Effects of Hybridization of Cow Hooves and Bamboo Fibres on the Microstructural, Physical and Tribological Properties of Fabricated Brake Pads

Abstract

Nwosu, P. C., Nwufo, O. C., Arukalam, I. O., & Uche, R. (2026).Effects of Hybridization of Cow Hooves and Bamboo Fibres on the Microstructural, Physical and Tribological Properties of Fabricated Brake Pads.Afrisophia: Journal of African Experiment, Thought and Experience, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 25–42. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19464122 Abstract The effects of hybridization of cow hooves and bamboo fibres on the microstructural, physical and tribological properties of fabricated brake pads was investigated. Nine (9) different sample formulations - (01 = formulation without bamboo fibre; 02 = formulation without cow hooves filler; and 1 – 7 = formulations with combined varying amounts of cow hooves filler and bamboo fibre) were developed and fabricated using compression moulding technique. The microstructural, physical, and tribological properties of the fabricated brake pads samples were evaluated. In respect of the microstructural properties, the distribution of constituent materials in the samples were found to be uneven. However, they are relatively compact. The densities of brake pad samples (1 - 7) show that they are higher than the minimum threshold of 1.0 g/cm3. As expected, sample 7 with higher proportion of bamboo fibre than cow hoof gave the highest water and oil absorptions. Considering the effect of varying proportion of cow hoof and bamboo fibre on the tribological properties of the fabricated brake pad samples, both the static and dynamic coefficients of friction increased from sample 1 to sample 6, and then showed a marked decrease with sample 7. With respect to wear rate determination, sample 7 with higher proportion of bamboo fibre than cow hoof gave the lowest wear rate (1.026E-08 g/m). Keywords: Cow hooves, Bamboo fibres, Brake pads, Coefficient of friction, Wear rate. Permanent open-access archive hosted by Zenodo.