Driving cycles for studying brake wear particle emissions on an inertial brake dynamometer

Abstract

With the development of contemporary drive systems that have a lower or zero emission of exhaust products, a significant reduction in the harmful influence of traffic on the environment has been achieved, but today new pollutants have been identified on the vehicle. One of such non-exhaust pollutant are brakes whose wear can be a significant particulate matter (PM) contributor. Examining the mechanisms of the formation of particles during braking, and therefore, brake wear is becoming one of the important areas of research today. There are several tests and driving cycles that are applied during the research of the brakes, but they are not primarily defined for testing particle emissions during braking. UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) has included in its plan the introduction of standardised cycles that will prescribe a brake cycle whose purpose will be to examine the formation of particles. The brake pads are made of a mixture of different materials that ensure the longevity and efficiency of the brake system and the applied materials have different wear intensities in certain operating conditions. The most common laboratory tests in this area are performed using inertial brake dynamometers. This paper presents an experimental planning method of quantifying the influence of some of the operating parameters (initial speed of the vehicle, braking pressure and vehicle’s load per one brake disc-pads friction pair) on the airborne particulate matter for four different brake pads materials during testing on an inertial brake dynamometer.