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Effect of water spray on friction and wear behaviour of noncommercial and commercial brake pad materials
N.S.M. El-Tayeb , K.W. Liew
Centre of Computer Aided Design and Knowledge Manufacturing (CCADKM), Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, Jalan Ayer Keroh Lama, 75450 Melaka, Malaysia

a r t i c l e
Article history:

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The reduction in the friction coefcient to unacceptable levels for frictional brake pad applications in a rainy and humidly environment is considered as a serious problem as it inuences the safety of the vehicle. Thus, in the present work, particular emphasize were given to the effect of water spray on the level and behaviour of friction and wear characteristics of frictional brake pad (FBP) materials. Four different non-commercial FBP materials (NF1, NF2, NF4, and NF5) were developed and evaluated along with other two chosen commercial FBP materials (CMA and CMB) using a small-scale tribo-tester of pad-on-disc type.

Received 1 June 2007 Received in revised form 18 December 2007 Accepted 25 December 2007

Keywords: Frictional brake pad Water spray Back transfer lms Friction Wear

The results conrmed that in spite of spraying water to the disc, no evidence of HD water lm could be observed. Hence the friction behaviour was inuenced by factors other than HD lm. The values of friction coefcient obtained under wet condition were in the range of dry friction, mixed and boundary lubrication friction. For instant, some values of friction coefcient for NF1 &NF4 were less than 0.05 which was in the range of friction in mixed lubrication. Regardless of the type of brake pad materials, the results indicated that spraying water eliminates the establishment of the transfer layer at the friction interface and suppresses the temperature rise in the disc and so the formation of the char or other reaction products such as oxides. Besides, wear rate of all FBP materials behaved linearly with contact pressure. Qualitative assessment of the SEM morphologies of brake pad surfaces conrmed that tribolms were hardly formed in wet braking. In addition, all brake pad surfaces showed formation of contact plateaus patches and disintegrations of various sizes and locations depending on the braking condition. Furthermore, the removal of material was associated with either mechanical crushing action performed by entrapped wear debris or due to disintegration of plateaus which were accelerated by spraying the water. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Effective performance of frictional brake pad at different levels of braking conditions in wet environment is the main concern of cars drivers. Frictional brake pads (FBPs) in automotive brake system are always the key role of effective and safe braking performance and blames always go to it when

a brake-related problem arises. This is because brake pads are more vulnerable to various braking parameters including pedal pressure, sliding velocity, disc temperature, and environmental conditions, dry or wet. Therefore, frictional brake pad (FBP) material should be designed to maintain a relatively high and stable friction coefcient irrespective of temperature, age, degree of wear, presence of dirt, humidity, and water

Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 6 252 3926; fax: +60 6 231 6552. E-mail addresses: nabil.eltayeb@mmu.edu.my, nabil.eltayeb@yahoo.com, mscalec@yahoo.com (N.S.M. El-Tayeb). 0924-0136/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2007.12.111

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spraying from the road, etc. (Eriksson et al., 2002; Kim and Jang, 2000; El-Tayeb et al., 2006). Even though it is known that brake must operate under a variety of environmental conditions, most standardized and developed tribo tests for brake materials are surprisingly conducted under dry sliding conditions. Publications concerning the effects of wet frictional behaviour are rare in the tribology literature. Wet and dry braking tests tend to be performed on full-vehicle, on road test (eld test) rather than using laboratory-scale test (model test) and in this technique both tire performance and braking system contribute to the results. Additionally, brake manufactures and suppliers often measure the water absorption characteristics of lining materials. Laboratory-scale tribotesting protocols commonly use constant load (or constant torque) and constant speed. Wet and dry behaviour is not a part of recommended procedures such as the Society of Automotive Engineers procedures J 886 (a laboratory-scale, coupon test for determining lining friction), J 2430 (a multi-stage dynamometer test for disc brakes), and SAE J 1802 (a test procedure for drum brake linings) (Blau and McLaughlin, 2003). In our previous work (El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007) there was a clear and substantial effect of water spray on friction coefcient and wear rate of FBPs when tested against GCI rotor disc. A signicant reduction in the friction coefcient to unacceptable levels for FBP applications was observed which in a rainy and humidly environment is considered as a serious problem as it inuences the safety of the vehicle. FBP material should have the capability to produce reasonably high friction even at high sliding speed in a wet environment. A limited number of studies investigating the effect of water spray on the performance of FBP are available in the literature and complete analysis of the key role of water lm at the interface of brake pad/rotor disc is seldom found. Accordingly, the present work intended to investigate the friction and wear behaviour of four non-commercial (containing 10 ingredients) and two commercial brake pad materials. The NCFBP materials were developed from non-asbestos organic-based friction materials for automotive brake systems. A small-scale tribo testing brake pad/rotor disc machine was implemented to conduct the tribo tests at different nominal contact pressures (1.112.22 MPa) and two different sliding speeds (1.3 and 2.1 m/s). The effect of continuous braking under wet conditions on friction and wear characteristics of all commercial and non-commercial FBP materials

tested against gray cast iron (GCI) rotor disc was investigated. A particular emphasis of this investigation was focused on gaining some understanding on the role of water lm at the interface from the lubrication theories stand point and how this affect the process of back transfer tribolms. Results in this work are based on investigation of current formulations of non-commercial FBP materials and results outside these formulations and test parameters may be different.

2.
2.1.

Experimental work
Rotor disc and brake pad materials

Table 1 Chemical composition (vol.%) of grey cast iron Element (vol.%)

C Si Mn S Cr Cu P Mo Ti Fe

Material: grey cast iron

3.03.8 1.82.2 0.20.4 0.04 max. 0.01 0.01 0.07 0.01 0.150.25 Bal.

Brake materials can be classied as organic, metallic and carbon (Anderson, 1992). Metallic brake linings mostly of copper, iron, and sintered bronze are used for very high power input density applications such as high-speed railways and racing cars. Carboncarbon composites are generally used for aircraft and racing car applications where weight is an essential factor. Cast iron, particularly gray cast iron materials are commonly used almost in all automotive frictional brake discs (Blau and McLaughlin, 2003; Anderson, 1992). This is due to its satisfactory wear resistance, excellent damping capacity, high thermal conductivity (stability), and, in particular, relatively easy to cast and machine (Eriksson et al., 2002). Thus rotor disc used in the present investigation was chosen as gray cast iron (GCI) of grade Flocast 4E (El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007). The Chemical compositions of the GCI rotor disc are given in Table 1. Although friction materials have been developed for a century, the formulations used in the most of commercial frictional brake pad materials are usually obtained by trial and error method (Bijwe, 1997) cited in Yafei (2006). Most of commercially available automotive friction materials contain multiple components, usually consists of 525 vol.% of brous ingredients and the type and relative amounts of the bres inuence many features of brake achievement and wear life (Mutlu et al., 2006). In the present work, four different base matrices of non-commercial FBP materials (NF1, NF2, NF4, and NF5) were manufactured for this work, i.e. nonasbestos semi-metallic type materials containing 10 different ingredients. These ingredients comprise bre reinforcement, binder, friction modiers, solid lubricant, abrasive, and ller. Fibres are usually used because of their friction properties, heat resistance, and their thermal conductivity. Besides that bres can impart toughness and strength to the binder. Filler materials are added to improve or optimize the properties. The abrasive zircon (ZrSiO4) is added to control the building up transfer lm on the counter disc and thus increases the friction coefcient. Phenolic resin (binder), which is currently used in most commercial friction materials, is added to hold all ingredients together. The role of natural or synthetic rubber is to improve the exibility of the binder. The relative amount and type of these compositions are given in Table 2. The non-commercial friction materials were manufactured by dry-mixing, pre-forming, hot press molding at 17.2 MPa and 180 C, post-curing, and heat treatment (El-Tayeb and Liew,

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Table 2 The Composition of the non-commercial friction brake pad materials (vol.%). Raw materials NF1
Metal bre: steel bre Friction modiers: brass Cashew dust Solid lubricant: graphite (C) Abrasive: zircon (ZrSiO4 ) Binder (matrix): phenolic resin Rubber (SBR) Organic bre: aramid pulp Fillers, reinforcements: CaCO3 BaSO4 15 6 10 8 3 20 10 8 20

Table 3 Chemical composition of two commercial friction brake pad materials (wt.%) Element NF5
20 6 10 8 3 15 10 8 20 Fe Ba Al Mg Ag Na K Cu Mn Ga Sr Zn Others

Sample code NF2

20 6 10 8 3 15 10 8 20

Material (wt.%) CMA

62.5539 3.4754 0.0506 2.1001 0.5116 0.0885 0.2968 0.0025 0.1057 0.0965 0.0496 30.6688

NF4
15 6 10 8 3 20 10 8 20

CMB
40.2219 6.2559 1.0377 0.6904 0.2149 0.1614 0.4185 0.3152 0.2299 0.1664 0.1464 0.3751 49.7663

2007). All non-commercial friction materials were manufactured at CL Industry Sdn. Bhd. of brake pad manufacturing, Malaysia. Two other commercial FBP materials (CMA and CMB) were chosen for this work. The chemical compositions of these two commercial FBP materials are listed in Table 3.

2.3.

Hardness and compression tests

2.2.

Preparation of specimens

In the present work, specimens of size 9.5 mm 9.5 mm 20 mm were machined from non-commercial brake pad plates of size 250 mm 250 mm 20 mm by MAZAK CNC Milling machine, Fig. 1. The microstructures of the polished cross-section of non-commercial and commercial frictional brake pad materials are shown in Fig. 2.

Surface hardness of both non-commercial and commercial materials was measured using a Shore D hardness tester (Time Group Inc. Shore D Durometer TH210) and Brinell hardness testing machine (Gunt Hamburg Universal Material Tester WP300). Before measuring the hardness, surfaces of the specimens were polished using ne abrasive paper. At least ve replications of hardness test for each specimen were made and the average value was reported in Table 4. Experimental scatter was about 2 HB and 2 SHORE D. The compression tests of brake pad specimens were carried out on a Gunt Hamburg Universal Material Tester WP300. Each specimen of initial cross-sectional area of 190 mm2 was placed between the lower cross-member and

Fig. 1 Frictional brake pad materials (FBPs). (a) Non-commercial brake pad material; (b) commercial brake pad; (c) prepared brake pad specimens; and (d) specimens dimensions.

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Fig. 2 Microstructure of non-commercial and commercial FBP materials: (a) NF1; (b) NF2; (c) NF4; (d) NF5; (e) CMA; and (f) CMB.

the cross-head and the load was applied up to 2050% of the breaking load. Three replications of compression tests were made for each material and the average results are given in Table 4.

2.4.

Friction and wear test procedure

The friction and wear test procedure was described in our previous work (El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007). However a brief description is given here. A small-scale-tribo tester (SSTT) was implemented to conduct continuous sliding friction and wear tests at low and moderate braking conditions, i.e. nominal pressure (up to 2.22 MPa) and speed (up to 2.1 m/s) under wet conditions. A schematic diagram and photo of the SSTT are shown in Fig. 3, respectively. The GCI rotor disc of 135 mm diameter and 10 mm thickness has an initial average surface roughness (Ra ) of 1.263 m and surface hardness of 185.52 6.20 HV30kgf (Vickers Hardness Tester 430/450 SVA, Wilson Wolpert). A single brake pad was tested against the GCI rotor disc at two different sliding velocities (1.3 and 2.1 m/s) and different

nominal contact pressures from 1.11 to 2.22 MPa for 5 min sliding time. Before starting each test, the specimen was rubbed against an abrasive paper of grade 180 to ensure better uniform contact between the specimen and the rotor disc during tribo-test. Frictional force at the sliding interface was measured using strain gauge (previously calibrated) mounted on the load level that hold the specimen and friction coefcient for each applied nominal contact pressure was obtained over the steady state range. Weight loss was determined by measuring the weight difference using 0.1 mg electronic balance (SHIMADZU AW-220). During wet tests, a metal container and a plastic cap surrounded the counterface disc and the specimen (Fig. 3b) were used to collect and drain the water during the experiments. Fresh water was continually sprayed into the interface between the brake pad specimen and the rotor disc. The morphologies of frictional surfaces (worn surfaces) were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (JEOL, JSM 840). Before taking micrographs, the worn surfaces of all the specimens were coated with a thin layer of gold using ion sputtering (model JEOL, JFC-1600).

Table 4 The physical properties of the Noncommercial and Commercial FBP materials (vol.%) Raw materials NF1
Brinell hardness Shore D hardness Density (gm/cm3 ) Ult. comp. stress (MPa) 23.84 1.91 88.30 1.39 2.6821 85.53 16.59

Sample code NF2

21.82 1.60 87.86 1.80 2.6464 68.77 18.92

NF4
20.98 1.62 86.26 1.10 2.4655 56.57 10.50

NF5
19.61 1.05 83.90 0.99 2.5649 57.83 6.38

CMA
24.62 1.98 87.52 2.20 3.3704 65.11 12.05

CMB
14.75 1.40 83.28 0.85 2.0724 67.20 14.82

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Fig. 3 Schematic diagram and photo of small-scale tribo-tester (SSTT). (a) Continuous contact position and (b) wet braking test set-up.

3.

Results and discussion

The NF4 and NF5 showed lower compression strength and hardness compared to NF1 and NF2. The composition of NF1 and NF2 contained 10% aramid pulp and 0% rubber. On the other hand NF4 and NF5 contained 0% aramid pulp and 10% rubber (SBR). It is known from the literature (Yafei, 2006) that aramid pulp enhances the mechanical strength of FBP materials and reduces the thermal conductivity. This may be the reason why NF1 and NF2 gave higher compression strength and hardness. Phenolic resin is invariably used as binder in friction materials due to good combination of mechanical properties such as high hardness, compressive strength, moderate thermal resistance, creep resistance and very good wetting capability with most of the ingredients (Gurunath and Bijwe, 2007; Kim et al., 2008). The high hardness of the phenolic resin is attributed to the increase in the hardness during curing process (Kim et al., 2008). It is clear that from the results (Fig. 4) higher properties of hardness and compression are associated with FBP materials possessing higher vol.% of phenolic resin.

3.1.

Friction results

In literature, general trends show that the friction and wear performance do not go together. If friction behaviour is good, wear performance is poor and vice versa (Gurunath and Bijwe, 2007). Dry friction and wear rate of non-commercial and commercial FBP materials tested against GCI rotor disc at different nominal contact pressure and different sliding veloc-

ities were reported in our previous work (El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007). All non-commercial FBP materials, as well as, CMB showed insignicant difference in the coefcient of friction (COF) under dry sliding condition, indicating that the COF was insensitive to the type of FBP materials and this was attributed to the formation of back transfer lms. Only CMA has substantially lower COF than the other. Furthermore, the friction coefcient showed a slight increase with increasing either nominal contact pressure or sliding velocity. Fig. 5 shows a comparison between dry and wet friction coefcients at 1.11 and 2.22 MPa for two different sliding speeds (1.3 and 2.1 m/s) for both non-commercial and commercial FBP materials. Comparing the results of wet braking tests for friction coefcient (Fig. 5), one can see clearly that a signicant reduction in the friction coefcient at high-speed (2.1 m/s) to unacceptable levels for FBP applications. According to Shorowordi et al. (2004) the industry standard range of friction coefcient fall within the range of 0.300.45 for automotive brake system. Under wet condition the range of COF (shown in Fig. 5) is 0.050.16. In a rainy and humidly environment this is considered as a serious problem as it inuences the safety of the vehicle. FBP material should have the capability to produce reasonably high friction even at high sliding speed in a wet environment. It should be also noted that the wet results (Fig. 5) showed large variation in the COF between the different types of FBP materials tested under identical conditions. Apparently, water lm did not only cool the interface and suppresses the back transfer lm but it also brings another effect to the picture which is the type of FBP materials. To explain the effect of the water, three modes of lubrication should be dened in connection with the wet results

Fig. 4 Hardness and compression properties of FBP materials.

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Fig. 5 Comparison between dry and wet friction coefcients of FBP materials tested at (a) 1.11 MPa and 2.22 MPa at 1.3 m/s (b) 1.11 MPa and 2.22 MPa at 2.1 m/s.

including hydrodynamic (HDL), mixed lubrication (ML), and boundary lubrication (BL). In hydrodynamic lubrication (HDL), a thick lm which is many times thicker (5500 m) than the height of the irregularities on the sliding surfaces prevents solidsolid contact and provides a very low friction coefcient ( = 0.0010.003) and negligible wear (Bhushan, 2002). In addition, this COF increases slightly with sliding speed because of viscous drag. The thick lm is maintained between the two rubbing surfaces and creates a sufcient pressure to support the external applied load. Thus by introducing water to the rubbing surfaces, the behaviour of the contact should be governed by the bulk physical properties of the water, notably viscosity, and the frictional characteristics should arise purely from the viscous shearing of the water lm. In mixed lubrication mode, there may be more frequent solid contacts but at least a portion of the sliding surface remains supported partially by HD lm. The solid contacts could lead to a cycle of adhesion, metal transfer; wear partial formation, and eventual seizure. Mixed lubrication is also referred to as quasi-HD, partial uid or thin-lm (typically 0.0252.5 m) and the friction coefcient in this mode lies in the range of (0.003 < < 0.1). The third mode is the boundary lubrication, in which the solid surfaces are so close to each other that surfaces interaction between mono or multi molecular lms of lubricants and the solid asperities dominate the sliding behaviour and the friction coefcient in this mode of lubrication is about 0.1. When the water spray was introduced to the sliding interface, very low friction coefcient was observed at both sliding speeds, i.e. the friction coefcient was in the range of (0.120.27) at 1.3 m/s and (0.020.2) at 2.1 m/s for brake pad samples (Fig. 5a and b). In particular, NF1 and NF5 showed

friction coefcient of (0.020.05) at 2.1 m/s which was close to the range of friction in mixed lubrication. Initially, it was expected that introducing water during the tests not only remove most of the heat that generated during dry tests (ElTayeb and Liew, 2007) but also develop HD water lm and prevent solid-solid contact. However, general observation of the friction coefcient values obtained for brake pads under wet conditions reveals that the friction coefcients are still within the range of dry sliding friction (0.120.27 at 1.3 m/s and 0.020.2 at 2.1 m/s) and not in the range of hydrodynamic friction (0.0010.003). This is an interesting result since it suggests that the hydrodynamic speculation has to be reconsidered and an explanation why friction coefcient under wet braking conditions still in the order of dry sliding. It appears that within the speed range tested, the pressure generated in the water lm was not enough to build up a thick water lm in order to support the applied normal load and prevent solidsolid contact. As a consequence, the rubbing process was dominated by the physical properties of the direct contact of solid asperities which occurred frequently and partially by very thin water lm (mixed lubrication). The SEM micrographs of brake pad surfaces tested under wet braking conditions (Fig. 6ac) depict some grooves produced by entrapped wear particles between rotor disc and brake pad surface which evidences the direct contact of solid asperities, marked with c. Also, it should be noted that in the present results (Fig. 5a and b), lower friction coefcient is associated with higher speed. This is in contrast to hydrodynamic theory in which higher speed means more uid is dragged into the interface leading to relatively higher friction. Actually, lower speed may bring some asperities into contact to support external load especially at low uid

Fig. 6 SEM micrographs showing evidences of direct contact of solid asperities producing grooves during wet braking tests.

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Fig. 7 SEM micrographs showing clean and smooth rubbing surfaces with no debris produced during wet braking tests.

pressure and these are the trapped asperities that caused the grooves in the brake pad surface shown in Fig. 6ac. In addition to this, the observed low values of friction coefcients for NF1, NF4, and NF5 suggest the involvement of both mixed and boundary lubrication modes. In summary, the results of wet friction coefcients conrmed that the friction behaviour were inuenced by factors other than HD lm, and the values of friction coefcient were in the range of dry friction, mixed and boundary lubrication friction. If our hypothesis is true, then more research should be dedicated to further the understanding of the mixed and boundary lubrication mechanisms in wet braking applications. The SEM micrographs of rubbing surfaces of brake pad samples tested under wet conditions (Fig. 7a and b) show also strong evidences of a continuous washing and removal of the debris from the interface (i.e. cleaning) besides no transfer lms as observed in the dry braking micrographs, (El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007). Accordingly, there was always fresh brake pad surface exposed to rotor disc as shown in Fig. 7a and b. These of course affect the friction and wear quantitatively and qualitatively as indicated in the results, Fig. 5. It should be emphasized that this process also suppresses the formation of transfer lm and leads to more frequent solid contacts, i.e. as in mixed lubrication mode where asperities can highly contribute to the sliding behaviour. Blau and McLaughlin (2003)

reported that the formation of friction lms was suppressed by water, and that in turn led to a friction spike just prior to the cessation of relative motion. In another work by Eriksson et al. (2001) concerning the effects of relative humidity on friction and brake squeal, the tribolms were more easily formed in dry environments than in wet. Thus growing evidences (Blau and McLaughlin, 2003; El-Tayeb and Liew, 2007; Eriksson et al., 2001) including the present work suggest that water can eliminate the formation of friction-induced lms which of course affect the stability of tribo braking behaviour. However, it should be also emphasized that the removal of the debris from the interface and suppressing the transfer lm formation by spraying water (Figs. 6ac and 7a and b) are not the only aspects of determining the tribo behaviour at wet interface, but changing of lubrication mode from one to another is also a key role of determining this tribo process, which remains for further studies.

3.2.

Wear results

Figs. 8 and 9 show the wear rate for all FBP materials tested under dry and wet continuous braking against GCI disc in which wear rate increases with increasing nominal pressure and this trend is more pronounced under wet condition. From the comparison of Figs. 8 and 9, one can see that the wear

Fig. 8 Typical variation of wear rate versus nominal contact pressure for FBP materials tested under dry braking conditions at 1.3 and 2.1 m/s.

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Fig. 9 Typical variation of wear rate versus nominal contact pressure for FBP materials tested under wet braking conditions at 1.3 and 2.1 m/s.

rate of all FBP materials is almost linear with contact pressure under wet condition. This interesting feature is probably associated with continuous washing the debris from the interface and suppressing the formation of friction lm by the effect of spraying water. The work introduced by Blau and McLaughlin (2003) concluded that the formation of friction lm is dominated in dry braking while under wet sliding this friction lm is suppressed by the water. Also from the results it appears that the wear rate is determined by the type or ingredient of the FBP materials. For instant, highest wear rates were observed for NF5 and CMB at 1.3 and 2.1 m/s

respectively. Meanwhile, NF1 consistently showed the best wear performance at both speeds suggesting this type of FBP sample has longer life under wet condition. But in terms of friction, it showed the poorest performance (Fig. 5) which in contrast to the reported results by Cho et al. (2005). According to Cho et al. (2005) friction coefcient and wear resistance should increase with increasing the phenolic resin content. On the other hand, improvement in the wear resistance of FBP materials was associated with higher contents of phenolic as reported in Cho et al. (2005). Apparently, in the current work, the observed behaviour of NF1 is related to the higher

Fig. 10 SEM micrographs showing rubbing surfaces of brake pad samples tested under wet braking conditions (ac) disintegration of patches (plateaus) and (d) debonded bres.

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Fig. 11 Schematic illustration of agglomeration and adherence of debris around the steel bres (a) transfer lm formation and debris accumulation and (b) instant removal of wear debris and elimination the transfer lms.

contents of Aramid pulp and phenolic resin compared to other FBP materials. Qualitative assessment performed by SEM indicated that removal of material was associated with either mechanical crushing action performed by entrapped wear debris (Fig. 6ac) or due to disintegration of plateaus which are accelerated by spraying the water, Fig. 10ac. The formation of the plateaus depends on pressure and its associated contact temperature, shear strength of the plateaus, and some other sliding contact conditions such as dry or wet contact. Under wet braking condition (Fig. 9) the increase of wear rate with increasing the nominal contact pressure was more pronounced compared to dry results (Fig. 8). In addition scattering of the data was larger compared to wet results. This is most probably attributed to the removal of wear debris from the interface by water. Also, the absence of debris agglomeration and transfer lm formation contribute partially. Additionally, under certain circumstances, when the protective bre or particles worn away, the contact plateaus are disintegrated. The tendency of debris to adhere and stick around the bres to form patches or plateaus may be explained with the aid of a model shown schematically in Fig. 11. It should be realized that accumulation of wear debris and formation of transfer lm during dry sliding (Fig. 11a) can give support to the steel bres at the sliding interface. But when the water was sprayed into the interface, the generated wear particles were instantly removed (washed out) and the

transfer lm formation was eliminated as illustrated schematically in Fig. 11b, and evidenced by the SEM morphologies in Figs. 7 and 10ac. Removal of material under wet condition may be enhanced by debonding some of the steel bres and becoming loose due to absence of accumulated debris as it can be seen in the micrographs of the worn surface, Fig. 10d. Thus there was always a fresh clean surface of the brake pad specimen that experienced to wear. This, in other words, means that the tribolms are easily formed in dry environment and hardly formed in wet environment. Another feature on the worn surfaces was observed during the wet tests. The presence of the cavities or craters due to disintegration (Fig. 10ac) that scattered over the brake pad surface is likely contributed differently during dry and wet sliding. During dry braking tests they act as debris collectors (see for example Fig. 12a and b). On the other hand, during wet tests the situation is different; the process of lling in the cavities with debris is disappeared. Instead, the cavities act as pockets of water to minimize the effect of heat, remove the loose debris from the interface and from the cavities and pumping the water in and out the cavities to enforce some debris to become loose. For instant, Fig. 10b and c show that some patches were about to disintegrate from the surface (marked with d) whereas Fig. 10d shows a large plateau was already disintegrated (marked with p). All these aspects contributed to the material removal during wet braking.

Fig. 12 SEM micrographs showing the process of lling in cavities with debris during dry braking.

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4.

Conclusions

references

The friction coefcient and wear rate characteristics under wet braking condition for four different non-commercial and two commercial frictional brake pad (FBP) materials were determined and the conclusions are summarized as follows: (1) A dramatic reduction in the friction coefcient to unacceptable levels for brake pads applications was evident but the values were still within the range of dry sliding friction and not in the range of hydrodynamic friction. NF1 and NF4 brake pad showed low values of friction coefcient (0.020.05) at 2.1 m/s which was in the range of friction in mixed lubrication. Introducing water to the disc did not only cool the interface and suppresses the back transfer lm but it also showed a nearly linear relationship between wear rate and contact pressure for all FBP materials. (2) The SEM micrographs showed that spraying water resulted in always a fresh surface of the brake pad specimen experienced to wear due to a continuous washing, and removal of the debris from the interface. Besides, washing out debris and suppressing the transfer lm formation at the interface, by spraying water, were not the only aspects of determining the tribo behaviour of FBP at the wet interface, but the changing of lubrication from one mode to another is also a key role of determining this tribo process. The presence of the cavities or craters due to plateaus disintegration contributed differently during dry and wet braking. During dry braking these cavities collected in debris but during wet braking, they acted as pockets of water to minimize the effect of heat, pumping the water in and out to accelerate removal of debris from the cavities. (3) In summary, the wet friction and wear results revealed that regardless the wear rate, the highest friction coefcient was consistently exhibited by NF2 at all pressure and speeds whereas the lowest wet friction coefcient was obtained by NF1. Meanwhile, NF1 showed the best wear performance among all the brake pads tested. Finally FBPs materials performed well during dry is not necessarily to perform well during wet and vice versa.

Acknowledgment
This work was supported by grant No. PR/2005/0450 from CRPP, MMU, Internal Funding Research Program (IFRP).

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