Friction and wear behavior of carbon fiber reinforced brake materials

A new composite brake material was fabricated with metallic powders, barium sulphate and modified phenolic resin as the matrix and carbon fiber as the reinforced material. The friction, wear and fade characteristics of this composite were determined using a D-MS friction material testing machine. The surface structure of carbon fiber reinforced friction materials was analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Glass fiberreinforced and asbestos fiber-reinforced composites with the same matrix were also fabricated for comparison. The carbon fiber-reinforced friction materials (CFRFM) shows lower wear rate than those of glass fiber- and asbestos fiber-reinforced composites in the temperature range of 100°C-300°C. It is interesting that the frictional coefficient of the carbon fiber-reinforced friction materials increases as frictional temperature increases from 100°C to 300°C, while the frictional coefficients of the other two composites decrease during the increasing temperatures. Based on the SEM observation, the wear mechanism of CFRFM at low temperatures included fiber thinning and pull-out. At high temperature, the phenolic matrix was degraded and more pull-out enhanced fiber was demonstrated. The properties of carbon fiber may be the main reason that the CFRFM possess excellent tribological performances.