Effect of the Abrasive Size on the Friction Effectiveness and Instability of Brake Friction Materials: A Case Study with Zircon

The friction-induced vibration triggered at the sliding interface between the gray iron disk and brake friction material was studied by changing the size of the zircon particles in the friction material. The friction tests were performed using a reduced brake dynamometer and the friction characteristics of the friction materials containing zircon particles with sizes of 3, 50, and 100 μm were analyzed. Our results show that the properties of the sliding surface were strongly affected by the entrenchment of the abrasive particles in the friction layers during sliding. The friction effectiveness was inversely proportional to the size of the abrasive, while friction instability was pronounced when smaller zircon particles were used. The smaller zircon particles produced larger plateaus on the sliding surface with low contact stiffness. However, the contact plateaus with the low contact stiffness showed higher amplitudes of the friction oscillations, suggesting a surface with low stiffness also can produce high propensity of friction instability during sliding. Based on the friction stability diagram and surface properties, such as contact stiffness and surface roughness, it was suggested that the static coefficient of friction, which was changed as a function of dwell time, was crucial to understand the cause of friction-induced force oscillations and propensity of friction instability of brake friction materials.