NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF FRICTION-INDUCED NOISE OF AUTOMOTIVE WIPER SYSTEMS

Automotive parts may be the cause of very annoying friction-induced noise and the source of many customer complaints. Indeed, when a wiper operates on a windshield, vibratory phenomena may appear due to flutter instabilities and may generate squeal noise. As squeal noise generated by wiper system is a random and complex phenomenon, there are only few studies dealing with the wiper noise. The complexity of this phenomenon is due to the cinematic of the movement and to the various environmental parameters which have an influence on the appearance of the noise. This master thesis is a research and development project and presents a numerical simulation methodology used in the aim to reduce and eradicate squeal noise of wiper systems. In the first part, the finite element model representing a wiper system and the numerical simulation methodology will be presented in detail. In the second part, stability analysis will be carried out in nominal studies and in designs of experiments. Parametric studies will also be achieved to understand the behavior and the influence of each considered input parameters. Two wiper blades, with the same geometry but with different material, will be considered for the different studies. These two wiper blades will be examined to figure out when squeal noises appear