This review article comprises of three parts. Firstly, reports of brake manufacturers on the beneficial impact of solid lubricants for pad formulations are surveyed. Secondly, since tribofilms were identified to play a crucial role in friction stabilization and wear reduction, the knowledge about tribofilm structures formed during automotive braking was reviewed comprehensively. Finally, a model for simulating the sliding behavior of tribofilms is suggested and a review on modelling efforts with different model structures related to real tribofilms will be presented. Although the variety of friction composites involved in commercial brake systems is very broad, striking similarities were observed in respect to tribofilm nanostructures. Thus, a generalization of the tribofilm nanostructure is suggested and prerequisites for smooth sliding performance and minimal wear rates have been identified. A minimum of 13 vol % of soft inclusions embedded in an iron oxide based tribofilm is crucial for obtaining the desired properties. As long as the solid lubricants or their reaction products are softer than magnetite, the main constituent of the tribofilm, the model predicts smooth sliding and minimum wear.

A multilevel approach is used to numerically investigate physical and mechanical properties of titanium-based bcc alloys and their behavior under conditions identical to selective laser sintering....

The paper presents a molecular dynamics study to investigate the behavior of materials under loading by friction stir welding (FPW). The loading is simulated by assigning constant angular and forward velocities to a certain group of atoms, being a FPW tool. The joined materials are two defect-free Cu crystallites, Cu and Fe crystallites, and two crystallites of the same solid solution structured as D16 (2024) alloy. It is found that as the tool passes along the weld line, the crystal structure of the materials is rearranged with subsequent mixing of their surface atoms. Under certain loading conditions, the crystal lattice after passage of the tool recovers its regular order. Also analyzed is the influence of vibrations additionally applied to the FPW tool. The simulation results provide a better understanding of the processes involved in mechanically activated diffusion.

The sliding behaviors of two simplified tribofilms with amorphous structure consisting either of SiO₂ molecules or C atoms were simulated by molecular dynamics modeling. The objective was to identify mechanisms explaining the experimentally observed lubricating properties of the two amorphous films. The impacts of layer thickness, normal pressure, temperature and different substrate materials were studied systematically, while the sliding velocity was kept constant at 30 m/s. While the layer thickness was not critical, all the other parameters showed special effects under certain conditions. Normal pressure impeded void formation and could even eliminate voids if applied at high temperature. Stick-slip sliding was changed to smooth sliding at high temperature due to void healing. Considering the carbon film, high friction forces and shearing of the entire film was observed with diamond substrates, whereas interface sliding at low friction forces and an amorphous layer of iron mixed with carbon was observed if the supporting substrates consisted of α-Fe. Both films show a decrease of friction forces and smooth sliding behavior at elevated temperature, corresponding well to the tribological behavior of an advanced nanocomposite sliding against a steel disc under severe stressing conditions when high flash temperatures can be expected.