Towards a cellular automaton to simulate friction, wear, and particle emission of disc brakes

Particle emissions originating from the sliding disc brake contact in disc brakes are a main contributor to PM10 in Europe. The macroscopic friction and wear behaviour can be explained, at the mesoscopic scale level, by the growth and destruction of contact plateaus. This paper further develops a cellular automaton that describes the mesoscopic contact situation by implementing friction, wear, and particle emission models based on data found in the literature. Three simulations at different load levels were conducted to investigate how contact pressure and temperature affect friction, wear, and particle emissions. The simulated behaviour correlates qualitatively with experimental observations found in the literature, but further work is necessary to obtain a quantitative correlation.