Topographic properties of the contact zones of wear surfaces in disc brakes

Disc brakes are widely used in cars, trains, and other vehicles. For understanding the basic processes occurring during the friction process, information on the surface topography of brake pads and discs is needed, in addition to information about chemistry and thermodynamics. In this paper, samples of pads and discs were analysed using white light interferometry. The topography of the surfaces was measured quantitatively. Using software tools described in a previous paper [Wear 248 (2001) 121], the distributions of area, height, and slope of the contact patches were computed. Characteristic properties of the contact patches were found to describe the influence of the test parameters such as friction power and testing time.