Automotive disc brake squeal

The gradual phasing-out of asbestos in automotive brake friction materials in many parts of the world has sparked the onset of extensive research and development into safer alternatives. As a result, the brake friction industry has seen the birth of different brake pads and shoes in the past decade, each with their own unique composition, yet performing the very same task and claiming to be better than others. This suggests that the selection of brake friction materials is based more on tradition and experimental trial and error rather than fundamental understanding. This review strives to eliminate the cloud of uncertainty by providing an insight into the pros and cons of the common ingredients and make-up used in contemporary dry and wet friction pads and shoes. In this paper typical brake materials are reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages in contemporary brake applications are discussed.

Review of automotive brake friction materials

This article presents an overview of the acoustics of friction by covering friction sounds, friction-induced vibrations and waves in solids, and descriptions of other frictional phenomena related to acoustics. Friction, resulting from the sliding contact of solids, often gives rise to diverse forms of waves and oscillations within solids which frequently lead to radiation of sound to the surrounding media. Among the many everyday examples of friction sounds, violin music and brake noise in automobiles represent the two extremes in terms of the sounds they produce and the mechanisms by which they are generated. Of the multiple examples of friction sounds in nature, insect sounds are prominent. Friction also provides a means by which energy dissipation takes place at the interface of solids. Friction damping that develops between surfaces, such as joints and connections, in some cases requires only microscopic motion to dissipate energy. Modeling of friction-induced vibrations and friction damping in mechanical systems requires an accurate description of friction for which only approximations exist. While many of the components that contribute to friction can be modeled, computational requirements become prohibitive for their contemporaneous calculation. Furthermore, quantification of friction at the atomic scale still remains elusive. At the atomic scale, friction becomes a mechanism that converts the kinetic energy associated with the relative motion of surfaces to thermal energy. However, the description of the conversion to thermal energy represented by a disordered state of oscillations of atoms in a solid is still not well understood. At the macroscopic level, friction interacts with the vibrations and waves that it causes. Such interaction sets up a feedback between the friction force and waves at the surfaces, thereby making friction and surface motion interdependent. Such interdependence forms the basis for friction-induced motion as in the case of ultrasonic motors and other examples. Last, when considered phenomenologically, friction and boundary layer turbulence exhibit analogous properties and, when compared, each may provide clues to a better understanding of the other.

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Acoustics of friction.

Particle size and composition distribution analysis of automotive brake abrasion dusts for the evaluation of antimony sources of airborne particulate matter

It is realized that the addition of a small percentage of rigid nanoparticles to polymers significantly improves many of their mechanical properties, especially stiffness and strength. Such improvements are often attributed to the availability of large numbers of nanoparticles with huge interfacial areas compared to their macro- and micro-scale counterparts. In particular, from the tribological viewpoint, the small size of nanoparticles with homogenous dispersion in the matrix and good interfacial adhesion between nanoparticles and matrix are thought to be necessary requirements for a polymer nanocomposite. Material removal will be less since the nano-additives have similar sizes to the segments of surrounding polymer chains. Despite these positive effects due to the addition of nanoparticles, there are still some critical questions that are unanswered. Here, we review the fundamentals, recent progress and advances that have been made on the tribological aspects of polymer nanocomposites, particularly focusing on their wear (in dry sliding and unlubricated conditions) and scratch damage. The review shows that (a) it is not valid to assume that nano-fillers always improve wear/scratch (and friction) properties; and (b) material properties like modulus, hardness, fracture toughness or extent of wear rate or scratch penetration depth are not the sole indicators to compare and/or rank candidate materials. Several facets of wear/scratching or material response to the sliding processes require thorough understanding in order to determine parameters that control the surface integrity and material removal from polymer nanocomposites. This review also shows the apparent contradictions and false impressions on several material systems in many studies owing to poor characterizations of polymer nanocomposites and lack of quantitative descriptions of the observed phenomena.

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Fundamental aspects and recent progress on wear/scratch damage in polymer nanocomposites

The effect of metal fibers on the friction performance of automotive brake friction materials

Compositional effects of the brake friction material on creep groan phenomena

Tribological study of gray cast iron with automotive brake linings: The effect of rotor microstructure

The size effect of zircon particles on the friction characteristics of brake lining materials

The finite element method is used to reduce the problem of thermoelastic instability (TEI) for a brake disk to an eigenvalue problem for the critical speed. Conditioning of the eigenvalue problem is improved by performing a preliminary Fourier decomposition of the resulting matrices. Results are also obtained for two-dimensional layer and three-dimensional strip geometries, to explore the effects of increasing geometric complexity on the critical speeds and the associated mode shapes. The hot spots are generally focal in shape for the three-dimensional models, though modes with several reversals through the width start to become dominant at small axial wavenumbers n, including a thermal banding mode corresponding to n = 0. The dominant wavelength (hot spot spacing) and critical speed are not greatly affected by the three-dimensional effects, being well predicted by the two-dimensional analysis except for banding modes. Also, the most significant deviation from the two-dimensional analysis can be approximated as a monotonic interpolation between the two-dimensional critical speeds for plane stress and plane strain as the width of the sliding surface is increased. This suggests that adequate algorithms for design against TEI could be developed based on the simpler two-dimensional analysis.

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J. W. Fash

Papers

The effect of metal fibers on the friction performance of automotive brake friction materials

Compositional effects of the brake friction material on creep groan phenomena

Tribological study of gray cast iron with automotive brake linings: The effect of rotor microstructure

The size effect of zircon particles on the friction characteristics of brake lining materials

Effect of Geometry on Thermoelastic Instability in Disk Brakes and Clutches