Finite element (FE) model of brake insulator in reducing brake squeal noise for motorcycles

Abstract

In Malaysia, motorcycles are largely used for people to travel from one destination to another. Motorcycles can be said as a cheap and efficient transport in terms of fuel consumption and less in the traffic jam problem. With a large number of motorcycles on the road, it may create noise and air pollutions. One of the noise pollutions is produced by brakes system. Brake squeal noise produced by motorcycles is an annoying sound that can affect the comfort feeling of the rider and people surrounding it. Thus, this project aims to tackle such an issue by introducing brake insulator into the brake assembly. There are three stages have been followed to accomplish the objective, which are: i) generate the finite element model of the rear drum brake system, this model done based on the real system components, ii) perform modal analysis and modal testing and compare the results for validation (acceptable error < 5%) and iii) run the stability analysis with and without insulator to evaluate the effectiveness of the insulator in squeal suppression. The stability analysis performed using ABAQUS software through complex eigenvalue analysis (CEA), the positive real part of the (CEA) indicate unstable frequency (the propensity of squeal occurrence). Different insulator configurations such as thickness, arrangement and shape have been proposed and analysed against squeal generation and it was found that the insulator an efficient method to suppress the squeal but it does not totally eliminate the squeal.