The effects of porosity on the friction and wear of carbon–carbon composite aircraft brakes

Six sets of subscale carbon–carbon composite rotors and stators for aircraft brakes were manufactured to provide friction and wear test samples at six different densities. The friction and wear tests used energies to represent the service energy of the Boeing 767 aircraft. A functional relationship between fiction coefficient and porosity/density was made. This relationship was used to minimise manufacturing cost by providing the minimum densification of the carbon–carbon composite brake discs needed to meet design friction coefficient. [Continues.]