Principal Investigator
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Ongoing project
Development and Performance Characterisation of Standard Automotive Brake Pads using Locally Available Uganda Raw Materials
Summary
| Uganda largely depends on imported automotive brake pads despite abundant agricultural and mineral resources that could serve as friction-material constituents. Utilizing these materials could reduce import dependence, create value from waste, and support local manufacturing.
To develop and characterize standard automotive brake pads using locally available Ugandan raw materials and evaluate their mechanical, thermal, tribological, and braking performance against commercial benchmarks and relevant standards.
Selected materials such as rice husk ash, banana stem ash, clay, and biomass residues will be processed and characterized. Design of Experiments (DOE) will optimize formulations comprising binders, reinforcements, fillers, abrasives, and friction modifiers. Prototype pads will be manufactured and evaluated for hardness, strength, thermal stability, friction, wear, fade, and recovery. FEM and AI models will predict performance, while multi-objective optimization will identify formulations balancing performance, durability, and cost.
The project integrates Ugandan waste-resource utilization, friction-material engineering, controlled manufacturing, experimental testing, FEM, AI, and standards-based optimization.
The project will produce optimized brake-pad formulations, prototypes, material-performance databases, predictive models, and manufacturing parameters, together with techno-economic and environmental assessments. The research will support standards certification, import substitution, waste valorization, local employment, circular-economy development, and commercialization of locally manufactured automotive brake pads. |
To develop and characterize standard automotive brake pads using locally available Ugandan raw materials and evaluate their mechanical, thermal, tribological, and braking performance against commercial benchmarks and relevant standards.
Selected materials such as rice husk ash, banana stem ash, clay, and biomass residues will be processed and characterized. Design of Experiments (DOE) will optimize formulations comprising binders, reinforcements, fillers, abrasives, and friction modifiers. Prototype pads will be manufactured and evaluated for hardness, strength, thermal stability, friction, wear, fade, and recovery. FEM and AI models will predict performance, while multi-objective optimization will identify formulations balancing performance, durability, and cost.
The project integrates Ugandan waste-resource utilization, friction-material engineering, controlled manufacturing, experimental testing, FEM, AI, and standards-based optimization.
The project will produce optimized brake-pad formulations, prototypes, material-performance databases, predictive models, and manufacturing parameters, together with techno-economic and environmental assessments. The research will support standards certification, import substitution, waste valorization, local employment, circular-economy development, and commercialization of locally manufactured automotive brake pads. |