In this spring of 2020, I took part in Professor Murat Inalpolat’s research into the behavior of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers (CPVA) on automotive drivetrains. My team and I were tasked with analyzing and creating a model of the frictional effects between the vibration absorbers and the rotor they are mounted to. A sample CPVA can be seen below.
CPVA in Biflar Suspension (A. Wedin, Chalmers University of Technology)
Essentially, this is a floating metal plate on a larger rotor that is able to translate in response to the rotor’s motion. The CPVA can be tuned such that certain frequency ranges are attenuated: for an automotive drivetrain, this results in a smoother, more comfortable ride.
I took on the role of project lead, and I am exceptionally proud of the work my teammates and I were able to accomplish. My primary work was developing a numerical model to evaluate the frictional coefficient between two rough surfaces in MATLAB.
A video of the resulting pressure map of a rough surface being loaded is provided below.
To learn more about the project, please read our paper or look at our PowerPoint below.