Experimental Analysis Of Wear Performance Of Semi-Metallic Braking Materials Under Different Load And Speed Conditions

Braking systems play crucial roles in vehicle performance as well as safety, and brake pad materials play critical roles in reliable deceleration under different operating conditions. The superior mechanical strength, economy, and thermal stability of semi-metallic braking materials make them widely used. Nevertheless, dynamic conditions such as sliding velocity and applied load have strong influences on their wear characteristics. This work provides an in-depth experimental study of the wear behavior of semi-metallic brake composites under different load and speed conditions. Experiments were done using a pin-on-disc tribometer under conditions of sliding velocities varying, normal loads varying, and sliding distances varying. Pre-processing operation consists of Z-score normalization, missing value handling, and categorical variable encoding. Taguchi’s L27 orthogonal array was employed to design the experiments, and the wear rate was modeled using a Multi-Kernel Support Vector Regression (MK-SVR) approach optimized with an appropriate performance criterion. The proposed method was implemented using Python 3.10.1. SEM analysis revealed abrasive wear at higher loads and adhesive wear at lower speeds. Increased sliding speed caused a moderate decrease in wear rate through reduced contact duration and lower frictional heat build-up. Statistical significance of performance differences among the methods was determined using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Extensive experimentation verifies that the presented MK-SVR model attains higher values in R-squared measures between 0.90 and 0.95. Load and sliding speed significantly affect wear rate, contributing 71.02% and 27.84% respectively (p<0.05), and indicating a strong influence. The results provide significant insight into semi-metallic brake pad speed-sensitive wear mechanisms and the development of more robust braking systems.