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California and Washington recently passed legislation to limit certain constituents in brake pad friction materials. As part of the California (CA) legislation enacted in 2010, brake pad manufacturers need to perform an alternative assessment to identify potentially safer environmental and toxicological choices for future friction material production. Copper, chromium VI-salts, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other compounds have been identified as potentially unsafe to the environment. This paper contains the methodology behind an objective and comprehensive alternative assessment to quantify the ecological impact of friction materials. Utilizing raw material specific Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers and their associated toxicological reference values (TRVs), this newly defined method estimates the total toxicological impact of finished friction materials on both the environment and on a human carcinogenic level to allow the manufacturer to screen greener alternatives.

Lining life numerical evaluation is getting increasingly popular. Through numerical simulation, the impacts on lining life due to design changes can be easily evaluated. The numerical approach usually predicts rotor temperature first, and then uses the lining wear versus rotor temperature data derived from physical testing to further assess lining life. Therefore, the success in predicting lining life largely relies on the accuracy of predicted rotor temperature as well as the lining wear versus rotor temperature data incorporated afterwards. In this paper, a 1-D rotor thermal model is presented, which intends to better predict rotor temperature while not dramatically increasing computational time. Furthermore, the inputs that would greatly affect simulation results are discussed. After that, two lining life evaluation examples, which employ the 1-D rotor thermal model, are presented. Finally, the applicability of lining wear versus rotor temperature data is discussed.