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Influence of various metallic fillers in friction

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 Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Wear
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear

Influence of various metallic fillers in friction materials on hot-spot appearance

during stop braking
Mukesh Kumar a , Xavier Boidin b,c,d , Yannick Desplanques b,c,d , Jayashree Bijwe a,∗
a
Industrial Tribology Machine Dynamics and Maintenance Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, HauzKhas, New Delhi 110 016, India
b
Univ Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France
c
ECLille, LML, F-59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
d
CNRS, UMR 8107, F-59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The heat generated between friction couple during high speed braking induces thermal distortion in
Received 9 May 2010 the disc and leads to appearance of hot spots. The nature and extent of intensity of this phenomenon
Received in revised form are highly influenced by the mechanical and thermal properties of materials. In the present work, three
24 November 2010
non-asbestos organic (NAO) friction composites with three metallic particulate fillers (iron, copper and
Accepted 29 November 2010
brass) were developed. They were evaluated on a specially designed tribometer for enabling the studies
Available online 4 December 2010
of hot spots and thermal localization phenomenon under braking conditions. Overall, composite with
iron powder proved best by showing least tendency for hot-spot generation.
Keywords:
Brakes and clutch © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Thermal effects
Hot-bands
Hot-spots
Metallic particulates

1. Introduction
NAO fiber-reinforced low-metallic composites are increasingly
being used in automotive brake pads, shoes, linings, blocks, clutch
facings, etc. and are essentially multi ingredient systems in order
to achieve the desired amalgam of performance properties [1–3].
During the braking action kinetic energy of the moving vehicle con-
verts into heat and dissipates primarily by thermal conduction to
the contacting components of the brake followed by convection
and radiation to the atmosphere and surrounding. At high speeds
the appearance of hot bands and hot spots can be observed on
the disc surface. Due to an unavoidable irregular distribution of
pressure and speed along the disc radius, dissipated power gra-
dients appear widthwise, leading to the formation of hot bands.
Their radial migrations are driven by a coupling between thermal
expansion effect and local increase of wear debris flow. At higher
dissipated energy, hot spots form in hot bands. Anderson and Knapp
[4] first proposed hot spots phenomenon in automotive brake sys-
tems. Four types of hot spots were defined according to their width,
temperature and duration. These were characterized as: asperity,
focal, distortional, and regional. Later on more in-depth studies on
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 11 2659 1280; fax: +91 11 2659 1280.
E-mail address: jbijwe@gmail.com (J. Bijwe).
hot spots were done by Panier et al. [5–7]. The origin of hot spots
lies in the progressive waviness distortion of the disc, leading to the
alternate formation of bumps and hollows on the disc-track circum-
ference. The pad-disc contact being localized on bumps, hot spots
are formed in the hot band and localize on the bumps of the track,
leading to the formation of circumferential thermal gradients in
the hot band. Such hot spots are mostly periodically distributed in
the disc’s circumference. Occurrence of hot spots leads to following
effects:
• Thermal crazing, cracks and fatigue, especially of the disc braking
[4,8].
• Cycling of tensile and compressive stresses with plastic strain
variation [9].
• Undesirable low frequency vibrations called hot judder [10,11].
• Brake torque variation (BTV) and brake pressure variation (BPV)
[12].
During past decade, most of the work on hot spots has been
reported particularly for railways [4–7,13,14]. It is well accepted
that hot spots phenomenon is highly influenced by the thermo-
physical properties (specific heat, thermal conductivity (TC),
diffusivity, thermal effusivity, etc.) of a tribo-pair (disc and pad).
These properties are expected to play vital role in performance of
brake pads, especially when braking is severe. However, hardly any

0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2010.11.009
372 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

Table 1 Table 2
Physical properties of selected metallic ingredients [27]. Physical and mechanical properties of the selected composites [27].

Properties Iron powder Brass Copper Parameters NM BP CP IP

powder powder 3
Density (g/cm ) 2.14 2.30 2.31 2.29
Diameter (␮m) 87–225 650–850 280–430 Porosity (%) (JIS D 4418:1996) 4.05 4.33 4.30 4.10
Density (kg/m3 )a 7864 8520 8940 Acetone extraction (%) 1.34 1.38 1.18 1.28
Thermal conductivity (W/(m K))a 62 111 396 Tensile strength (MPa) 12.14 12.37 12.65 14.56
a
Young’s modulus (GPa) 2.19 2.28 2.30 2.46
Data from literature.
Flexural strength (MPa) 27.38 24.15 23.89 30.43
Flexural modulus (GPa) 5.05 4.33 4.80 5.70
literature on this aspect is available. Metallic filler and their amount Rockwell hardness (R-scale) 90–95 78–88 90–95 85–95
Compressibility (%) 0.68 1.07 1.02 1.26
are important in friction materials since they control the TC of com-
Thermal Conductivity (W m−1 K−1 ) 1.55 2.22 2.41 2.11
posites apart from additional functions such as friction, wear and Thermal diffusivity (×10−4 cm2 s−1 ) 61 80 97 71
strength. A little is reported on the role of metallic contents in NAO Specific heat (J kg−1 K−1 ) 1187 1207 1076 1298
friction materials from friction and wear point of view [15–19]. Effusivity (J m−2 K−1 s−1/2 ) 1985 2482 2447 2504
However, influence of different types of metallic fillers on TC of
friction composites and their sensitivity to hot spots occurrence
is not reported so far. In the present work three NAO composites and feeder speed 1450 rpm. The addition of ingredients during mix-
were developed by varying three different metallic powdery ingre- ing was in a particular sequence [17]. The mixing schedule was of
dients viz. iron, copper and brass. One composite was developed 18 min duration. The mixture was then placed into a four-cavity
without any metal ingredient for comparative purpose. These were mould supported by adhesive-coated back plates. Each cavity was
characterized for physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical prop- filled with approximately 8 × 10−2 kg of the mixture and heat cured
erties. These were further studied on specially designed tribometer in a compression-moulding machine under a pressure of 8 MPa
to investigate the sensitivity of friction composites towards ther- for 7–8 min at a curing temperature of 150 ◦ C. Three intermittent
mal localization (TL) phenomenon and hot spots (HS) occurrence. ‘breathings’ were also allowed during the initiation of curing to
All the results are described in present article. expel volatiles. The pads were then removed and were post-cured
in an oven at 70 ◦ C, 120 ◦ C and 150 ◦ C for 1 h, 1 h and 6 h respec-
2. Material and methodology tively [17,19]. The surfaces of the pads were then polished with a
grinding wheel to attain the desired thickness and surface finish.
2.1. Procurement and characterization of raw materials
2.3. Characterization of the composites
Powder of iron, brass and copper were procured from local ven-
dor. Fig. 1 (SEM micrographs) shows the morphology of selected For mechanical strength testing (flexural and tensile), test
metallic ingredients. Table 1 comprises the measured particles size bars were fabricated as per ASTM standards. Composites were
data and other physical properties for selected metal ingredients. characterized for physical, chemical and mechanical properties.
Thermo-physical properties were measured on thermal diffusiv-
2.2. Fabrication of the composites ity analyzer (FL-3000), supplied by Anter Corporation USA. Details
of measurement procedure of these properties are discussed else-
The fabrication of composites containing 12 ingredients was where [19]. Hardness was measured by a Rockwell hardness tester
based on keeping parent composition of 11 ingredients (90% by wt.) on R scale. Compressibility was measured as per standard (ISO
constant and varying the rest (10% by wt.) with selected metallic 6310). All the results are shown in Table 2.
filler (brass, copper and iron powder). Parent composition con-
tains binder 10%, fibers 25%, friction modifiers 12% and rest fillers 3. Experiments
43%. One composite was developed without any metal ingredi-
ent and the amount of 10% was compensated with the space filler 3.1. Experimental set-up
barite. The four composites are designated by BP (Brass Powder),
CP (Copper Powder), IP (Iron Powder) and NM (No Metal). The The thermal localization tests were conducted using a spe-
ingredients were mixed in a plough type shear mixer to ensure cially designed tribometer developed to reproduce railway-type
the macroscopic homogeneity using a chopper speed of 2800 rpm stop-braking and is discussed elsewhere [13,14]. A photograph of

Fig. 1. SEM micrographs of selected metallic fillers [27].

 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381
Fig. 2. Braking tribometer: (a) test bench; (b) test chamber, pad and disc.
braking tribometer is shown in Fig. 2. An infrared camera was used
during the tests to monitor the evolution of HS and TL on the disc-
rubbing surface. One eighth of the disc-track was observed through
the test-chamber window. Acquisition frequency was of 176 Hz,
corresponding to one shot every 80◦ at 2400 rpm, which was the
maximum speed used in this study. A very short integration time
of 35 ␮s reduced the impact on thermogram of the disc rotation
during the shot (0.5◦ at 2400 rpm). In addition, an optical pyrom-
eter focused on the mean radius of the disc-track (spot diameter
of 2.2 mm). Its long response time (2 ms) implies a large rotation
of the disc during each measurement. Then, circumferential gra-
dients of TL are not detectable and the pyrometer only gives an
evaluation of a “mean” value of thermal radiation of the disc-track.
Measuring surface temperature with infrared device requires the
complete data on disc-track emissivity, which exactly could not
be determined. It varies with both time and space during braking,
especially due to disc oxidation and third-body flowing on the track
during friction [20]. The results hence are presented in terms of
luminance temperature. The disc surface is considered as a black-
body (emissivity equal to 1) and only a rough value of the surface
temperature is obtained. Nevertheless, luminance temperature is
useful to compare results and to analyze surface thermal gradients.
3.2. Preparation of test specimens
Brake pad was cut as shown in Fig. 3 and ground to have the flat
surface with final thickness of 14 mm and a width of 16 mm. The
composite was inserted with a thermocouple at 2 mm away from
the contact surface.
A fresh grey cast iron disc with 100 mm diameter was used for
each composites material. The disc has friction track of 17 mm wide
and 22 mm thick. All the discs were polished with abrasive papers
with decreasing roughness (grades 80, 180 and 320) to get fine pol-
Fig. 3. Shape and dimensions of the specimen (pad).
373
ishing. Metrology of the disc was done to locate hollows and bumps
on the disc surface. The circumferential flatness of the track was
reduced below 15 ␮m. Each disc was inserted with four thermo-
couples, two of them were at 2 mm and 5 mm distances from the
contact surface at bump and rest two at 2 mm and 5 mm distances
from the contact surface at hollow.
3.3. Test procedure
In order to study the influence of dissipated energy and power
on HS and TL phenomenon, series of stop braking tests were imple-
mented taking account of a progressive increase of braking severity.
It consists of 15 stop-brakings with gradual increase of initial rota-
tion speed from 1000 to 2400 rpm, with rotor inertia of 4 kg m2 . The
same normal load was kept constant during the whole test proce-
dure and a cooling time was observed before each stop braking
to ensure low initial temperature. In terms of densities of energy
and power absorbed by the disc, these testing conditions are to be
related to a real disc brake system of a 3.5-ton commercial vehi-
cle, from medium (braking at 60 kmph) to very severe (braking
at 150 kmph) stop-braking conditions. Environmental conditions,
such as room temperature and humidity, were fairly the same dur-
ing the tests. Data acquisition was performed at a frequency of
1 kHz. Table 3 gives the details of test parameters for present study.
A succession of 80 bedding stop-brakings was performed to ensure
an initial apparent area of pad-disc contact of more than 90% of the
pad surface.
4. Results
4.1. Friction coefficient
Friction coefficient () versus braking time is shown in Fig. 4
for all the four composites for brakings at 1000 and 1500 rpm,
which represent the braking series. The friction coefficient was
determined using load components measured with a 3D piezo-
electric sensor. At 1000 rpm, dissipated energy is low, leading to
a short braking duration. For each braking of the test series, friction
behavior is quite similar. During the few first seconds, more fluc-
Table 3
Stop-braking test series parameters.
Initial rotational speed 1000–2400 rpm, by step of 100 rpm
Mean contact pressure 0.87 MPa
Spindle inertia 4 kg m2
Stop-braking dissipated energy 21.9–126 kJ
Initial disc temperature ≤70 ◦ C (1st braking ambient)
374 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

Fig. 4. Friction coefficient versus time (all composites; stop braking at 1000 and 1500 rpm).

tuations in  were observed, however, during a longer period the
 stabilizes around the same range of mean value (0.35–0.4) for
all materials. The final stage is marked by a final rise at low speed,
except for composite CP, which presents the most stable friction
behavior among four composites. Braking duration is almost same
for all the materials, close to 12 s for braking at 1000 rpm and 20 s for
braking at 1500 rpm. For each braking, the value of  and dissipated
powers were very close for all the composites.
4.2. Thermal behavior
peratures were measured by thermocouples, embedded in a bump
(red and green curves) and in a hollow (black and blue curves) of
the track, respectively at 2 and 5 mm below the rubbing surface.
In addition, the luminance temperature of the disc-track was mea-
sured by optical pyrometry on the mean radius. The peak of the
luminance temperature observed during the first half of the brak-
ing duration corresponded to the hot-band radial migration. When
the braking initiated, hot band formed on the outer perimeter was
not observed by the optical pyrometer and the luminance tempera-
ture was low. While the band migrated, the luminance temperature

For each composite, TL phenomena were rather similar. At low

dissipated power and energy, TL consists of the formation of a hot
band at the beginning of brakings, on the outer perimeter of the disc
track, followed by its radial migration towards the inner side of the
disc. At higher energy, the braking severity leads to the appearance
of thermal gradients inside the hot band, leading to the forma-
tion of hot spots for the last brakings of the test series. Since the
data produced were large and the patterns for all the composites
were similar, presentation of all the data would be repetitive. Hence
results for only composite IP, which would represent all materials,
are presented here. Results for other three composites are shown
in Appendix A. Results presented below refer to the stop brak-
ing at 1900 rpm, which were especially important from TL point
of view because these correspond to the first appearance of hot
spots in the braking series for composite IP. Fig. 5 shows pad and
disc bulk temperatures versus time measured on the mean radius
Fig. 5. Pad and disc bulk temperatures versus time compared to disc-track lumi-
of the rubbing surfaces. A thermocouple was located at the center nance temperature measured by optical pyrometer (composite IP; stop braking at
of the pad friction surface at 2 mm in deep, while disc-bulk tem- 1900 rpm).
 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381 375

Fig. 6. Thermal localization phenomena observed by infrared thermography during stop braking: (a–d) hot-band migration, (d–h) hot-spot formation and expansion, and
(h and i) surface-temperature homogenization (composite IP; stop braking at 1900 rpm).

increased, reached a maximum value a little before 5 s when the using eight successive infrared images. For composite IP five hot
band passes through the view of pyrometer on the mean radius. spots were observed during braking and were located on the inner
After 5 s of braking, the luminance temperature started to decrease periphery of the disc track. Since the disc flatness was not per-
till to the end of the braking. In accordance, bulk temperatures fect, hot spots were not regularly distributed and were varying in
rose from the beginning of the braking, reached their maximum
value later than the luminance temperature, considering the delay
induced by thermal conduction. Logically, the low pad conductivity
leads to low bulk temperature, and disc temperatures at 5 mm are
lower than disc temperatures at 2 mm. It has to be noted that the
low value of the disc-surface luminance temperature compared to
disc-bulk temperatures measured by thermocouples, especially at
the beginning of braking when the disc temperature is homoge-
neous. That confirms the “grey body” nature of the disc-rubbing
surface. It is clear that surface temperatures of the disc remain
higher than its bulk temperatures during the whole braking. Fig. 6
shows nine successive thermograms of the disc track, taken during
the stop braking. These show the formation and the migration of
the hot band during the first 10 s of the braking, and the progressive
appearance of circumferential thermal localization in the hot band,
from t = 5 s, leading to the formation of hot spots on the inner sur-
face of the track, well visible from t = 12.5 s. The second half of the
braking was characterized by the hot-spot expansion. The intensity
of HS was decreased during the decrease in the sliding velocity and
the dissipated energy, leading to a quite homogeneous disc-surface
temperature at the end of the braking. Fig. 7 shows the entire disc-
track thermogram at half time of the braking duration, when hot
spots were well marked. Since the infrared camera could observe Fig. 7. Entire disc-track thermogram at half braking time and location of the five
only one eighth of the disc, this thermogram was reconstructed dominant hot spots (composite IP; stop braking at 1900 rpm).
376 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

shape and intensity. Similarly entire disc-track thermograms were

reconstructed for the other composites also and are presented in
Appendix A.

5. Discussion

Since disc flatness imperfections lead to circumferential thermal

localizations and hot spots appear very gradually along the braking
test series, it is not easy to detect on thermograms their first occur-
rence and then to study the hot-spot sensitivity of composite. With
this objective, results were analyzed in details, firstly infrared data
and surface thermal gradients.

5.1. Analysis of luminance-temperature variations of the disc

surface
Luminance-temperature variations constitute a good indica-
tor of TL sensitivity, especially in the circumferential direction
for hot spots. These variations were analyzed from data obtained
by infrared thermography. On each thermogram, four arcs were
defined to describe the luminance temperature change, numbered
from 1 to 4 respectively for the outer, mean, intermediate and
inner radius of the disc track (Fig. 8), these radial locations being
significant considering the hot band migration and hot-spot devel-
opment.
Fig. 9 presents the change of the maximum luminance tem-
perature computed on each arc for composite IP and braking at
Fig. 8. Location of the 4 arcs used for luminance-temperature variation analysis: (1)
inner, (2) intermediate, (3) mean and (4) outer radius.
1900 rpm. Correlated to thermograms shown on Fig. 6, these curves
are useful to describe TL evolution. The luminance temperature
increased from the initiation of the braking until a peak value
reached when the hot band passed through each radius. Then, the
hot-band migration clearly appeared like a peak on each curve: at
t = 1.5 s on the outer radius (Fig. 9a), t = 5 s on the mean one (Fig. 9b),
t = 10 s on the intermediate one (Fig. 9c) and t = 15 s on the inner one
(Fig. 9d). For each radius, fluctuations in the luminance temperature
appeared and was more strongly marked for the intermediate and

Fig. 9. Change of maximal luminance temperature per eighth of disc-track during braking on (a) outer, (b) mean, (c) intermediate and (d) inner radius (composite IP; stop
braking at 1900 rpm).
 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381
Table 4
Results at hot-spot appearance for all pad formulations.
Pad formulation
Initial rotational speed at the first hot-spot occurrence in the stop-braking test series (rpm)
Fundamental frequency H1 (Hz)
Highest harmonic frequency excited by hot spots (Hz)
Number of dominant hot spots observed by thermography
Tmax at first hot-spot occurrence (◦ C)
inner radius. The fluctuation appearances correspond to the pro-
gressive formation of thermal gradients leading to the formation
of the hot spots. They arise when the hot band reaches the inte-
rior of the track. That explains the high fluctuations in luminance
temperature at the intermediate and the inner radius. For each
thermogram, the circumferential variation of luminance temper-
ature T was defined on the intermediate radius as the difference
between the maximum luminance temperature (Tmax ) and the min-
imum luminance temperature (Tmin ) for an eighth of the disc-track:
T = (Tmax − Tmin )thermogram
When hot spots are formed, T corresponds to the difference
between the maximum luminance temperature reached in hot
spots and the minimal luminance temperature measured between
hot spots. Then its maximum Tmax is defined as an indicator of
hot-spot sensitivity. Fig. 10 gives the evolution of Tmax along the
stop-braking series for all four composites. Composite NM showed
poorest thermal localization performance with higher Tmax cor-
responding to the highest circumferential gradients. Composite IP
exhibited the best thermal localization performance. Results for the
two other composites BP and CP are quite comparable, a little better
for the composite BP with brass particles.
5.2. Correlations between hot-spot appearance and induced
vibration
Since the origin of hot spots lies in a disc distortion, their
appearance can be detected by analyzing induced vibration. Dur-
ing braking, when hot spots occur, bump-hollow alternation of the
disc undulation indeed excites the normal force applied on the pad.
These excitations been induced by the disc rotation, their frequen-
cies are in coordination with the frequency of the disc rotation:
a perfect sinus-type undulation (i.e. one bump and one hollow
Fig. 10. Maximum of luminance-temperature circumferential variation along the
braking series from 1500 to 2000 rpm on the intermediate radius of the disc-track
for pad NM, BP, CP, IP.
377
NM BP CP IP
1500 1700 1600 1900
25 28.3 26.7 31.7
H4 H6 H4 H5
4 6 4 5
43 45 44 55
along one disc circumference) will lead to one excitation of the
normal force for each revolution. Then, it is interesting to compare
time–frequency analysis of the normal load with infrared ther-
mograms of the disc track. In Fig. 11a, infrared thermograms are
shown at half time of the braking duration for composite IP at
successive stop brakings, from the initial rotation speed increas-
ing from 1500 to 2200 rpm. The same scale of grey levels is used
for all thermograms, from light to dark, corresponding to infrared
luminance ranging from low to high values. Similarly, Fig. 11b
shows time–frequency analysis of the normal load for the same
brakings. Each diagram presents normal-load excited frequencies
versus braking time. On these diagrams, colors indicate the inten-
sity of excitation, from blue, corresponding to no excitation, to red
for the highest intensity (results are given in dB). For stop brak-
ings at 1500–1800 rpm, 3 straight lines characterize each diagram.
They corresponded to 3 frequencies excited by the initial imperfec-
tions of the disc flatness; a fundamental frequency H1, the lowest
one equal to the disc-rotation frequency, and the two first har-
monic frequencies H2 and H3. As the rotational speed decreased
along braking, these frequencies also decreased from a maximum
value, related to the initial rotational frequency (H1 = 31.7 Hz, lead-
ing to H2 = 63.2 Hz and H3 = 95.1 Hz), down to zero at standstill. The
linear decrease can be explained by the almost constant friction
coefficient during the braking. At 1900 rpm, the two harmonic fre-
quencies H4 and H5 appear, as excited during a short time interval
at mid-braking. They correspond to the first occurrence of the disc
undulation in the braking test series, then to the early stage of the
hot-spot formation. Harmonic frequency H5 has to be correlated
with the five dominant hot spots observed on the disc track for
composite IP (Fig. 12). For the last brakings, from 2000 to 2200 rpm
(Fig. 11), the same phenomenon is repeated, been more and more
marked as the braking series progresses: harmonic frequencies H4
and H5 are excited earlier and for a longer time interval during the
braking, in correlation with higher intensity of hot spots observed
by thermography. These results confirm the progressiveness of the
disc waviness distortion at the origin of hot spots proposed by
Panier et al. [7].
Fig. 13 shows time–frequency diagrams of the normal load
versus braking time for all composites viz. NM, BP, CP and IP. Each
diagram corresponds to the first occurrence of hot spots in the
test series and shows the number of harmonic frequencies excited
by hot spots. Table 4 summarizes the main results. They confirm
TL performance of composites obtained by the analysis of disc-
surface luminance-temperature variations. Composite IP has the
best performance with a first occurrence of hot spots late in the
braking series, during stop braking at 1900 rpm, while compos-
ite NM presents the worst performance, hot spots appearing at
the earliest (at 1500 rpm). Results for composites CP and BP are
intermediate, little better for BP.
Interestingly, first occurrence of hot spots has been reported
with a plain mark in Fig. 10, showing that hot spots occur the first
time for a maximum value of the luminance-temperature circum-
ferential variation T in the range of 40–50 ◦ C. Similar results were
obtained by Kolluri et al. [21], suggesting that Tmax could be used
as an indicator of hot-spot appearance. For all composites, results
show a correlation between the number of dominant hot spots and
378 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

Fig. 11. Detection of hot-spot appearance by time–frequency analysis: (a) infrared thermograms of the disc-track at half braking time and (b) time–frequency diagrams of
the normal load measured with a piezoelectric sensor (composite IP; stop brakings from 1500 to 2200 rpm).

Fig. 12. Correlation between the number of dominant hot spots and excited harmonic frequencies of the disc rotation (composite IP; stop braking at 1900 rpm).
 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381 379

Fig. 13. Time–frequency diagram of the normal load during braking of the test series with first hot-spot occurrence for each formulation.

the highest excited harmonic frequency. Hence, time–frequency

analysis of the normal-load excitation appears to be very relevant
to analyze occurrences of hot spots and to obtain useful information
on their number and the time interval during braking concerned by
the phenomenon.

5.3. Correlation between TL phenomena and composite properties

It was interesting to examine if any structure–property corre-

lation emerges between properties of composites (Table 2) and TL
behavior. As seen from Fig. 14(a), compressibility of the composites
showed a good correlation with their TL performance. Higher the
compressibility better was the TL performance. This is attributed
that high compressibility of composites helps to a more homo-
geneous pressure distribution avoiding contact localization and
therefore, preventing drastic rise of thermal gradients at the fric-
tion interface. Abbasi et al. [22] also concluded in their study that
a higher value of compression modulus was one of the effective
parameters to avoid hot-spot phenomenon. However, no strict cor-
relations were observed with other properties. Fig. 14(b) shows
the changes between thermo-physical properties with TL perfor-
mance, which appears to be more influenced by thermal effusivity.
Under high power dissipation, a higher thermal effusivity leads to
a faster heat absorption and conducts to a less rise of temperature
and thermal gradients. Hence composite IP with highest effusiv-
ity showed the best TL performance while composite NM with the
lowest effusivity proved the poorest. Since the four composites
have very close values of thermal conductivity, no clear depen-
dency could emerge with thermal localization. It is always desired
to consider the thermal conductivity at high temperatures (such
as 300–350 ◦ C) rather than at room temperature since this should
be more realistic. However, because of constraints in measurement
of high temperature thermal conductivity, this could not be done. Fig. 14. Correlation of first hot-spot occurrence in the braking series with (a)
Thus higher the compressibility and effusivity of the composite, mechanical and (b) thermo-physical properties.
380 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381

less is the tendency to produce the hot spots and better the TL tion and Research, and the National Center for Scientific Research
performance and hence counterface friendliness. The appearance for their continuous support of research on braking developed at
of hot spots being strongly dependent of thermal loading [4–7], the Laboratory of Mechanics of Lille.
these results show the great importance of physical pad proper-
ties, which favor homogeneous surface distribution of pressure and
temperature. Nevertheless, local friction conditions are driven by
the formation of a third body at the interface, which constitute Appendix A.
load-bearing areas between the pad and the disc [23–25]. Then, the
dissipation of power and energy localized on these small areas leads
to very high thermal gradients and localization phenomena result
from a coupling between friction and wear mechanisms activated
at the interface, the location of heat dissipation and pad and disc
thermo-mechanical distortions [26]. From this point of view, the
pad microstructure and microscopic material properties (homo-
geneity of the pad, nature of pad ingredients, size of particles, etc.)
should also have a significant impact on the appearance of thermal
localization phenomena.

6. Conclusions

Based on the thermal localization (TL) studies conducted on

selected NAO friction composites containing various types of
metallic fillers viz. iron, brass and copper, following conclusions
were drawn:

• TL phenomenon was similar in nature for each composite. It was

characterized by the migration of a hot band, which progres-
sively underwent into hot spots by circumferential TL for the most
severe brakings.
• Since TL slowly rose as severity of braking increased (rpm
increased), the first occurrence of hot spots was faintly discern-
able. Hot spots inducing vibration, time–frequency analysis of
the contact normal load allowed precise detection of their occur-
rences.
• The number of excited harmonic frequencies of the disc rotation
exactly matched with the number of dominant hot spots observed
by infrared thermography, while duration of induced vibration
makes clear the exact time interval of hot-spot phenomenon.
• The progressiveness of hot-spot appearance during braking con-
firmed that the origin of hot spots lies in a progressive waviness
distortion of the disc.
• Inclusions of metallic contents improved the overall thermal-
localization performance of friction material. The best results
were obtained with iron powder (IP), avoiding hot-spot occur-
rence up to high power and energy brakings (1900 rpm), while
the performance of composites with brass and copper was almost
similar and moderate, brass being little better than copper. Com-
posite without metal powder (NM) proved worst as hot spots
appeared at the earliest (1500 rpm).
• Interesting correlations were observed between thermal effusiv-
ity and compressibility of composites. Higher the effusivity and
the compressibility, lower was the tendency to produce hot spots
and higher was the counterface friendliness.

Acknowledgements

First author would like to acknowledge the fellowship (EGIDE)

by Embassy of France, New Delhi, to carry out this research
work at Ecole Centrale de Lille, France. Indian authors gratefully
acknowledge the financial support by Department of Science and
Technology, New Delhi, India to carry out this research work.
French authors gratefully acknowledge the International Campus
on Safety and Intermodality in Transportation, the Nord-Pas-de- Reconstitution of the entire disc-track thermogram for pad for-
Calais Region, the European Community, the Regional Delegation mulations BP, CP and NM respectively for the stop brakings at 1700,
for Research and Technology, the French Ministry of Higher Educa- 1600 and 1500 rpm at tf/2 and location of the hot spots.
 M. Kumar et al. / Wear 270 (2011) 371–381
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