Development and tribological characterization of fly ash reinforced iron based functionally gradient friction materials

The tribological and thermal properties enable iron based sintered materials with hard phase ceramic reinforcements as promising friction material for heavy-duty wind turbines. In wind turbines, the braking system consists of aerodynamic and mechanical braking systems. During application of mechanical brakes, the friction materials are pressed against the rotating low-speed shaft. The desired braking efficiency is achieved by utilizing a number of friction materials, which in turn are joined in a steel backing plate. Though this arrangement increases the braking efficiency, the hard phase ceramic reinforcement particles reduces the bonding strength between the friction material and steel backing plate. The joint failure leads to catastrophic failure of wind turbine. Therefore, the need of the hour is to develop friction materials with functional gradients that have high wear resistance (contact area) and high bond strength (interface). In this study, an attempt is made to fabricate and characterize a friction material with gradient profile of composition along the cross section to provide functional gradient property. The functional gradient friction material is synthesized by gradient deposition of Fe, Cu, Cg, SiC and fly ash powders which is then compacted and sintered. The prepared functional gradient friction material was characterized in terms of microstructure and microhardness. The tribological performance (wear rate and coefficient of friction) of the developed functionally gradient friction material was investigated at various loads using pin-on disc apparatus. The results show that as the load increases, the wear rate decreases and at the same time the COF tends to increase at higher loads. The predominant wear mechanism was deduced from the morphology of the worn surface.