During braking both of the discs and pads of disc brakes are worn. Since disc brakes are not sealed, some of the generated wear particles can become airborne. Wheel-rail is also subjected to wear process during braking as well as normal running. They also contribute to generate airborne particles. Several studies have found an association between adverse health effects and the concentration of particles in the atmosphere, so it is of interest to improve our knowledge of the airborne wear particles generated by disc brakes.
The present work includes results from full scale testing of rail vehicles. Particle size distribution, morphology and elemental contents are presented and discussed for different combinations of disc and pad materials. Due to high back ground concentration levels in field tests, dedicated laboratory test set ups on a reduced scale were designed and utilized for airborne particle studies with zero background level.
Promising correlation between field test and the lab set up is identified. Different ways of using this test set up for evaluating how the composition of the airborne particles is classified with respect to their health effects are discussed. Furthermore, different ways of using the proposed method to rank and to quantify airborne particle emission factors are presented.
QC 20130612