Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

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Tribology International
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

Improving the tribological behavior of the brake interface of high-speed

trains via a cantilever beam structure
Z.Y. Xiang a, b, H.H. Qian a, b, J.L. Mo a, b, *, W. Chen a, b, D.Q. Tan c, Z.R. Zhou a, b
a
Traction Power State Key Laboratory, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China
b
Tribology Research Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China
c
Aviation Engineering Institute, Civil Aviation Flight University of China, Guanghan, 618307, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Tribological tests and wear simulation were conducted to study the influence of the installation of cantilever
High-speed train beams on the tribological behavior of the brake interface. The results show that the worn surface of the original
Tribological behavior brake system exhibited complex tribological behavior. After installing the cantilever beams, the eccentric wear of
Cantilever beam
the worn surface was found to be significantly reduced and the temperature distribution of the disc surface was
Wear simulation
Brake interface
more uniform. The vibration of the cantilever beams was found to propagate to the brake interface, resulting in
relatively uniform contact. As a result, the tribological behavior of the braking interface was improved, and this
improvement was enhanced when the cantilever beams were installed in both the normal and tangential
directions.

1. Introduction distribution [5,25], unstable friction-induced vibration (FIV) [18,26],

Brake pads, which are critical components used on the friction brake
system of a high-speed train, play a key role in braking and ensure the
safe operation of high-speed trains [1–3]. A train is stopped by
consuming the kinetic energy resulting from the friction that is gener­
ated when the brake pads rub against the brake disc. For safety reasons,
the train must be stopped within a certain distance [4]. The device that
enables braking is generally known as the foundation brake rigging. The
friction interface tribological behavior is an important factor affecting
the friction-induced vibration and noise (FIVN) during the friction brake
working process of the brake system and guarantees the operation
reliability of the train [5,6]. Eccentric thermal distribution and eccentric
wear of the brake interface occur over time, decreasing the brake torque
and adversely affecting the safety of the train [7–9]. These problems
have attracted significant attention in the academic field.
The tribological behavior of the brake interface is extremely
complicated owing to strong friction and a high thermal load, particu­
larly in an open environment as the train brakes at high speed [10]. The
elastoplastic deformation of the materials under thermomechanical
coupling [11,12], as well as surface cracks [13–16], wear debris
[17–19], friction film [10,17], surface morphology [20,21], contact
stress magnitude and distribution [22–24], friction heat generation and
and many other factors can affect the tribological behavior of the brake
interface, ultimately influencing the brake performance of the train.
Hence, it is of crucial importance to understand the tribological behavior
of the brake interface to improve the contact state.
In recent years, many researchers have conducted investigations on
the tribological behavior of the brake interface of high-speed trains to
find effective methods to modify the behavior [1,10,12,27,28]. Yao et al.
[10]. analyzed the mechanical characteristics and tribological behaviors
of friction block (the material was copper metal matrix composites) used
for brake pads of the brake system in high-speed trains. Majcherczak
et al. [27] comprehensively considered the influence of tribology,
thermal dynamics, and other factors on the FIV characteristic of the train
brake system. It was found that the “third body” formed by accumulated
wear significantly increased the interfacial friction coefficient, thus
affecting the tribological behavior on the friction pairs surface and the
dynamic characteristics of the brake system [29–31]. Many researchers
investigated the addition of new abrasive components (such as SiC, CrF,
SiO2, Al2O3 fiber and Fe) to the brake break materials to improve the
interfacial tribological behavior and the break performance [10,28,29,
32,33]. These methods improved the interfacial tribological behavior
and braking performance to some extent. For example, Zhang et al. [28].
analyzed the influence of an Al2O3 fiber additive friction material on the

* Corresponding author. Traction Power State Key Laboratory, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China.
E-mail address: jlmo@swjtu.cn (J.L. Mo).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.triboint.2020.106783
Received 26 September 2020; Received in revised form 5 November 2020; Accepted 19 November 2020
Available online 21 November 2020
0301-679X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
braking characteristics of high-speed trains. The authors found that the
Al2O3 fiber additive increased the friction coefficient at a low traveling
speed of high-speed train, however, and the friction coefficient can be
stabilized significantly at high speed.
Additionally, many researchers tried to improve the tribological
behaviours of brake interface by optimizing the structure of the friction
pairs of brake system [3,5,34,35], using the appropriate brake param­
eters [6], improving the contact stiffness of the brake interface [36,37],
and using damping [23,38–41]. Sinou et al. [3] conducted a brake
squeal noise test using three different shapes friction blocks and
compared the behavior of industrial disc brakes of a Train à Grande
Vitesse (TGV) using simulations and measurements. Panier et al. [25]
analyzed the mechanism on how the friction block shape effect on the
distribution of hot spots and found that hot spots number increased as
the arc length decreased. In our previous research work, the influence of
the section shape of friction block on FIVN and surface wear behavior
under dry and wet conditions was investigated, and the relationship
between FIVN and the wear characteristics were discussed [9]. In
addition, we also used an Mn–Cu damping alloy (which processed with
different distribution characteristic of grooved surface) in the friction
systems to improve the dynamic response and tribological behavior; the
relationship between the damping, vibration, and wear behavior was
analyzed [39].
In recent years, some researchers found that appropriate external
excitation can significantly improve the tribological behavior of the
interface [42–44]. Yan et al. [42] attempted to improve the tribological
behavior of a C/C composite material by using the external ultrasonic
vibration; the method improved the tribological properties by reducing
the friction force and surface damage. Kim et al. [43] revealed the
mechanism on how vibration frequency and amplitude of external ul­
trasonic vibration effect on the friction reduction and the tribological
characteristics of silicon; the research results showed that the friction
coefficient on the friction interface would be influenced significantly for
all specimens in appropriate frequency of the external excitation.
However, there are few studies on the feedback regulation of interfacial
tribological behavior using FIV, which is an interesting and worthwhile
topic. In brake systems, strong self-excited vibration induced by friction
is generated during braking [3], and it is meaningful to investigate the
use of this vibration energy to affect the tribological behavior of the
brake interface.
Cantilever beams have a simple structure and easily deform under
external excitation [45]. In conjunction with piezoelectric elements,
cantilever beams are widely used to harvest vibration energy [45–48].
This method has also been used to harvest FIV energy in friction systems
in recent years [45,47]. For example, Wang et al. [45]. performed vi­
bration energy harvesting and FIVN suppression by adding a
Fig. 1. The test dynamometer used in these tribological tests.
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piezoelectric cantilever beam to a reciprocating friction system. Nu­
merical analysis was used to determine the effects of different parame­
ters, such as the load force, driving speed, and electric resistance on the
efficiency of energy harvesting. Nevertheless, these studies only focused
on harvesting FIV energy, and the influence of the cantilever beam on
the tribological behavior of the friction interface was not considered
[47]. The author speculates that the addition of a piezoelectric canti­
lever beam to a friction system does not only allow for harvesting vi­
bration energy but also modifies the tribological behavior on the
interface of friction pairs, since the vibration response of the cantilever
beam propagates to the friction interface, which, in turn, adjusts the
contact state.
In this study, cantilever beams were installed in different directions
(normal, tangential, and both normal and tangential) of the friction
force, and brake experiments were conducted on a customized small-
scale brake dynamometer. The wear behavior of the friction block was
analyzed using a two-dimensional profilometer, an optical microscope, a
white-light interferometer, and a scanning electron microscope. The
Otsu threshold segmentation method was used to characterize the con­
tact plateaus of the worn surface quantitatively. A wear simulation
based on the Archard wear equation was performed by establishing a
finite element model of the test dynamometer. The effect of the canti­
lever beams on the tribological behavior of the brake interface was
investigated using experiments and numerical simulations. The results
of this study can guide the optimization of friction block design.
2. Details of the tribological test process
2.1. Details of the tribological test dynamometer
As shown in Fig. 1, a tribological test dynamometer was designed to
study the effect of the cantilever beam structure on the tribological
behavior of the interface of a high-speed train brake system. Although
the test dynamometer was simplified based on the real braking systems
which used on high-speed trains in China, the key components, i.e., the
brake disc and friction block, were retained. The brake interface formed
by the friction contact between the brake disc and the friction block
retained the essential characteristics of the real brake system. Therefore,
this dynamometer could reproduce the dynamic characteristics and the
tribological behaviors of a high-speed train brake system. Moreover,
both the disc rotation speed and the brake pressure could be adjusted
within a certain range similar to the real braking conditions of a high-
speed train. The test dynamometer consisted of a brake pressure
loading system, a control system, a data acquisition system, and a brake
system. Both the start and stop state of the variable frequency motor, the
working state of the clutch, and the pressure state of the loading system
Z.Y. Xiang et al. Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

of the tribological test dynamometer could be controlled by the control Table 1

system. Material elemental composition of the disc [5].
A thermal imager (FLIR E40, accuracy ±2 ◦ C) was installed on the Element Ni Cr Mn Mo C Si Fe
loading rod to obtain the thermal distribution of the disc surface that
Content (wt%) 1.8 1.1 0.75 0.5 0.31 0.25 Balance
made contact with the friction block in real-time. The stationary contact
pressure of the friction block was measured using an SPI H-series
nanomaterial matrix pressure sensor and data collection device (Tacti­
lus) to obtain information on the wear of the block interface. Addi­
tionally, the profile of the friction block from the leading edge to the Table 2
Material elemental composition of the friction block [5].
trailing edge was obtained by a 2-D profiler. An optical microscope
(OM), white-light interferometer, and scanning electron microscope Element Cu Graphite Fe FeCr MoS2 SiC others
(SEM) were used to observe the surface morphology of the block. The Content (wt%) 45–50 18–20 13–15 6–8 4–6 2–4 3–5
elemental compositions of the contact platform and wear debris were
analyzed via energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

Fig. 2. The tribology test samples: (a) structural dimensions of friction block and brake disc; (b) structural dimensions of cantilever beam and corresponding
installation position on the friction block holder; (c) installation figure of cantilever beam on different brake systems.

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2.2. Materials for the friction pair and the cantilever beam
Both the friction block and brake disc samples used in the tribolog­
ical rests were obtained from real train brake systems of the China
Railway High-speed (CRH). The shape of the friction block section was
processed to be the same as that used in the brake system of the model
CRH380A train [49], and the surface area of the friction block samples
was 353.65 mm2. The dimensions of the friction block and brake disc
samples are presented in Fig. 2(a). The brake disc sample was cut from a
real disc that is used in the brake system of the model CRH380A train,
and was composed of a medium-carbon low-alloy forged steel (the
chemical composition is reported in Table 1). The material of the friction
block samples was composed of a Cu-based powder metallurgy material,
the chemical composition of which is reported in Table 2. The cantilever
beam was made of 304 stainless steel, and its dimensions and installa­
tion site are presented in Fig. 2 (b) and (c). The corresponding properties
of the friction pair and the cantilever beam were as follows: friction
block (Young’s modulus: 6.5 GPa; density: 5200 kg/m3; Poisson’s ratio:
0.29); brake disc (Young’s modulus: 210 GPa; density: 7850 kg/m3;
Poisson’s ratio: 0.3); cantilever beam (Young’s modulus: 206 GPa;
density: 7800 kg/m3; Poisson’s ratio: 0.3).
In this work, the system without the cantilever beam is referred to as
the original brake system. The system in which a cantilever beam was
installed in the normal direction (i.e., the cantilever beam was deformed
with the vibration of the tribological test dynamometer in the Z-direc­
tion, namely the direction of the vertical brake disc) is defined as the
beam-normal brake system. The system in which a cantilever beam was
installed in the tangential direction (i.e., the cantilever beam was
Fig. 3. The profiles from the leading edge to the trailing edge on the worn surface: (a) Original, (b) Beam-normal, (c) Beam-tangential, (d) Beam-two directions.
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deformed in the Y-direction (friction direction) of the brake system) is
referred to as the beam-tangential brake system. The system in which
cantilever beams were installed in both the normal and tangential di­
rections is defined as the beam-two directions brake system. For the sake
of simplicity, these brake systems are respectively referred to as the
original, beam-normal, beam-tangential, and beam-two directions in the
figures.
It was necessary for the friction block samples to have uniform initial
surface morphologies to compare the experimental results; therefore,
the samples were treated accordingly before the test. First, the friction
block samples were polished to achieve near-uniform surface roughness.
The polished friction surface was then cleaned to remove impurities.
Finally, all samples were dried. After these operations, the surface
roughness of the friction blocks was approximately Ra = 0.8. In addition,
the brake disc surface that made contact with the friction block was
cleaned and dried after each group of tests to avoid adverse effects on
the subsequent test data, thereby increasing the reliability and compa­
rability of each group of test data.
2.3. Introduction of test protocol
At the beginning of the test, a running-in procedure was performed to
ensure a good flat-on-flat contact behavior on the interface (which is
defined as the area at which the friction block made contact with the
brake disc). The brake disc was set to a constant and invariable rotation
speed during the running-in procedure, and the air cylinder and push
rod applied the pressure to keep the brake disc and friction block in
contact after the disc steadily rotated. During the running-in procedure,
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
the operation was stopped at regular intervals (2 min) to ensure that the
block was not overheating and to visually inspect the contact surface.
Both the disc and friction block surfaces were cooled to room temper­
ature before proceeding to the next phase of running-in. At each step of
the operation, the distribution of the wear debris on the friction block
surface was observed, and the wear area was then judged. When the
wear area observed on the surface was greater than 85%, as recom­
mended in China’s brake system testing standard (the most widely used
was TJ/CL 310–2014), the running-in operation would be stopped and
got ready for the tribological tests. Because the FIVN are easily to pro­
duce at lower speeds, the rotation speed of the disc was set as 200 rpm
(corresponding to a train speed of 6 km/h). The load applied to the push
rod was 190 N, corresponding to an actual train braking force of 5.2 kN.
Each test lasted for 120 s.
In this work, all tribological tests were performed in the same labo­
ratory, in which the ambient temperature and relative humidity were set
to 20–27 ◦ C and 62–70%, respectively. Moreover, there were no other
sources of vibration and noise in the laboratory that would have affected
the tribological tests. It should be noted that each tribological test was
repeated and the repeated test would be done more than five times, and
the brake disc surfaces were cooled to ambient temperature before the
next test was conducted. The purpose of this operation was to obtain
reliable and repeatable data throughout the entire tribological test
process. During the tribological test process, the temperature of the
brake disc was recorded every 30 s by a thermal imager, and the dis­
tribution characteristics of the temperature on the block were measured
at the end of each test.
3. Tribological test results and analysis
3.1. Tribological behavior on the worn surface
The profiles of a straight line on the friction blocks are shown in
Fig. 3. The angle between the horizontal line and the fitted line is
determined to represent the degree of eccentric wear of the friction
block after the tribological test. The results indicate that all friction
blocks exhibit eccentric wear, but the original block has the most
eccentric wear with a wear angle of 1◦ . This result shows that the leading
edge undergoes more severe wear than the trailing edge. The wear loss is
proportional to the contact stress [24,50–52], indicating that the contact
stress would be mainly concentrated at the leading edge, causing high
temperatures in this area. The eccentric wear angle decreases after the
cantilever beam is added, indicating that the eccentric wear has been
reduced.
Fig. 4. The radial profiles at the trailing edge and the leading edge on the worn surface: (a) Original, (b) Beam-normal, (c) Beam-tangential, (d) Beam-two directions.
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In addition, it is found that the friction block of the original brake
system has the largest eccentric wear angle, followed by the beam-
normal, beam-tangential, and the beam-two directions brake systems,
indicating that the system with the cantilever beams in both directions
has the best performance for modifying the contact interface. The profile
of the friction block of the original brake system exhibits the largest
fluctuations, whereas the profiles show fewer fluctuations after the
cantilever beams are installed. The least fluctuations are observed in the
beam-two directions brake system, which indicates that the friction
block surface is relatively smooth.
The radial 2-D profiles at the leading edge and the trailing edge are
extracted and the surface roughness of the two regions are calculated, as
shown in Fig. 4. The 2-D profiles of different brake systems show
significantly fluctuation, and a lot of furrows caused by interfacial
ploughing action can be observed at the leading and trailing edge of the
worn surface. For the original friction block, the 2-D profiles of which
exhibit the most significant fluctuation, and its surface roughness is the
largest among all these blocks. After introducing the cantilever beams, i.
e. the cantilever systems, show milder fluctuation in their 2-D profiles,
and the corresponding surface roughness is reduced, suggesting that the
wear situation of the friction system is improved by adding cantilever
beams. However, there is a significant difference in the effect of modi­
fying the wear situation of the friction block by adding cantilever beams
in different directions. By adding cantilever beam in the tangential di­
rection, the wear degree is milder than the original system but wilder
than the systems with cantilever beam in the normal direction and
cantilever beams in both directions. Moreover, the system with double
cantilever beams shows the best wear situation, whose worn surface is
well preserved compared with other systems. It shows that the instal­
lation of bidirectional cantilever beam is most beneficial to improve the
tribological behavior of brake interface.
The 3D topographies of the friction blocks are shown in Fig. 5.
Ploughing and exfoliation are observed in the friction direction. Rela­
tively wide and deep ploughing marks are found on the friction block
surface of the original brake system. Significant differences in the
morphology (different depths) are observed, showing that this block
experiences severe wear and exhibits complex tribological behavior.
After installing the cantilever beams, ploughing and exfoliation are still
observed on the friction block worn surface; however, the degree of
wear is much lower, and the surfaces are smoother compared to the
original system. Thus, the addition of the cantilever beams to the brake
system reduces the damage and improves the tribological behavior on
the brake interface, and the beam-two directions brake system exhibits
the least amount of wear and slight damage.
Z.Y. Xiang et al. Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

Fig. 5. The 3D topography of the leading edge of the worn surface of the friction blocks: (a) Original, (b) Beam-normal, (c) Beam-tangential, (d) Beam-two directions.

Fig. 6. The profiles that obtained from the 3D topographies: (a) Original, (b) Beam-normal, (c) Beam-tangential, (d) Beam-two directions.

The two-dimensional profiles that obtained from the 3D topogra­
phies and corresponding root mean square (RMS) are shown in Fig. 6. It
is found that the original brake system has the largest RMS value,
indicating that this friction block has the most complex surface
morphology. Ploughing corresponding to the 3D topography is also
observed in the profile of the original brake system. In contrast, the
profiles of the other three brake systems are much smoother, and the
beam-two directions brake system has the lowest RMS value. The results
confirm that the use of the cantilever beams improves the tribological
behavior of the brake interface.
The microscopic morphology of the leading edge of the friction
blocks observed by an optical microscope is presented in Fig. 7. Different
sizes of contact plateaus (bright yellow areas) can be identified on the
worn surface, and ploughing and exfoliation have occurred. The friction

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Fig. 7. The microscopic morphology on the leading edge of friction blocks worn surface.

block of the original brake system exhibits relatively large contact pla­
teaus, forming a strip in the friction direction. Large ploughing marks
are observed around and on the contact plateaus, and small ploughing
marks are widespread. The results indicate that the original brake sys­
tem friction block has experienced significantly more ploughing and
shearing action in the course of tribological test, resulting in the material
peeling off on the friction block worn surface and forming many exfo­
liations with different sizes. As a result, the surface damage of the fric­
tion block is extensive, showing complex tribological behavior. In the
beam-normal brake system, some large contact plateaus are observed;
however, their sizes are substantially smaller than those of the original
brake system. Most of the contact plateaus in the beam-tangential brake
system are small, and those of the beam-two directions brake system are
also small but have a uniform size.
Since the brake pressure at the brake interface is mainly borne by the
contact plateaus [20], the size, number, and distribution of the contact
plateaus reflect the wear characteristic and influence the tribological
behavior of the interface [5,53,54]. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify
the contact plateaus using image segmentation method to determine the
effect of the cantilever beam on the tribological behavior of the brake

Fig. 8. The segmentation results of the contact plateaus from the microscopic morphology images.

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Fig. 9. Number of contact plateaus for the microscopic morphology images of friction block worn surface.
interface. The widely used Otsu threshold segmentation method is used
in this work because it provides superior image segmentation perfor­
mance. This algorithm uses a threshold to separate the image pixels into
two categories by maximizing the inter-class variance and minimizing
the intra-class variance [55]. Obtaining grey histogram by conducting
the grey processing on the OM image of friction block worn surface, and
saving those grey value as array. Then finding the peak value of two
modes and an automatic search command is used in the image pro­
cessing procedure to determine the minimum grey-scale level between
the two modes. This minimum grey value is set as the threshold of Otsu
threshold segmentation method [56,57]. Then, the OM image of friction
block worn surface is segmented. The results of the segmentation are
provided in Fig. 8. The number of contact plateaus with different size
ranges obtained from the segmentation results is shown in Fig. 9.
It is observed that the small contact plateaus (with an area of less
than 500 μm2) account for the largest proportion of all visible platforms
on the friction blocks. There are few large contact plateaus. The beam-
two directions brake system has the largest number of contact pla­
teaus, followed by the beam-tangential brake system, the beam-normal
Fig. 10. The total area of all contact plateaus and the sum area of the contact plateaus with an area of more than 8000 μm2 (a); the ratio of the latter to the
former (b).
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brake system, and the original brake system. Although the original
system does not have the largest number of large contact plateaus (with
an area of more than 8000 μm2), the large contact plateaus cover a large
area on the friction block worn surface. Few contact plateaus with an
area of more than 8000 μm2 occur in the beam-two directions brake
system, and these contact plateaus cover the smallest area among all
four brake systems.
Based on the segmentation results, the total area of the contact pla­
teaus with an area of more than 8000 μm2, the sum of the area of all
contact plateaus, and the ratio between the two parameters are shown in
Fig. 10. It is found that the original brake system friction block has the
largest total area of all contact plateaus, as well as the largest total area
of contact plateaus with an area of more than 8000 μm2; the proportion
of large contact plateaus is 66.1%. After installing the cantilever beams,
the total area of all contact plateaus, the sum area of the contact plateaus
with an area of more than 8000 μm2, and the ratio between the two
parameters is reduced. This result demonstrates that the cantilever
beams significantly alter the wear characteristics and prevent the
occurrence of large contact plateaus, which results in a smooth wear
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
Fig. 11. The wear surface characteristics of the friction block: standard deviation (a) and entropy of the grey-level histogram (b).
Fig. 12. SEM images of the trailing edge region of the original brake system friction block and the component analysis results.
surface. The beam-two directions brake system has the lowest propor­
tion and the smallest total area of large contact plateaus with an area of
more than 8000 μm2.
The wear surface characteristics of the friction block (including the
standard deviation and the entropy of the grey-level histogram) are
shown in Fig. 11. The standard deviation of the grey-level values of the
optical image of the worn surface decreases after installing the canti­
lever beam, indicating that the worn surface is flatter than that of the
original system. The increase in entropy indicates an increase in the
randomness of the contact platform. The reason is that after installing
the cantilever beam, the friction block worn surface at the leading edge
has few continuous large contact plateaus, but the number of small
contact plateaus increases.
The morphology characteristic on the friction blocks worn surface
which located at the trailing edge region was observed by SEM, and the
material composition of the different wear features was analyzed using
EDX spectroscopy. The SEM diagram of the friction block worn surface
of the original brake system and the component analysis results are
shown in Fig. 12, and those of the other brake systems are presented in
Fig. 13.
The results show that the worn surface of the original brake system’s
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friction block exhibits a considerable amount of compact wear debris,
and torn large contact plateaus are observed (Fig. 12 (b)). The damaged
contact plateaus easily peel off under the shear action of the brake
interface, and the exfoliated material turns into wear debris after being
continuously ground up by the disc and block, which in return exacer­
bates the wear of the block surface. In addition, many wear debris are
scattered on the contact platform, and detachment is observed at the
edge of the contact platform (Fig. 12 (c)).
The energy spectrum of the contact platform (Point B) indicates that
the dominant elements in this region are Fe and Cu. The existence of Fe
in the copper-based powder metallurgy material provides high strength
of the matrix material due to the low solid solubility of Cu [58,59]; thus,
contact plateaus occur. In addition, the energy spectrum of the wear
debris (Point A) shows that the elemental composition is identical to that
of the contact plateaus. The Cr that was observed in the energy spectrum
of the wear debris originates from the FeCr abrasives. FeCr abrasives
possess excellent chemical stability and are used to enhance the abrasive
resistance of the friction material and maintain a stable friction force at
the interface [5,10]. However, contact plateaus are easily damaged by
these hard particles, forming ploughing and complicating the wear
behavior.
Z.Y. Xiang et al. Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

Fig. 13. SEM images at the trailing edge region of the friction block worn surface after installing the cantilever beams: (a) Beam-normal, (b) Beam-tangential, (c)
Beam-two directions.

Fig. 13 shows that the amount of wear debris of the interface is
significantly reduced after installing the cantilever beams, suggesting
that the tribological behavior is considerably improved. During the
friction process, the generated wear debris is continuously moved,
ground, and compacted, creating abrasive dust layer and exacerbating
the wear of the brake interface [29–31]. The cantilever beam caused
vibration at the same frequency of the test dynamometer due to the
excitation of FIV. The vibration of the cantilever beam propagates back
to the brake interface, coupling with the local vibration and modifying
the contact state.
Moreover, due to the absorption and dissipation in the FIV, the in­
tensity of the unstable vibration and the fluctuation in the contact
pressure is reduced, which helps to alleviate the impact action at the
contact interface. Consequently, the contact interface is well preserved
and less amount of wear debris is produced, thereby alleviating the
grinding effect caused by wear debris at the brake interface, and

Fig. 14. Thermal distribution characteristic of the friction blocks and discs surface.

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Z.Y. Xiang et al.
preventing surface damage resulted by hard particles embedded in the
wear debris. As a result, less wear and smaller wear debris than in the
original brake system are produced, and the tribological behavior is
improved. Therefore, the probability of the formation of abrasive dust
layer is reduced, which alleviates the abrasive wear [60]. In summary,
our findings indicate that the use of cantilever beams in the brake system
improves the tribological behavior of the interface.
3.2. Interface temperature and contact pressure distribution
The thermal distribution of the disc surface after the experiment
(120 s) is presented in Fig. 14. The results show that all brake discs have
an annular region with relatively high temperatures (thermal ring). The
temperature of the original brake system disc surface is the highest
(78.8 ◦ C), and the thermal ring is most pronounced. In addition, the
friction block of the original brake system has the highest surface tem­
perature. In contrast, the surface temperature is reduced after the
cantilever beams are installed on the friction block holder, and the
temperature distribution in the friction area of the brake disc surface is
more uniform than in the original brake system. Similarly, the charac­
teristics of the temperature distribution of the friction block worn sur­
face have also improved. The brake disc and friction block surfaces of
the beam-two directions brake system have the most uniform tempera­
ture distribution.
The radial temperature distributions on the friction area of brake disc
are extracted from Fig. 14 at a time interval of 30 s after the experiment
is started, and corresponding temperatures data are showed in Fig. 15.
The surface temperature increases over time, but the rate of increase is
not large, which is attributed to the rotation speed and the friction area.
The temperature curves extracted from the original brake system exhibit
high peaks, which are close to the outside of the friction region, indi­
cating that high temperatures occur in this region. The largest temper­
ature difference of the disc surface is observed in the original brake
system. After installing the cantilever beams, the temperatures and the
temperature differences decrease.
The reason for the high temperatures of the original brake system is
likely the relatively large contact pressure during the friction process.
The wear analysis in Section 3.1. shows that the friction block of original
brake system exhibits the most eccentric wear phenomenon (Fig. 3),
which causes a concentration of the contact stress at the leading edge
region, resulting in higher temperatures phenomenon presented on the
friction block worn surface.
The friction block surface’s contact pressure distribution
Fig. 15. The temperature of the radial node in the friction area of the brake disc: (a) Original, (b) Beam-normal, (c) Beam-tangential, (d) Beam-two directions.
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Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783
characteristic in the static state after the tribological test was measured
by a pressure film (SPI H-series); the results are shown in Fig. 16. The
trailing edge region of the friction block surface experiences the highest
contact pressure, indicating a height difference between the leading
edge and trailing edge after the tribological test. This result shows that
the friction block surface exhibits eccentric wear. The contract pressure
results are in agreement with the profiles of the friction blocks (Fig. 3).
The friction block of the original brake system has the largest average
pressure (401.43 kPa), showing that the average pressure can be
reduced by installing the cantilever beam.
The friction block of the beam-two directions brake system has the
lowest average pressure (317.76 kPa), and the contact pressure is almost
evenly distributed on the friction block worn surface. Therefore, under
the same experimental conditions, the height difference between the
leading edge and the trailing edge is lowest in the friction block of the
beam-two directions brake system. The block surface in this brake sys­
tem has a better fit state with the disc surface during the friction process
than in the other systems. The good fit state is the likely reason for the
uniform temperature distribution characteristic on the disc surface. The
contact pressure and thermal results on the friction block and brake disc
surface indicate that the use of the cantilever beam in the brake system
improves the tribological behavior.
4. Wear simulation analysis
The Archard wear formula and three software programs (ABAQUS
6.14, Python, and Matlab) were used to simulate the wear of the friction
blocks of the four brake systems.
4.1. Introduction of the finite element simulation analysis
According to the basic law of finite element simulation analysis, a
simplified finite element (FE) model of the tribological test setup was
established in the commercial finite element software ABAQUS. Subse­
quently, the numerical model was discretized using hexahedral solid
elements, and the dynamic response was solved using the ABAQUS/
Implicit solver to determine the changes in the contact pressure and
other parameters during the drag braking process. The FE model is
presented in Fig. 17, and the components included a sample friction
block, a sample brake disc, a push rod, a holder, and a linear bearing,
and these components were discretized with C3D8R brick elements.
Moreover, both the size and shape of the components were the same as
those in the tribological test setup. The material parameters of friction
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
Fig. 16. Distribution characteristics of contact pressure after the tribological test.
Fig. 17. Finite element simulation analysis of the brake interface contact behavior based on the tribological test dynamometer: (a) all components of the FE model;
(b) corresponding boundary conditions.
pairs were those listed in Section 2.2, and the material parameters of the
other components were as follows: holder (Young’s modulus: 200 GPa;
density: 7800 kg/m3); push rod (Young’s modulus: 190 GPa; density:
7900 kg/m3); linear bearing (Young’s modulus: 70 GPa; density: 2700
kg/m3). The Poisson’s ratio for both these components was set to 0.3 in
the FE model.
The surface-to-surface contact between the friction block and brake
disc, push rod and bearing were defined according to the real constraints
of each component in the tribological test dynamometer. The main
surfaces were the brake disc surface and the bearing surface, and the
slave surface was the corresponding contact surface. The contact
behavior of these friction pairs is defined as tangential friction and
normal hard contact, and the corresponding friction coefficients were
set to 0.4 and 0.1, respectively.
The translational degrees of freedom in all directions of the coupling
points of the inner ring of the brake disc, as well as the rotational degrees
of freedom on the X- and Y-axes, were constrained. The rotational degree
of freedom of the brake disc sample was constrained to the rotational
direction of the Z-axis, and the rotation speed was set to 200 rpm. The
boundary condition of the push rod was applied at its end surface, and
only the X-axis degree of freedom was retained. The remaining five
degrees of freedom were constrained. A brake pressure P = 0.12 MPa
was applied at the end of the push rod (equivalent to the brake force Fn
= 190 N). Complete constraints (six degrees of freedom) were set on the
bottom surface of the linear bearings. Tie constraints were respectively
set between the friction block and the holder, the holder and the push
rod, and the cantilever beam and the holder.
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Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783
4.2. Wear simulation analysis
The flowchart of the wear simulation of the friction block is shown in
Fig. 18. One cycle of the finite element analysis and post-processing is
used in this work to simulate the wear process of the friction block. First,
we conducted an implicit analysis using the finite element model. Ac­
cording to the results file, python scripts were run to obtain the co­
ordinates (x, y, z) and contact pressure p of the nodes. These parameters
were used in the wear formula to calculate the surface wear. The wear
formula used in this work is the Archard wear formula [61], which is
defined as:
Δh = k⋅p⋅Δs (1)
where Δh is the wear depth, p is the contact stress that obtain from the
friction pair worn surface, k is a dimensionless factor, and Δs is the
sliding distance. The wear depth Δhi of the contact nodes Ni is defined as:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
Δhi = k⋅pi ⋅ (xi + yi )2 ⋅ω⋅t (2)
where ω is the angular velocity, and t represents the experimental time.
Since the wear rate is slowly during the real friction process, it is
challenging to simulate the wear during the experimental time using the
finite element model. In order to reduce the time consumption of wear
simulation and thus improve the calculation efficiency, it is necessary to
set an amplification factor for the wear rate during simulate process. It is
noting that although an amplification factor is set during the wear
simulation process, both the angular velocity and simulation time
should be the same for all nodes of the friction pair contact interface.
Therefore, a new dimensionless factor K can be obtained by combined
Z.Y. Xiang et al. Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

Fig. 18. The flowchart of the wear simulation of the friction block interface of
the brake system.
several factors in this wear simulation, and these factors are shown as
following: the simulation time, the angular velocity and the dimen­
sionless factor. So, the wear depth on the node Ni on the contact inter­
face of the friction pair under each increment could be shown as
following:
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
Δhi = K⋅pi ⋅ (xi + yi )2 (3)
The dimensionless factor K used in this work is K = 1 × 10− 6.
The new coordinate (xi yi zi ) of the node Ni can be written as:
′ ′ ′
shown in Fig. 19. The results show that the leading edge experiences
large contact stress, which increases the mass loss at the leading edge,
resulting in eccentric wear and relatively high temperatures at the
leading edge (Fig. 14). When the number of revolutions is small (such as
10 revolutions), the friction block has a relatively small contact area
with the brake disc, resulting in greater contact stress and which
distribute on the leading edge region on friction block worn surface. As
the number of revolutions increases, the contact area of the brake
interface expands, thus increasing the distribution of contact stress and
reducing the contact stress.
The contact area on the brake interface of the original brake system
does not increase significantly with an increase in the number of revo­
lutions; therefore, the contact pressure of the original brake system is
significantly higher than that of the brake systems with the cantilever
beams. Similarly, the friction block of the original brake system suffers
more wear than that of the other brake systems. After the cantilever
beam is installed, the contact area of the friction block increases slightly,
except for the beam-normal brake system. In the tangential and beam-
two directions brake systems, the contact area of the brake interface
increases rapidly to reach the stable friction state so that both the
leading edge and trailing edge are in contact with the brake disc friction
surface. Subsequently, the contact stress on the friction block worn
surface changes slightly. These results indicate that the cantilever beam
significantly affects the contact pressure distribution of the brake
interface.
The evolution of the wear characteristic of the friction block worn
surface of the four brake systems is presented in Fig. 20. The results show
that the leading edge experiences significantly more wear rate than the
trailing edge. As the number of revolutions increases, the wear volume
and wear area of the leading edge also increases, which is consistent
with the evolution of the surface contact stress. In the original system,
the wear area changes slightly, and most of the wear occurs at the
leading edge. After 50 revolutions, the wear amount on the leading edge
region of the original system’s friction block is nearly 1 μm, whereas the
trailing edge has almost no wear, indicating significant eccentric wear of
this friction block.
In the beam-normal brake system, the trailing edge has an area
without wear, demonstrating that it requires some time before the
friction block and the brake disc reach a stable friction state. This result
indicates that the cantilever beam installed in the normal direction has a
smaller influence on the wear behavior at the brake interface than the
tangential and beam-two directions brake systems. The beam-two di­
rections brake system requires the shortest time to reach the stable
friction state, and the leading edge and trailing edge of the worn surface
of friction block exhibit similar wear.
The difference in the height of the friction block between the leading
edge and the trailing edge after 50 revolutions (Fig. 20) is calculated to
demonstrate the effect of the cantilever beam on the tribological
behavior of the brake interface quantitatively; the results as shown in
Fig. 21. The height difference between the leading edge and trailing
edge of the friction block is the largest (0.82 μm) in the original brake
system, followed by the normal, tangential, and beam-two directions
brake systems. The height differences are similar in the tangential and
beam-two directions brake systems.
The tribological test results in Fig. 3 show that the eccentric wear

angle is largest for the original brake system, followed by the normal,
(4)
′ ′ ′
(xi , yi , zi ) = (xi , yi , zi − Δhi )
tangential, and beam-two directions brake systems; these results are
The finite element model is updated with the new coordinate, and consistent with the wear simulation results for the four different brake
the implicit analysis is performed; this step represents one cycle of the systems friction block. Therefore, both the tribological test and the wear
wear simulation. simulation show that the cantilever beam installed on the friction block
holder improves the fit status and the tribological behavior of brake
interface. The two-directions brake system exhibits the best
4.3. Wear simulation results and discussion performance.
The deformation of the holder, friction block and cantilever beam
The evolution of the contact stress on the brake interface (take a during the wear simulation is determined, as shown in Fig. 22. All
sample of a friction block) with the increase of the disc rotation speed is cantilever beams exhibit deformation in the corresponding direction

13
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
Fig. 19. The evolution of the contact stress distribution characteristic with the increase of the revolutions.
under FIV, this phenomenon suggests that the cantilever beam can
absorb and dissipate the vibration energy of the friction system. The
normal cantilever beam has less deformation than the tangential canti­
lever beam because there is less normal vibration than tangential vi­
bration in the brake system [49]. The FIV of the brake interface is
transmitted to the cantilever beam. In addition, the vibration of the
cantilever beam propagates to the brake interface and influences the
tribological behavior of the brake interface. Four continuous time in­
tervals (the time interval of the implicit analysis is 0.001 s) are extracted
to depict the deformation of the friction block and cantilever beam in the
original and beam-two directions brake systems, as shown in Fig. 23.
Fig. 23 indicates that the friction block of the original brake system is
dragged in the friction direction, and there is a small contact inclination
angle on the brake interface [49,62]. The deformation contour of the
original brake system friction block shows that the element is above the
magnitude color at the trailing edge, and the magnitude color is above
the element the leading edge, indicating that the brake interface has a
significantly contact inclination angle. Due to this angle, the contact
stress is mainly concentrated on the leading edge region of the friction
block (as shown in Fig. 19).
Furthermore, the friction block deformation of the original brake
system changes slightly in the four continuous incremental steps, which
indicates that the friction block is stable in the inclined state, exacer­
bating the wear at the leading edge and causing eccentric wear (as
shown in Fig. 20). In the beam-two directions brake system, the relative
position of the friction block changes frequently, and there is no contact
inclination angle. Deformation of the cantilever beam is observed,
indicating that the cantilever beam improves the contact status at the
brake interface. As a result, the tribological behavior of the brake
interface would be improved significantly.
The mechanism by which the cantilever beam affects the tribological
behavior of the brake interface of the high-speed train friction brake
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Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783
system is summarized as follows. In the original brake system without
the cantilever beam, the brake interface has a significantly contact
inclination angle. The friction block keeps in a stable inclined state,
resulting in the concentration of the contact stress at the leading edge.
Consequently, the wear of the leading edge and trailing edge is different,
resulting in eccentric wear. In addition, the concentration of the contact
pressure tends to compact the wear debris to form abrasive dust layer on
the worn surface [5]. The eccentric wear of the friction block and the
wear debris compacted on the worn surface result in large contact pla­
teaus that distributed on the friction block worn surface, increasing the
complexity of the tribological behavior of the brake interface.
In contrast, in the systems with the cantilever beam, the FIV-forced
vibration of the cantilever beam, which is transmitted to the brake
interface, causing changes in the contact status of the friction block.
Both the leading edge and trailing edge are in contact with the friction
region of the brake disc due to the changing contact status, resulting in
less eccentric wear and fewer large contact plateaus than in the original
brake system. Moreover, due to the absorption and dissipation in the
friction induced vibration, the intensity of the unstable vibration and the
fluctuation in the contact pressure is reduced, which helps to alleviate
the impact action at the contact interface. Consequently, the contact
interface is well preserved and less amount of wear debris is produced,
thereby alleviating the grinding effect caused by wear debris at the
brake interface, and preventing surface damage resulted by hard parti­
cles embedded in the wear debris. Therefore, the tribology behavior at
the brake interface is improved.
5. Conclusions
Cantilever beams were installed on the friction block holder of
tribological test dynamometer in different directions to study the effect
of the cantilever beam on the tribological behavior of the brake
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
Fig. 20. The evolution of the surface wear of the friction block of the brake system.
Fig. 21. The difference in height between the leading edge and trailing edge of
the friction block.
interface. Tribological tests were conducted on a self-designed small-
scale brake dynamometer.
(1) The friction block of the original brake system without the
cantilever beam exhibited eccentric wear and a large eccentric
wear angle. Deep and wide ploughing marks and exfoliation were
observed on the worn surface, and areas of high temperatures
occurred on the brake disc. In the systems with the cantilever
beam installed on the friction block holder, the eccentric wear
angle was lower, and the contact pressure distribution and
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Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783
thermal distribution were improved, resulting in less surface
damage than in the original brake system. Under the experi­
mental conditions, the tribological behavior of the high-speed
train brake interface was better when the cantilever beams
were installed in both the normal and tangential directions
(beam-two directions brake system) than only in one direction.
(2) The worn surface of the friction block of the original brake system
showed large and continuous contact plateaus, which accounted
for the highest proportion of the total area, although the number
of contact plateaus was low. Moreover, the friction block was
covered by a large amount of wear debris. The accumulation and
compaction of the wear debris were also observed on the worn
surface and the contact platform. After installing the cantilever
beams, the worn surface of the friction block was relatively flat,
less ploughing and exfoliation occurred, and small contact pla­
teaus were observed. The presence of the cantilever beams
significantly improved the tribological behavior of the brake
interface.
(3) The vibration of the cantilever beam caused by FIV was trans­
mitted to the brake interface through the holder and the friction
block, which affected the contact status on the contact interface
continuously. As a result, the fit status of the brake interface was
improved, and the contact stress at the leading edge was mini­
mized, which resulted in uniform wear of the friction block. In
addition, due to the absorption and dissipation in the FIV, the
intensity of the unstable vibration and the fluctuation in the
contact pressure is reduced, which helps to alleviate the impact
action at the contact interface. Consequently, the contact inter­
face is well preserved and less amount of wear debris is produced,
thereby alleviating the grinding effect caused by wear debris at
Z.Y. Xiang et al. Tribology International 155 (2021) 106783

Fig. 22. The deformation of the friction block, holder, and cantilever beam during the friction process: (a) Beam-normal, (b) Beam-tangential, (c) Beam-
two directions.

Fig. 23. The deformation of the friction block, holder, and cantilever beam of the original brake system and the beam-two directions brake system.

the brake interface, and preventing surface damage resulted by
hard particles embedded in the wear debris.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Z.Y. Xiang: Data curation, Formal analysis, Software, Investigation,
Writing - original draft. H.H. Qian: Investigation, Software, Writing -
original draft. J.L. Mo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Project
administration, Validation, Writing - review & editing, Funding acqui­
sition. W. Chen: Investigation, Validation, Writing - review & editing.
D.Q. Tan: Investigation, Methodology, Validation. Z.R. Zhou: Re­
sources, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the financial support of the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51822508), Sichuan Province
Science and Technology Support Program (No. 2020JDTD0012), the
Independent Research Projects of State Key Laboratory of Traction
Power (2020TPL-T06), and the Open Research Projects of Technology
and the Equipment of Rail Transit Operation and Maintenance Key

16
Z.Y. Xiang et al.
Laboratory of Sichuan Province (2019YW004).
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