Efficiency and Fatigue/Endurance Laboratory Tests of Aviation Friction Brakes

Brakes are one of the most important safety systems in moving vehicles and machines. In vehicles such as cars or motorcycles brakes are used for stopping, controlling speed, and sometimes changing direction of travel. In aircraft, the main function of brakes is to reduce landing speed. As landing is one of the most dangerous maneuvers in aircraft operation, brakes must be efficient and reliable in order to ensure safety of the crew, passengers, and cargo. The most efficient brakes nowadays are friction brakes where velocity is controlled by friction of a pair of specially designed materials, which ensure stable and high friction coefficient over the course of the required braking process. The process itself is the dissipation of energy during aircraft movement which generates very high temperatures in friction materials during the time of the braking process. The materials and the whole brakes have to be temperature resistant, and we must ensure braking parameters are stable during the whole process. The same principle relates to the endurance/fatigue of the brake assemblies which must be durable enough to survive as high number of braking cycles as possible without any failure, which can result in fatal consequences. Every friction pair and every newly designed brake assembly must be laboratory tested for efficiency and endurance/fatigue in order to be used in an aircraft or vehicle. In this paper, we present the basic set of laboratory tests in the scope of friction materials and brake assemblies. Results of the tests are used as confirmations/proofs of proper and safe operation of the brakes for use in vehicles, especially in aircraft but also in land-based vehicles.