Numerical simulation of friction noise

A numerical study to analyze friction noise being radiated when two rough and dry surfaces are rubbed together, is presented in this paper. The explicit dynamic finite element software ABAQUS in 2D is used to simulate the roughness noise. Coulombʹs friction law is used at the contact surface. This simulation provided the local contact conditions such as local contact forces and contact stresses, but also the number of impacts per second and their intensities. It is shown that roughness plays a crucial role to explain roughness noise. The shocks between antagonist asperities are responsible of the transfer between the kinetic energy of solids and the vibratory energy which produces the radiation of sound. It was also shown that roughness noise level is simultaneously an increasing function of the logarithm of the surface roughness and the sliding speed. Numerical results are in agreement with our experimental results and previous studies.