2C13 Recent endeavors for high performance brake system of Shinkansen(Safety-Vehicle)

Shinkansen has been one of the world's safest and most reliable means of transportation. Its high reliability is based on high technology and experience developed over the past years. We have conducted a research on the brake system to improve braking performance by the optimization of the braking system. When we optimized the brake system, we should consider both of the hardware and the software side technology. The former is like the structure and materials of brake disc and pad, and the latter is like the skid controller and the shearing rate of brake force. When an earthquake occurs, mechanical brake is the only brake system available for Shinkansen since regenerative brake system cannot be used due to power cut.The heat load to the brake disc and the brake pad increases drastically when mechanical brake is applied. Therefore, brake discs and brake pads are required to have sufficient durability against the damage which accumulates in them during deceleration from the maximum velocity to the complete stop. In other words, they are required to have high wear resistance, high heat resistance, high strength, and high toughness, while providing stable braking force.This study is aimed at improving braking performance by developing a new brake disc and brake pad with new structures and aterials.In this paper, we report the development of the brake disc and pad which showed higher braking performance and reduced temperature rise in laboratory and commercial-line testing.