Tribological Performance of Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Resin-matrix Brake Composites

The bamboo fibers were added into resin matrix composite as the main reinforcement in order to develop a new kind of friction material free of asbestos. By using thermogravimetric analysis, constant speed friction test and worn surface morphology observation, the effect of amount of bamboo fiber in the composite on the tribological performance at different temperatures was investigated. The results show that the addition of bamboo fibers in the composites improved the friction and wear properties and reduced the braking noise and vibration. Carbonation and volatilization of bamboo fibers occurred at temperature higher than the pyrolysis temperature. In this study, the braking samples with 13% bamboo fiber showed stable friction coefficients and low wear rates. High amount of bamboo fibers resulted in difficulty in preparation process, carbonation and volatilization of bamboo fibers at elevated temperature and de-bonding from the matrix. As a result, the friction properties of the composites were degraded significantly.