Investigation on braking performance and wear mechanism of full-carbon/ceramic braking pairs

In this work, the braking performance of full-carbon/ceramic pairs that are suitable for high-speed trains and automobiles was examined. After braking, the morphologies of the friction surface were observed via SEM and the sub-surface of the brake pads were characterized by FIB and TEM. According to the results, introducing a ductile phase like FeSi₂ into the brake pads was beneficial for decreasing the coefficient of friction (COF) to an acceptable range and effectively improved the wear resistance. When braking under high pressure, the friction surface of the FeSi₂ modified C/C–SiC pads were maintained while that of the virgin C/C–SiC pads were totally destroyed, the wear resistance of the former was up to an order of magnitude higher than the latter.