Effect of Nanoclay Reinforcement on the Friction Braking Performance of Hybrid Phenolic Friction Composites

Friction composite formulation consisting of decreasing nanoclay/lapinus fibres content, increasing graphite/aramid fibres content, and master batch of phenolic/barite is designed, fabricated, and characterized for their mechanical, thermo-mechanical, and tribological studies in braking situations. A standard test protocol is adopted for evaluating braking performance. The nanoclay content (≤2.25 wt.%) enhances hardness, impact strength, storage, and loss modulus characteristics of the friction composites. Such composites exhibit higher friction stability as well as variability coefficient. However, composites with higher content of nanoclay (~2.75 wt.%) exhibit moderate level of stability coefficient and minimum variability coefficient. Fade performance improves with nanoclay content whereas friction fluctuations increase continuously with increasing nanoclay content. The disc temperature continuously rises with nanoclay contents, it becomes maximum for nanoclay content 2.75 wt.%. The same composition found to be effective in arresting temperature rise, arrests fading, improves recovery, moderate stability with minimum variability coefficient, and higher level of μ-performance hence recommended. The wear performance deteriorates with lapinus/nanoclay content and improves with the amount of aramid/graphite in the friction composites. Worn surface morphology study (using SEM) reveals the associated wear mechanisms responsible for wear of investigated composites. XRD study confirms the presence and dispersion of nanoclay with other composite ingredients.