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Thermo-elastic and thermo-plastic behaviour takes place with a disc brake during heavy braking and it is this aspect of braking that this paper considers. The work is concerned with working towards developing design advice that provides uniform heating of the disc, and equally important, even dissipation of heat from the disc blade. The material presented emanates from a combination of modeling, on-vehicle testing but mainly laboratory observations and subsequent investigations. The experimental work makes use of a purpose built high speed brake dynamometer which incorporates the full vehicle suspension for controlled simulation of the brake and vehicle operating conditions. Advanced instrumentation allows dynamic measurement of brake pressure fluctuations, disc surface temperature and discrete vibration measurements.

The paper overviews the modes of vibration of the principal component parts of a brake and their contribution to system instability during noise generation. It is shown that both in-plane and out-of-plane vibration are present and that both can be related to the vibration of the pad. It is further shown that the pad and its region often provide a solution or “fix” towards noise prevention and it is this area that forms the focus of this investigation. The collective evidence, proposals and associated theory are applied to real brake case studies when it is demonstrated that disc/pad interface “spragging” may be the source of brake noise. Measurements of the position of the dynamic centre of pressure (CoP) support the theoretical predictions that a leading CoP induces brake noise. Design proposals are suggested that may be applied early in the design phase as a means to reduce the propensity of a brake to generate noise.