Contact analysis for drum brakes and disk brakes using ADINA

Brakes in cars and trucks are safety parts. Requirements not only in perfor mance but also in comfort, serviceability and working lifetime are high and rising. Optimal design of today's brake systems is found using additional calculations based on finite element methods. For both types of brake syste ms, drum brakes and disk brakes, the different parts of brakes, i.e. the br ake pad with the friction material, the counter body and calliper, can be m odelled. Two examples are given in this paper: a drum brake of a trailer an d a typical disk brake used in passenger cars. The main problem to be solve d is the calculation of the distribution of contact forces between brake pa d and counter body (drum or disk). The contact problem includes friction an d is solved using the ADINA 7.1 sparse solver. After the brake pressure is applied, the turning moment on the axle rises constantly until the drum or disk respectively changes from sticking to sliding condition. It is shown t hat the sparse solver is highly efficient for this sophisticated nonlinear problem. Results include deformation, stress distribution, contact pressure and showing which regions of the contact area are in sticking or sliding c ondition. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.