Modelling the Sliding Behaviour of Tribofilms Forming During Automotive Braking: Impact of Loading Parameters and Property Range of Constituents

The impact of pressure, sliding velocity and property variation of constituents on the sliding behaviour of a model tribofilm was studied with the method of movable cellular automata (MCA). Whereas a clear pressure dependency of the coefficient of friction (COF) was always observed and could be correlated with the structure formation in terms of varying thickness of a mechanically mixed layer, the impact of the other parameters was either negligible or rather weak. Only if a brittle-to-ductile transition of the oxide-based tribofilm was assumed, a significant decrease in the COF level was predicted. Temperature-dependent property changes can be neglected during MCA modelling, unless this transition takes place. For magnetite-based tribofilms, the transition temperature is beyond 800°C, i.e. a temperature leading to fading effects during braking anyway. Thus, it could be concluded that, except for very severe braking conditions, sliding simulations with the MCA method yield meaningful results without considering temperature-dependent mechanical properties.