Tribological, mechanical and noise properties of proposed composite materials for brakes of high speed trains

High-speed train is a type of rail transporting vehicle that operates significantly faster than the traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks. This type of trains has first begun operations in Japan during the sixteenth of the last century and is widely known as the bullet train. One of the most important systems in these trains is the braking system. With the continuous and improvement of this type of trains, disc brake pads are widely applied, due to their high speeds and reliable working of brake pads. In this paper, a new proposed composite material has been developed to achieve the requirements of these types of high speed trains. This new proposed material has been fabricated with various chemical compositions and tested tribologically and mechanically to measure its performance under different operating conditions. Moreover, surface characteristics of selected specimens have been performed using microscopic images. The results of tests showed that the new proposed material has satisfied the recommended values for the friction coefficient with maintaining a lower level of wear. The proposed material has also satisfied a good strength and stiffness properties. Additionally, the noise resulted from this new material is found to be in the reasonable range of friction noises. A comparison of tribological and mechanical properties with noise levels for commercial Egyptian brake pad, commercial Egyptian automotive brake pad and developed brake pad has been performed and showed the well performance of the proposed composite brake pad.