Investigation of mechanical properties and performance of automotive brake pads

Abstract

This study evaluates the performance of three powder metallurgy-based brake pad formulations (BP1, BP2, and BP3) by examining mass loss, hardness, braking force, coefficient of friction (COF), noise, and vibration under 5 and 8 bar pressures. BP1 exhibited the highest braking force (640.99 N) and COF (0.3873) at 8 bars, with improvements of 7.7–13.6% and 4.4–6.8% over BP2 and BP3, respectively. However, this came with the highest mass loss (1.2 g/h), noise (17.5 dB), and vibration (0.743 m/s²), attributed to three-body abrasive wear from SiC and ZrO₂ particles.BP3 demonstrated the lowest mass loss (1.07 g/h, ~ 20% lower than BP1), noise (14.8 dB), and vibration (0.571 m/s²), making it suitable for quiet, long-life applications. BP2 showed balanced behavior across all parameters. Hardness values were 46 HRC (BP1), 38 HRC (BP2), and 44 HRC (BP3), aligning with observed braking forces and structural compactness.