International audienceBrake squeal is a friction induced instability phenomenon that has to be addressed during the development process. The mechanism is considered a mode coupling phenomenon also referred to as coalescence. The system eigenvalues have been computed using a technique based on the finite element method. The coalescence patterns were then determined in relation to the friction coefficient. The effects of damping on the coalescence patterns have been investigated. If the two modes involved in the coalescence are equally damped, a "lowering effect" that tends to stabilize the system is observed. If the two modes are not equally damped, both "lowering" and "smoothing" effects occur. If the "smoothing effect" prevails, added damping may act in an unintuitive way by destabilizing the system. To further study this point, stability areas have been plotted and a metric is proposed to find the most stable configuration in terms of damping distribution. In the squeal frequency range, coalescence patterns often involve more than two modes. In this case, the effect of damping is far more complicated since several modes are coupled both in terms of friction and damping

Brake squeal is referred to, in most publications, as a flutter instability trigged by a mode coupling phenomenon. A lot of clues tends to prove that damping would be a key parameter in brake squeal modelling. This study aims at investigating the effects of damping on coalescence patterns, that is to say on the way the modes couple. A finite element model of the whole brake corner has been used to compute the brake modal behaviour. Then a complex eigenvalue analysis has been undertaken to assess the brake stability as a function of the friction coefficient. Different kinds of damping spreading over the modes have been studied. Two main effects have been noticed: a shifting effect and a smoothing effect. The first one always stabilize the brake, whereas this is not the case of the second one. The combination of the two effects may make the brake more unstable depending on the spreading of the additionnal damping.