Search Results

Widely known is the fact that friction and wear characteristics of disk brakes are subject to pronounced temperature dependencies. For systems with organically bound brake pads, many thermally induced material changes can occur, ranging from degassing of the phenolic resin binder up to degradation of fibers and melting of metallic components. All these effects modulate the surface structure between pad and disk. They are a major contributor to friction layer dynamics [1] and directly influence the system's performance. Concerning the calculation of contact temperatures in disk brakes, several attempts have been made in the past. Most of them, however, use drastic assumptions (e.g. homogenous materials and ideal contact), which limit the results to qualitative approximations [2]. Recent studies already include the multi-material structure of brake pads. These give indications on how material mixtures must be changed, in order to modify contact temperatures into a certain direction [3].

Brake pad materials in today's commercially marketed vehicles are usually complex phenolic resin based composites with numerous ingredients. Since the abandonment of asbestos fibers, different material classes evolved in Europe (low steel), North America (semimet) and Asia (NAO), which specifically meet the requirements of the respective market [ 1 ]. For these complex materials, no a-priori prediction of friction and wear performance is possible today [ 2 ]. Research over the past decade revealed that friction power and wear debris are interrelated [ 3 ] and that the topography of the friction layer shows a very rich dynamic [ 4 ]. The respective processes can be well described with a family of dynamic friction laws, which is suitable for the description of AK-Master test results [ 5 ], as well as for the understanding of history dependent high frequency effects.