Modeling of Vehicle Drum Brake for Contact Analysis Using Ansys 2012-01-1810

A non-contact analysis of a drum brake based on three-dimensional Finite Element analysis using Ansys is presented. The effect of drum-lining interface stiffness and line pressure on the interface contact is examined. The modal analysis of the vehicle drum brake is also studied to get the natural frequency and instability of the drum. It is shown that the unsymmetric modal analysis is efficient enough to solve this linear problem after transforming the non-linear behaviour of the contact between the drum and the lining to a linear behavior. A linear element which is used in the modal analysis is transferred to non-linear elements which are Targe170 and Conta173 that represent the drum and lining to study the contact analysis. The contact analysis problems are highly non-linear and require significant computer resources to solve it, however, the contact problem give two significant difficulties. Firstly, the region of contact is not known based on the boundary conditions, line pressure, and drum and friction material specifications. Secondly, these contact problems need to take the friction into consideration. It showed that the distribution of the nodal reaction force depends mainly on piston pressure on either the leading or trailing lining. The slotted lining gave a good distribution of the nodal reaction forces compared to plain lining and existing of the slot in the middle of the lining can help in wear removal due to the friction between the lining and the drum. An accurate contact stiffness of 1100 MN/m can give a good representation for the pressure distribution between the lining and the drum. A full contact of the front part of the slotted lining could occur in case of 20, 40, 60 and 80 bar of piston pressure however; a partially contact between the drum and lining can occur in the rear part of the slotted lining.