, which is a noise that causes discomfort for those inside the vehicle. In particular, this problem is more significant in electric cars because the motor operates silently compared to internal combustion engines, making the noise more obvious. In this context, the aim of this study is to perform a parametric analysis to verify the influence of design parameters on squeal in a cooled disc brake of an electric car. Therefore, finite element methods were used to analyse the brake geometry, which was subjected to static and modal analyses to extract complex eigenvalues and identify unstable modes. The simulation results indicated that the friction coefficient, stiffness of the components of system, and brake pressure are significant to the performance of the brake system, being the Young's modulus of the back plate the best parameter to minimize the brake squeal.