ARTICLE IN PRESS

Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8

www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

Numerical simulation of typical contact situations

of brake friction materials
A.I. Dmitrieva,, W. Österleb, H. Klobb
a
Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, Tomsk, Russia
b
Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany
Received 28 March 2006; received in revised form 27 February 2007; accepted 2 April 2007
Available online 30 May 2007

Abstract

In the paper, a model typical for contact situations of automotive brakes is established based on the method of movable cellular
automata. The processes taking place at local contacts in an automotive brake system are analysed. Based on microscopic and micro-
analytical observations, the following contact situations were simulated: (i) a couple of ferritic steel against pearlitic steel, both covered
by an oxide layer mixed with graphite nanoparticles and (ii) the same situation but without oxide layers. The results of calculated mean
coefficients of friction of the oxide-on-oxide contact correspond well to expected values for a real braking system, whereas steel-on-steel
contact are twice as high. This allows one to make some conclusions; for example, oxide formation will take place more quickly than
friction layer elimination, and finally this is responsible for the stabilisation of the coefficient of friction.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Friction; Primary contact; Automotive brake system; Numerical simulation; Method of movable cellular automata

1. Introduction patches, called ‘plateaus’ implying that they protrude from

Manufactures of disc brake systems demand a number of
requirements concerning the friction material which are not
easy to comply with all at once: (i) the mean coefficient of
friction (m) should approach 0.45 for passenger cars and
0.35 for railway application; (ii) Dm, i.e. the variation of m
during a brake stop should approach zero; (iii) pad and
disc wear should be low; (iv) the raw materials used for pad
manufacturing should be cheap but not hazardous to the
environment; and (v) braking noise and wheel dust should
be avoided. Therefore, pad formulations become more and
more complicated.
There is no doubt that good performance of a frictional
brake depends on the formation of a so-called friction layer
or third-body which develops during a run-in procedure.
Godet suggested that wear particle compaction should play
a major role for third body formation [1]. Jacobson and co-
workers [2,3] pointed out that friction layers are discontin-
uous comprising of primary and secondary contact
Corresponding author. Tel.: +7 3822 286972; fax: +7 3822 492576.
E-mail address: dmitr@usgroups.com (A.I. Dmitriev).
the surface which is not necessarily the case [4,5]. Further
stressing of the system may lead to continuous destruction
and restoration of contact patches as well as to an
alteration to the structure and properties of the third body
with changing environmental conditions. This was con-
sidered by Ostermeyer as a base for modelling the
evolution of the coefficient of friction during transient
states [6].
For computer modelling, they can be considered as a
useful tool to gain more information about the elementary
friction processes taking place at the surfaces of pads and
discs and how such events affect braking performance. The
approach suggested in Ref. [6] considers the surface of the
pad contact region as an area where the direct contact
occurs. On the other hand, the friction layer can be
simulated in the framework of the particle approach as a
result of two-body contact [7,8]. The third body formed by
wear often exhibits a particulate or granular structure. It
consists of particles that accommodate and interact during
the friction. According to Ref. [8], the field of granular
flow contains a great deal of information with potential aid
to the understanding of the third-body behaviour in

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 ARTICLE IN PRESS
2 A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8

tribological applications. Therefore, it is the aim of this approximately 10 mm wide patches appeared side by side
study to simulate the tribological contact with a numerical with areas of severely deformed steel. If viewed in a
model on the basis of particle approach and to adjust the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) or Focused Ion
model at least to some of the situations, which actually Beam instrument (FIB), the areas covered by the oxide film
have been observed by microscopic methods. appear smooth, whereas the steel surface exhibits more
roughness, as shown in Fig. 1.
Further evidence of the structure of friction layers was
2. Experimental observations providing the background for
obtained by Raman spectroscopy of the rubbed surfaces, as
modelling
shown in Fig. 2. This method revealed the presence of
magnetite (Fe3O4) and severely deformed graphite. From
Pad materials are polymer matrix composites which usually
the ratio of the two C-peaks, a grain size of only 5 nm was
contain more than 10 ingredients, such as steel fibres, brass
derived for the graphite.
and copper chips, as well as various fillers, abrasives and solid
As shown in Ref. [5], the situation at pad and disc
lubricants. Since steel fibres provide the primary contact areas
surface is similar—namely micro patches of a friction layer
of all ‘‘low-met’’ pad materials produced for the European
partly covering the severely deformed superficial layer of
automotive market, we focused our work on a study of steel-
either ferritic or pearlitic steel. Therefore, the response of
on-steel contact, in particular to a low carbon ferritic steel
these two contact types, steel-on-steel and oxide-on-oxide,
(steel wool) at the pad side and pearlitic steel which is the
will be specified in the following.
matrix of grey cast iron, the disc material.
Since the experimentally observed layers were thin, i.e. of
Our previous work has shown that the microstructure
the order of 100 nm only, a very high degree of discretisa-
and often the chemical composition of surface layers,
tion is needed for modelling. Furthermore, according to the
which we will term friction layers, differ from the bulk
nanocrystalline structure of the layers it was self-evident
structures of pad and disc [4,5]. After conditioning, the
that a model based on nanometre-sized particles linked by
surfaces during a series of braking tests, two types of
bonds to their nearest neighbour will provide a good
features were observed at primary contact areas of the pad
approximation to the observed microstructure.
(steel fibres) [4]: (i) an outermost layer (thickness usually
o1 mm) comprising a mixture of very small iron oxide
particles (only 10 nm) with small quantities of fillers and 3. Modelling of frictional behaviour with the aid of the
solid lubricants corresponding to the pad formulation, and MCA-method
(ii) a second superficial layer (thicknesso1 mm) corre-
sponding to a zone of severe plastic deformation of the 3.1. Numerical model of friction
steel leading to a fragmented grain structure with a grain
size of approximately 100 nm. The oxide layer never Computer-aided investigation of material behaviour in
covered the deformed layer completely, to the extent that contact area of the automotive disc-pad brake system was

Fig. 1. Microscopic features at primary contact site, showing steel fibre at the pad surface. The smooth and dark grey area and EDX spectrum
corresponds to the oxide layer.
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A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8 3

conducted using Movable Cellular Automaton (MCA)
method. Previously, the MCA method was successfully
used for the investigation of similar processes in contact
areas of railway wheel and rail surface [9,10], wear in
combustion engines [11] and surface topography modifica-
tion at frictional interfaces [12]. The principles of writing
the equation of motion for a system of movable cellular
automata and prescribing interactions between them are
described in [13].
To construct the numerical model of friction at a level of
primary contacts of the disc brake system it is necessary to
take into account the characteristic scale where the
processes responsible for the nature of friction of contact-
ing surfaces occur. As it was mentioned in [9], our
investigations are restricted to modelling of processes
occurring at single contacts with a typical size of about a
few micrometres.
Comparing the scale level with our microscopic and
micro-analytical observations, we assumed the following
contact situation which seems to be quite characteristic for
primary contacts of the disc brake system: a steel fibre
covered with a nanocrystalline friction layer serves as
primary contact area at the pad side, whereas pearlitic
steel, which is the matrix of grey cast iron, also covered by
a similar friction layer is the counterpart. The scheme of
the simulated area is shown in Fig. 3(a).
The different material layers are modelled with an
originally bonded set of particles of 10 nm size. The
friction layers consisted mainly of particles to which the
stress–strain properties of the iron oxide were attributed,
but a small amount of soft graphite particles was
introduced, in order to simulate the observed mixing
of oxide with solid lubricants from pad constituents.
The supporting steel substrates were also modelled as

Fig. 2. Results of Raman spectroscopy of automotive brake pad and disc surfaces.

Fig. 3. (a) Scheme of brake disc surface; (b) loading scheme and initial structure of the simulated set-up. Surface layers on pad and disc: Fe3O4
nanoparticles mixed with graphite particles representing the solid lubricant.
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4 A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8
nanometre-sized particles. This corresponds to the frag-
mented grain structure, which was observed as a second
superficial layer below the oxide layers. Though the
mechanical properties of particles (automata) are not well
known, interesting results could be obtained just by
assuming different hard–soft combinations and concentra-
tions of the two constituents of the friction layer, namely
iron oxide and graphite. The mechanical properties of the
particulate materials in terms of the numerical model
(see Fig. 4) are summarised in Table 1.
In present investigations the ‘‘fracture’’ criteria for
linked–unlinked switch was defined as critical value of
stress intensity sijint in the interacting pair i and j. Two
bonded automata belonging to different materials turned
to the unlinked state as soon as sint reached the strength of
the softer material. For back transition from unlinked to
linked state, the value of stress intensity in contacted pair
was compared with the stress value varied within interval
0–sy2 (see Fig. 4) for different materials. To imitate the
various adhesion properties between graphite inclusions
and iron oxide matrix, as well as iron oxide and steel layers,
the effective parameter was used to reduce or increase the
strength of inter-particle bonds.
The following boundary conditions for modelling as
depicted in Fig. 3(b) were used. A constant sliding velocity
(V) equal to 10 m/s was applied on all particles of the
bottom layer of disc. At the same time their position in
Fig. 4. Response function of automaton in linearised model of stress–-
strain curve.
Table 1
Interaction parameters of modelled materials
E (GPa) n sy1 (MPa)
Ferritic steel 206 0.28 450
Pearlitic steel 206 0.28 520
Iron oxide 380 0.3 290
Graphite 20 0.3 15
E, elastic modulus; n, Poisson ratio.
vertical direction was fixed. A constant normal force
corresponding to the contact pressure P in the range
between 20 and 200 MPa for different calculations (much
higher than nominal contact pressures) was acted upon all
the elements of the upper layer of pad. For both types of
loading, a linear procedure of value increasing was used
with the following scheme. Initially the surfaces of pad and
disc were separated. Then the loading with increasing
velocity was applied on the particles of the bottom layer of
the disc. Normal pressure was applied on the pad after all
particles of the disc (not only layer under loading) reach the
maximum value of sliding velocity.
The special procedure of energy dissipation was used for
upper and bottom parts of the set-up to imitate the
presence of deeper areas of pad and disc. Periodic
boundary conditions were applied in the horizontal
direction.
As already mentioned, the size of automata was adjusted
to 10 nm, according to experimental observations of
nanocrystalline friction layers [4,5]. The time step for
simulation was defined by characteristic size of particles
and elastic properties of the modelled materials. It was very
short, i.e., of the order of 1013 s, similar as in molecular
dynamics (1015 s). The initial roughness of surface regions
of the bodies was set deliberately, however, it could be
shown, that different settings had no major impact on the
results of simulation.
3.2. Results of simulation
The analysis of surface structure of interacting materials
testifies that different layers with structure and properties
different from the structure of the bulk material are
formed. In these layers processes of deformation, fracture,
roughness elimination, reconstruction of connectivity
between elements, and intensive mass mixing are taking
place. Formation of the boundary layer can be considered
as formation of a third-body by wear particle compaction.
It is significant that the layer remains localised in the
vicinity of the initial friction surface and does not
propagate to deeper regions of the contacting bodies.
For friction coefficient evaluation the normal and
tangential forces were measured during the simulation.
The overall forces were determined as the sum of all the
horizontal and vertical forces, which act at the current time
step on the boundary layer of the disc. The quotient
between both gives the friction coefficient. The calculated
sy2 (MPa) ss (MPa) ey2 es
500 550 0.04 0.106
800 920 0.04 0.106
305 340 0.008 0.009
35 45 0.05 0.15
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A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8
value at the steady state was used for the comparisons. The
calculated coefficients of friction showed very strong
fluctuation during these short time intervals. Nevertheless,
the mean values calculated as a root-mean-square devia-
tion corresponded well to known macroscopic value. Two
examples of contact situations will be discussed which both
seem to play a major role in braking.
3.2.1. Simulation of oxide-on-oxide contact
The first simulation, already mentioned above, describes
the situation when nanocrystalline oxide layers have
developed on both surfaces. The structure evolution during
the sliding of contacted bodies is shown in Fig. 5. Particles
in areas ]1 and ]2 (see Fig. 5(a)) have the same properties
(iron oxide), whereas the graphite inclusions (black
particles marked as ]3) are much softer (see Table 1).
As shown in Fig. 5, the interface layer formation
accompanied by intensive processes of materials mixing
belonged to both surfaces. Moreover, it is clear to define
the difference in behaviour during bedding and steady
state. The structure of the intermediate layer has the
uniform distribution of mixed particles from both counter-
part materials already after 0.2 ms of relative motion
(compare structure shown in Figs. 5(a) and (b) with
structure in Figs. 5(c) and (d)).
Investigation of damage character in the interface layer
can be done on the basis of analysis of inter-automata
bonds distribution at the steady state, like that depicted in
Fig. 6(a). In this figure, points indicate position of
automata centres and linked pairs are connected by lines.
Fig. 5. Structure evolution at the steady state of MCA-modelling of oxide-on-oxide contact: (a) t ¼ 0.0125 ms; (b) 0.15 ms; (c) 0.25 ms; and (d) 0.375 ms.
5
It is seen that as a result of friction of two brittle materials,
the third body consists mostly of loose nanometre-sized
wear particles from both surfaces and a small concentra-
tion of more complex conglomerates of various sizes and
shapes. At a later stage of the simulation damage of the
oxide layers, a series of cracks start at the graphite
inclusions. An interesting observation in this respect,
though as yet unpublished, was that FIB cross-sections at
the disc surface often revealed cracking at the interface of
graphite lamellae of the cast iron within the zone of severe
plastic deformation.
In our calculations, a high value of rebinding criterion
for iron oxide particles was used. That is the reason why
new linked pairs very seldom appeared. This also explains
the prevalent granular structure of the friction layer (Fig.
6(a)).
Fig. 6(b) demonstrates that the mean coefficient of
friction (thick curve) calculated with the MCA model was
almost constant between 0.3 and 0.4, which is almost the
expected value for braking.
Furthermore, the concentration and influence of gra-
phite inclusions and characteristic sizes on features of oxide
layer behaviour during friction were studied. With that aim
in view two set-ups similar to the one depicted in Fig. 3(b)
were modelled. Fig. 7(a) shows the simulation results in the
case of relatively high concentration of graphite inclusions
in the form of single nanometre-sized particles and small
numbers of particle conglomerates with characteristic sizes
within 30 nm. Fig. 7(b) corresponds to the case of relatively
small concentration of graphite inclusions in the following
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6 A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8

Fig. 6. Modelling of oxide-on-oxide contact: (a) central fragment of structure of inter-automata relationships at steady state and (b) evolution of COF
during the simulation.

Fig. 7. Central fragment of structure of inter-automata relationships at steady state for high (a) and low (b) concentration of graphite inclusions.

configuration: predominant numbers of particle conglom-
erates with characteristic sizes about 50 nm and a small
number of graphite inclusions in the form of single
automata. Loading conditions in both tasks were the same.
It is clearly seen that the character of damage generation
in both modelled oxide layers differs considerably. So, in
the case depicted in Fig. 7(a), the formation of multiple
damage in the interfacial area between the matrix and
inclusions are observed. Some of them coalescing into one
crack through the oxide layer to the metallic substrate. In
the case depicted in Fig. 7(b) one can see strong iron oxide
spalling close to graphite inclusions at the surface and
almost total lack of damage propagating deep into the
oxide layer.
It is necessary to note that in spite of such difference of
character in friction layer destruction the calculated mean
coefficient of friction value remains between 0.3 and 0.4.
In the calculations shown in Fig. 7, we assumed a hard
oxide with properties resembling those of corundum
(aluminium oxide). Recent calculations with much lower
strength properties of the oxide did not lead to significantly
different friction values, but only revealed a more rapid
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destruction of the friction layers with increasing fraction of
the loose particle flux between the interfaces.
3.2.2. Simulation of metal-on-metal contact
The second simulation describes the situation of steel
rubbing against steel, which can occur, if the oxidised
friction layer is destroyed and wear particles are released to
the environment. Actually such a situation must happen
quite frequently, because we often observed areas of worn-
off friction layers during our cross-sectional FIB investiga-
tions [4,5]. Fig. 8(a) demonstrates the typical structure of
inter-automata bonds in the central area derivable during
the simulation of metal-on-metal contact.
In the case of single metal particles we assumed that
rebinding can take place readily, since micro-welding is a
common process during milling of metallic particles. The
rebinding criterion for metal particles in our calculations
was approximately equal to the point sy1 in Fig. 4. After
simulation we observe damaged areas in the vicinity of the
interface and some transfer of material but no loose
particles. As shown in Fig. 8(a) new profiles of surfaces
generate from automata initially belonged to both inter-
acting bodies during the friction. Note that under loading
which produces the adhesion bonding, the thickness of the
friction layer becomes noticeably higher than the char-
acteristic surface roughness size and much smaller than
friction pair size.
The mean coefficient of friction calculated for this
situation goes up to 0.8, 0.9, in very good agreement with
observed values for metal-on-metal contacts [14]. Evolu-
tion of COF for this case is shown in Fig. 8(b). Note that
smaller fluctuations of the COF dynamic value are
observed compared to the result of oxide-on-oxide inter-
action. Such differences in behaviour obviously are due to
the much smaller number of loose wear particles.
Fig. 8. Modelling of metal-on-metal contact: (a) central fragment of structure of inter-automata relationships at steady state and (b) evolution of COF
during the simulation.
7
Similar results of mean coefficient of friction value were
obtained for sliding pairs of metals with different mechan-
ical properties (pearlitic steel against ferritic steel) as well as
for metals with the same mechanical properties (steel
against steel). Damaged areas shown in Fig. 8(a) evidently
correspond to areas of plastically deformed contacting
bodies. The simulation results agree with the results
presented in paper [15], which mentions that mean pressure
in local contact, independent of applied nominal pressure,
almost always exceeds the yield stress of the material in the
initial state.
4. Summary and conclusions
Since nanocrystalline iron oxides provide the main
fraction of superficial layers formed during braking,
tribooxidation at the disc surface plays a major role in
stabilising the frictional performance of the system. The
fine microstructure and homogeneous chemical composi-
tion of friction layers on both, pad and rotor, suggest that
the iron oxide contains inclusions of solid lubricants on a
very fine scale, i.e., in the form of nanoparticles. Surface
investigations with optical microscopy and SEM revealed
that friction layers on pads are not continuous, but
interrupted either by a carbon constituent (coke) or by
wear troughs. At the rotor surface often dark bands,
covered by the friction layer were observed. Cross-sectional
FIB/TEM investigations revealed that even on the micron
and sub-micron scale, only parts of the surface of primary
metallic contacts are covered by the oxide layer, whereas
the remainder is a surface of deformed metallic material.
From this we conclude that the oxide, once formed, will be
quickly destroyed during tribological stressing.
The latter hypothesis has been corroborated by results
obtained with the MCA method, i.e., as we tried to
simulate the behaviour of the nanocrystalline friction layer
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8 A.I. Dmitriev et al. / Tribology International 41 (2008) 1–8
during a short braking application. If we assume that at
least part of the nanometre-sized wear particles are released
from the system, the friction layer will be eliminated over a
short time period leaving a metal-on-metal contact. The
local coefficients of friction obtained from the MCA
simulations for the oxide-on-oxide contact are lower than
these of metal-on-metal contact. From this we conclude
that oxide formation will take place more rapidly than
friction layer elimination, and finally is responsible for the
stabilisation of COF, which otherwise would increase to 1
for pure metal-on-metal contacts.
It is necessary to note that from the macroscopic point of
view the simulated set-up represents a small enough
fragment area of tribological conjunction, nevertheless
including a finite number of single asperities. As shown by
the results of calculations, the increase of the set-up width
leads to growth of resistance force. Increase of force is
coordinated not with the width of set-up but with the width
of area which is in contact. These results correlate with the
Bowden and Tabor proposals [16] of the real contact area
because the increase of the set-up width means increase in
number of single contacts. Moreover, at higher values of
external pressure there is an increase of the real contact
area that leads to growth of resistance force to relative
motion.
Additionally, the formation of a mechanically mixed
layer of loose wear particles is important for understanding
the friction behaviour. This layer is caused by the result of
elastic and plastic deformation, shearing and fracture of
the bulk materials in the friction zone (formation of a
‘‘third body’’ [1]).
It is necessary to note, that the used numerical model
imposes certain limitation on results of the research. The
size of wear particles cannot be smaller than the automaton
size. These, in particular, explain the chosen size which
correlates with real grains of nanocrystalline friction layer.
Besides, properties of each particle within the limits of its
size are assumed isotropic which is connected with the
definition of response function for a separate particle.
However, varying parameters of the model for separate
particles it is possible to already achieve a certain
anisotropy on a small ensemble of elements.
The presented results have more a qualitative character
and show applicability of the method for a similar type of
task. Construction of quantitative dependences demands
the carrying out of additional calculations and their
comparison with results of experimental research.
Acknowledgements
Financial support for our researches was provided by the
INTAS YS Grant no. 04-83-3544 and German Research
Foundation (DFG), Grant OS 77/9-1. Furthermore,
thanks are due to S.P. Brookes for proof reading.
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