Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

INTRODUCTION.

In the low frequency domain, there are two fundamental different types of structural
vibrations, namely judder and groan, and their associated airborne noise called hums and
moan respectively. Even though the frequency of judder is normally lower than that of
groan and groan is lower than squeal, the frequency ranges overlap in the region 400-
500Hz.Any how, brake judder is easily recognized, as its frequency is proportional to the
vehicle speed. The frequency of brake squeal is independent of the speed of the vehicle.

While judder is a forced vibration mostly due to geometrical deviations of the brake disc,
groan is an instability phenomenon occurring as a result of specific types of friction-
velocity characteristics. Squeal, on the other hand, involves bending mode of the brake
components.

TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION

Traditionally, brake noise and vibrations are classified according to their dominant
frequencies, with those below a certain limit being called judder or hum. Above this limit
the vibrations are regarded as high frequency noise including squeal. The main
disadvantage with this classification is that one physical phenomenon can be split into
two different classes and, at the same time, fundamentally different phenomena will be
included in the same term. However the driver and passengers relate the classification to
the way in which the phenomena are experienced by the driver and passengers.
Thermal or hot judder is caused by
 Thermal deformation, for e.g. coning and waving of a disc.
 Uneven thermal expansion.
 Phase transformation of disc material.
Cold judder is caused by geometrical irregularities due to machining, mounting, uneven
wear, uneven corrosion or uneven friction film generation. Normally judder consists of a

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

combination of hot and cold judder and hence the terms ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ are somewhat
misleading.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION

The classification of braking induced noise and vibrations is as follows:

 Forced vibration: - these include brake judder vibration and it’s associated brake
noise called hum.
 Vibrations primarily caused by friction characteristics: - This group includes
creep groan and dynamic groan and their associated moan noise. Creep groan is
caused by a static coefficient of friction that is higher than the dynamic one.
Dynamic groan on the other hand is an instability phenomenon occurring as a
result of a specific type friction –velocity characteristic usually known as
negative damping.
 Vibrations primarily caused by resonance of the brake components: - Noises in
the class are squeal and wire brush noise. The corresponding vibrations propagate
through the air rather than through the vehicle structure.
One of the benefits of the classification is that it is coupled to the way of modeling the
vibrations. Another benefit is the connection to appropriate experimental tools.

The vibration frequency of brake judder is directly proportional to the wheel speed and
therefore also to the velocity of the vehicle. Hence it is common to relate the judder
frequencies to the wheel speed.
When defining brake judder as braking induced forced vibrations, the upper limit of its
frequency is determined by the maximal vehicle speed, the wheel radius and judder order.
For instance, let a passenger car brake from 170kmph down to zero. Then the 20 th order
judder vibrations will sweep from 500Hz,while the upper limit of the first order
vibrations will be only 25Hz,owing to the maximum revolution speed of the wheels.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

Consequently resonance’s above 100Hz will not I practice be exited by the first order
disturbances.

PHYSICAL EFFECTS CAUSING RAKE TORQUE VARIATIONS

AND BRAKE PRESSURE VARIATIONS.
There are several physical effects causing brake torque variation and brake pressure
variation and hence judders the ones discussed are geometrical irregularities uneven wear
of brake rotor, uneven friction film between rotor and lining, uneven heating, uneven
pressure distribution, friction characteristics and friction level and external forces. The
different effects or sources are generally not independent of each other. There is a strong
coupling between geometrical irregularities, uneven wear and uneven heating.

GEOMETRICAL IRREGULARITIES.
For disc brake judder the most important geometrical properties are disc thickness
variation (DTV) and run out of the disc. In addition to geometrical irregularities of static
or remaining nature, there can be a dynamic and reversible variation of disc geometry
(thermal DTV etc.).
Experimental investigations have shown that the instantaneous DTV is the primary
contributor to disc brake judder on passenger cars. DTV is a very complex phenomenon
consisting of the following:
 Initial DTV arises from manufacturing and mounting.
 Wear and cleaning process produce DTV.
 There are more or less permanent areas, with locally different specific volume,
friction and wear properties caused by phase transformations when locally
overheating the disc. This DTV remains after cooling of the disc.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

 Temporary thermal growth of DTV takes place during each brake application
owing to uneven heating and localized contact area and pressure that is thermo
elastic instability processes.
 Uneven friction film thickness may contribute several µ m.
 Uneven corrosion and deposition of heated pad material on the disc could occur.

UNEVEN WEAR.

Off-brake wear also known as cold erosion is coupled to DTV and can lead to cold
judder. Brake discs can develop DTV because the brake pads in the off brake mode
lightly touch the rotors in some sectors but not at all in others, resulting in non-uniform
wear .DTV created by pad contact has two phases: -generation and cleaning. Ratio
between generation and cleaning is influenced by the selection of friction material.
Friction materials which generate DTV in the off brake mode will usually have the ability
to eliminate DTV by a higher disc wear in the on-brake mode.
Careful drivers may experiences brake judder more quickly than sporty drivers since slow
application of the brake at low brake pad pressure. Prevents cleaning of the disc. Discs
causing BTV and hence judder can be cured by making several hard stops. During long
brake applications wear, especially pad wear, becomes substantial. Generally wear results
in a more even temperature distribution and lower temperature maximal. However a high
wear will move the contact surface, which might contribute to thermal fatigue of discs.

UNEVEN FRICTION FILMS.

The third body layer, friction film or transfer film is a film of few µ m thick consisting of
material produced by attrition .the ferrous particles produced by the wear of the cast iron
disc are transformed and oxidized by the atmospheric oxygen and deposited as a gray
black layer on the braking surface of the disc. This layer together with the corresponding
layer on the pads determines the frictional behavior of the brake.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

UNEVEN HEATING

Thermal deformation of a disc consists of:

 Waving or warping of the disc.
 Coning of the disc. This leads to high run out.
 Phase transformation.
 Deposition of heated pad material on the disc
 Uneven thermal expansion: A temperature difference of 250°C, which is not
unusual, causes DTV amplitude of 10 µ m. Even if no visible hot spots occur
during braking this phenomenon is important for brake judder occurrence by
causing temporary growth of geometrical disturbances.

The thicker areas of a brake disc become hotter than the thinner ones, which cause
thermal deformation of the disc and also uneven thermal expansion that is thermal DTV.
The process can become unstable and is then defined as a thermo elastic instability (TEI).
TEI leads to a more and more localized brake pressure and temperature field as the
braking continues. In extreme cases the disc will crack.
It is the temperature gradients that cause the increase in judder level during long or
repeated braking. These cause temporary DTV owing to uneven thermal expansion of
disc material .the DTV level (hence BTV) increases, often more or less linearly, with
time while braking, hence brake application time and how often the braking is repeated
are important factors for brake judder development.
Also a higher revolution speed of the disc was found to increase the hot spot generation.
In addition the localization process (& thermal DTV) is pronounced at high speeds, above
100 kmph. This might be explained by the fact that TEI process demands a minimal
critical speed to develop. As a consequence of this it is essential to test friction material at
speeds above the limit 100kmph, which is usually standard.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

UNEVEN PRESSURE

In a conventional disc brake analysis, the interface pressure is assumed to be either

constant or inversely proportional to the radius. However under dynamic braking
conditions, the contact area and brake pressure distribution varies continuously with time
because of:
 Thermal distortion arising from the friction heat generation
 Mechanical distortion due to the applied actuation force.
 Wear of the friction pair material and formation of friction film.
 Initial DTV and run out.

FRICTION CHRACTERISTICS AND LEVEL

The variation of friction with velocity has historically been regarded as the source of all
kinds of braking induced vibrations, including judder. Jacobsson showed that even a
constant coefficient of friction might generate judder. No specific friction characteristics
are needed for the phenomenon to occur. However a negative brake fade or a friction
coefficient that increases with brake pressure may increase the problems.
Consequently a reduction of friction coefficient level decreases the judder problem and at
the same time reduces the crack probability. Also the absolute friction level affects the
relation between BTV& BPV. This is because BTV is proportional to coefficient of
friction while BPV is independent of friction.

EXTERNAL FORCES

Unbalances and tyre force variations may induce a tumbling rigid body motion of the
disc, as a result of elasticity’s of the wheel hub and bearing unit. Such dynamic
deflections cause the same type of vibration as geometrical irregularities. Hence they may
contribute to judder. When the judder is due to the tyre force variation or imbalance the

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

term brake judder is misleading because it suggests that the excitation force originates
from the brakes.

VEHICLE COMPONENTS

BTV & BPV are usually produced by geometrical or other irregularities of the brake
components and further transmitted to and amplified in the wheel suspension and
hydraulic systems.

IRREGULARITIES

BPV BTV

HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS WHEEL SUSPENSION

STEERING SYSTEM
PEDAL VIBRATION CAR BODY STEERING SYSTEM

NOISE VIBRATION STEERING WHEEL

VIBRATION

Theoretically, a spatial friction coefficient variation around the disc may occur without
corresponding variation of the hydraulic pressure (BPV). However physical effects that
generate friction variation such as phase transformation, uneven transfer film generation,
corrosion etc will also generate irregularities with normal force variation and BPV.
Hence it is often meaningful to consider BTV and BPV as an entity. However their
relative magnitudes are functions of actual friction coefficient.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

Independently of how and where the disturbances are produced, it is transmitted and
amplified in the same way. Wheel suspension amplifies the vibration.
An obvious way of reducing judder is to reduce the BTV & BPV, which is the source of
vibration. This traditional approach will place the focus on brake components that is pads
and disc. An alternative strategy, especially with severe steering wheel vibrations, is to
reduce the amplification either the primary in the wheel suspension or a relevant
secondary at the steering systems. This can be achieved by introduction of the brake-by-
wire and steering – by- wire techniques.

PADS

When developing or choosing a pad material, more than 20 properties are considered.
Everything from density, melting point, strength (tensile, compressive, flexural & shear),
machinability, environmental impact, squeal probability etc. should be considered. With
respect to judder properties of interest are stiffness, coefficient of friction, coefficient of
thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, corrosion & porosity. Most important property
is the compressive stiffness. BTV level can vary by a factor of 2-3 depending on the pad
composition. Pad compressive stiffness should be as low as possible to promote uniform
contact pressure and to avoid TEI processes such as hot banding and thermal DTV.

DISC

The thermal stability of the disc shaped is influenced by the quality of the material and
the heat treatment before machining as well as the basic design of the disc rotor.
Choosing high carbon disc materials and introducing thermal stress relief treatment into
the machining cycle can minimize thermal stability problems.

Some of the thermally most important properties of disc brakes are as follows:

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

 Thermal capacitance (density & sp.heat) is the ability to store heat. Initially on
braking a significant amount of frictional heat is stored and consequently during
short braking thermal capacitance dominates.
 Heat dissipation becomes important at long braking times that are at drag
braking or mountain descends braking. However it also affects the disc’s ability to
recover thermally between stops. Convection accounts for more than 90% of all
heat dissipation for most braking condition. The heat transfer coefficient varies as
the vehicle’s velocity to the power 0.8.
 Thermal conductivity is the ability to redistribute thermal energy. During long
low intensity braking, the peak temperature depends largely on the disc material
conductivity. During short braking it has little effect.
 Thermal expansion coefficient affects the tendency towards hot spotting &thermal
DTV generation. Temperature gradients of a brake disc cause temporary DTV
owing o uneven thermal expansion of the material.
Ventilated brake disc are widely used for their weight savings and additional convective
heat transfer. However they may increase judder problems by inducing an uneven
temperature field around the disc. Over short and high-speed stops, thermal capacity is
the most important property, which is why a solid disc runs cooler than the vented design.
There are composite materials that might have the ability to reduce judder, viz; ceramic
material example is a short fibre reinforced silicon carbide material judder is avoided
because of low coefficient of thermal expansion and low wear. Also low elastic modulus
should promote uniform contact and reduce thermal DTV and hotspots. Excellent
resistance to thermal damage of the material makes it suitable for disc brakes of heavy
vehicles, where cracking of normally used CI disc is a problem. However these are very
costly.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

TIME- SCALES

Brake judder depends strongly on the braking history on the short as well a on the long
time scale. There are three different time scales involved in brake judder:
 Revolution time of the wheel.
 Brake application time or the time between two braking.
 Lifetime of brake components.

APPROACH

The way of looking at and describing a problem is called d the problem approach. This
determines which physical effect can be studied and also states the time and space scale
.the chosen problem approach will have consequences for how to analyze the problem as
well as for the type of solution that will be found. It also determines which type of
analytical and experimental tool is the most appropriate.
While studying brake judder there are two fundamentally different approaches in use
namely the cause approach and the effect approach. While the effect approach focuses on
the source of the vibration in the form of amplitude and vibrational order of the BTV &
BPV, the cause approach deals with number of physical effects such as wear and heating.

CAUSE APPROACH EFFECT APPROACH

GEOMETRICAL SYSTEM OR
IRREGULARITIES VEHICLE STRUCTURE
UNEVEN
HEATING

BTV/BPV HUMAN
UNEVEN WEAR JUDDER
RESPONSE

UNEVEN
FRICTION FILM

EXTERNAL FREQUENCY
FORCES SWEEP

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

The effect approach can be further split into three:

 System approach examines how a model of the vehicle or the wheel suspension
together with BTV & BPV generates judder. The braking process is usually
represented by a constant frequency, which can be parametrically changed. It is
used mostly in experimental analysis.
 Frequency sweep approach examines how the braking processes itself together
with BTV & BPV generate judder.
 Human response approach studies the effects of the judder on one specific test
driver or on an average person placed in a specific vehicle. Alternatively, the
human response to judder could be thought of as a third level where the judder
level and frequency together with the weight, size and place of the person in the
vehicle, etc.are the input.

APPROACH METHOD AND TOOLS

Cause approach FE analysis, FD,Dynamometer,Tribometer,
Drag braking, X-rays.
System approach MBS analysis, Fourier methods, Modal
analysis, Road test, Taguchi methodology.
Frequency sweep approach Time plane analysis, Waterfall analysis,
ABS & capacitive transducers.
Human response Subjective rating, Deceleration test.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

CONCLUSION

The following are possibilities for reducing judder:

 Decrease BTV & BPV.
 Increased damping.
 Lighter braking.
 Increase relative stator mass and inertia moment compared with the rotor.
A lighter vehicle and a smaller wheel radius decrease the judder problem. A reduction of
vehicle mass will also decrease the thermal DTV and hotspots and reduce the risk of
thermal cracking, provided that the thermal capacity of the disc remains the same. A
lighter stator will tend to increase the judder problem\s, since amplification of BTV will
become larger.

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 Aspects of Disc Brake Judder

REFERENCES.

H.JACOBSSON “Journal of Automobile Engg. Jan 2003”.

Proc. Instn Mech. Engrs. Vol-217, part D.

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