Effect of perforated structure of friction block on the wear, thermal distribution and noise characteristics of railway brake systems

The influence of a customized friction block with a hole in the middle of the block surface is studied in this paper. Factors including wear, thermal distribution and noise performance of railway brake systems are investigated using a customized small-scale brake dynamometer. Experimental results show that the perforated friction block can affect wear debris distribution, thermal distribution, and noise characteristics of the brake system considerably. The perforated block is able to trap a large portion of wear debris and form smoother contact plateaus on the worn surface compared to the block without perforation. This characteristic is beneficial to improve the wear status of the friction interface. Additionally, the perforated block displays a uniform thermal distribution on the friction interface, and exhibits lower brake noise during testing. Utilizing the test phenomena, the correlation among wear, thermal distribution, and noise characteristics of the brake system is analyzed and discussed. •The imperforate block and the perforated block were investigated experimentally.•The worn surface were characterised, and the wear mechanism was revealed.•The results demonstrated that the perforated block exhibits superior tribological properties and noise characteristics.•The correlation of the wear with the thermal distribution and noise characteristics is provided.