The influence of the angular distribution of a grooved surface texturing on the generation of friction-induced vibration and noise

This study experimentally investigated the influence of angular distribution of a grooved surface on wear properties as well as friction-induced vibration and noise characteristics. The surfaces of brake disc material were modified by cutting grooved surfaces with different angular distributions. The differences between the grooved and smooth surfaces in friction and wear and friction-induced vibration and noise were evaluated. This was performed via a pad-on-disc test configuration where the brake pad material was used as a counterface. The test results indicated that all the grooved surfaces with different angular distributions had significant potential in improving friction and wear behaviors of the contact surfaces and also in reducing the amplitudes of high-frequency vibration accelerations and noise pressure levels. Additionally, the results indicated that the ability of the grooved surfaces to suppress the generation of noise is closely related to the angular distribution of the grooves and the interference length of the grooved surfaces on the contact interface. The grooved surface allowed for entrapping and exhausting wear debris from the contact interface, which improved the wear status, and this was one of the reasons for the noise reduction of the grooved surface to a certain extent. Meanwhile, another reason was that the grooved surface interrupted the concentrated contact pressure and changed the contact pressure distribution on the leading edge of the contact surface.