CHAPTER REVIEW BY: SAMMAN SINGH PRADHAN 07/29/2020

Breaking system design for passenger cars and light vans

The present chapter introduces the basic concept, knowledge and understanding for the design of
a breaking system for vehicle with two axle grid configuration system. The fundamental theory
and analysis is based on the 2D bicycle model where there is no lateral variation in the wheel and
brake forces that act on the vehicle during braking.

1. Weight transfer during breaking

When a car decelerates during breaking a dynamic effect called dive occurs. where the nose of
the vehicle dips because of ‘weight transfer’ between the vehicle’s axles. A 2D ‘free-body’
diagram of a two-axle, four-wheel rigid vehicle in dynamic equilibrium with no side-to-side
difference in forces ii shown Figure 1

After resolving the moments and forces we receive an equation defining the normal reaction forces
on the rear and front axle:

Where ,
P = Vehicle weight (N)
Pi = Normal reaction at the road surface of axle ‘i’ under static conditions .(N)
Ni = Dynamic normal reaction at the road surface of axle ‘i’ under braking(N)

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Fi = Adhesion used by axle i

J = Deceleration of the vehicle (m/s2)
g = Acceleration due to gravity ( 9.81 m/s2 )
z = J/g ¼ Rate of braking of the vehicle.
h = Height of the center of gravity of the vehicle above the road surface (m)
E = Wheelbase (m)
L1 = Horizontal distance from the front axle to the vehicle’s center of gravity (m)
L2 = Horizontal distance from the rear axle to the vehicle’s center of gravity (m)
µ = Coefficient of sliding friction associated with the friction material in the brake
µt = Coefficient of sliding friction of a tyre on a locked wheel sliding on the road surface
F = Friction drag force (N)
Xi = Proportion of the total vehicle braking force generated at axle ‘i’(m)

Pzh/E is called the ‘weight transfer’ term, indicating the extra normal reaction transferred to the
front axle .The equation concludes that the dip depends upon two vehicle design parameters, the
height of the center of gravity above the road surface (h) and the wheelbase (E), so a tall short
vehicle will experience more weight transfer to the front wheels while braking than a long low
vehicle.

When the retarding torque becomes higher than the reaction torque from the road the tyres slide.
Tyres are not designed to dissipate kinetic energy by sliding friction and will quickly overheat and
suffer serious damage if they skid. Equation for the friction between the road and the tyre For all
tyres locked and sliding is give as;

1.1 Cornering Vehicle

The normal reactions (contact forces) between the tyre and the road are not only affected by
longitudinal weight transfer (along the X-axis) during braking but also by lateral weight transfer
during cornering generated by ‘roll’ of the Cornering vehicle about the X-axis.

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The cornering force is Fc = mv2 /R, where v is the speed of the car (m/s) and R is the radius of the
corner. The total normal forces acting on the inner and outer tires is give by

And

The term P/2 is the static load on the wheels, and hF/t is called the ‘cornering weight transfer’ term,
indicating the extra normal force transferred to the outer wheel (from the inner wheel) during
cornering. During cornering, the outer wheel dynamic normal reaction is increased, while the inner
is decreased causing dynamic normal forces to exceed the adhesion limit leading to wheel lock
which can be potentially hazardous.

2. Tyre adhesion

Tyres develop a grip between the vehicle and the road that enables the dynamic forces on the
vehicle to be reacted by the road. Tyre/road grip or adhesion refers to the tangential force between
the tyre and the road .The contact patch is the patch of the tyre which is in contact with the road .
When the wheel is rolling, the contact patch is an ‘instantaneous center’ where conditions of static
friction apply. Rolling resistance, i.e. the resistance to motion when a tyre rolls on a surface,
provides vehicle retardation without using the brakes, and thus should be minimized to avoid
wasting energy.

Tyre/road adhesion is generally specified in terms of an ‘adhesion coefficient’, which is the

maximum or limiting value of the ratio of the tangential force generated by a road wheel that is
rolling (i.e. not locked) to the normal force on the wheel at the tyre/road interface.

2.1 Breaking force and wheel slip

The nature of rubber friction is that the tangential force is generated by the successive formation
and release of adhesion over macroscopic regions of the tyre’s rubber compound in the tread. a

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phenomenon known as ‘wheel slip’ , occurs associated with the microscopic movement of the tyre
rubber compound relative to the road surface. Wheel slip is defined in terms of the ratio of the
actual speed of rotation of the road wheel to the free-rolling speed of rotation
Wheel slip = (v - ωr)/v

Where,
V = vehicle forward speed (m/s)
U= tyre rotational speed (rad/s)
rr = rolling radius of the tyre (m).
The term ‘braking force coefficient’ (BFC) can be used to represent the instantaneous ratio
between the retarding force and the normal reaction force at the tyre/road interface:
BFC = Braking force on the wheel/Dynamic wheel load
The limit of the BFC is the tyre/road ‘adhesion coefficient when the limit to the available braking
force is reached, where the slip is 100%, which is the condition of wheel lock and skid.

In the BFC vs Wheel slip graph the region A-B-C is termed the ‘stable zone’ where it is possible
to transmit the developed braking force to the road, and the region C-D is termed the ‘unstable
zone’ where it is no longer possible to transmit the developed braking force to the road.

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2.2 Braking and Lateral Forces in Tyres

A tyre can only develop a lateral (or sideways) force, i.e. a

force parallel to the wheel axle, by a lateral deformation of
the contact patch, which in turn is associated with ‘lateral
slip’. Thus, for the wheel to roll straight ahead while at the
same time reacting to a lateral force, the tyre must run at a
‘slip angle’. The term ‘sideways force coefficient’ is often
used to represent the (empirically derived) relationship
between the lateral force and the normal load on the tyre:

SFC = Lateral force/Dynamic wheel load

The SFC vs slip angle graph should be interpreted as that at

any value of slip angle, the corresponding SFC value represents the limiting value of tyre/road
adhesion at that point. The maximum value of SFC again represents the peak adhesion that
occurs at only one value of slip angle. If the resultant of the longitudinal (braking) force and the
lateral force demands are too high, a skid will ensue

3. Break Force Distribution

wheel lock will occur if the magnitude of the longitudinal brake force on any wheel exceeds the
maximum that the tyre/road interface can sustain. Maximum brake force is developed just at the
critical point C so it follows that for the maximum vehicle deceleration or rate of braking to be
achieved at any given road surface , all wheels must simultaneously approach the point of locking.
The vehicle total braking force is the sum of the braking torque at each individual road wheel. The
ratio of the braking force generated by the front wheels to the braking force generated by the rear
wheels of a two-axle rigid road vehicle such as a passenger car can be specified as the ratio X1/X2,
where X1 and X2 are the proportion of the vehicle’s total braking force generated at the front and
rear axles respectively. By definition:
T1/T2 = X1/X2 and X1+ X2= 1
Breaks are designed so that the front wheels will lock first on a surface of tyre/road coefficient
of adhesion k, then the braking force at the front axle when the front wheels are about to lock is
given by:

The corresponding braking force at the rear axle is less than the limiting adhesion value because
the braking system has been designed to lock the front wheels first.

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We can also deduce equations to find the rate of breaking from the above equations the rate of
braking at the from and rear axle are defined by the equations given below respectively

The coefficient of adhesion vs rate of breaking illustrates the lowest value of adhesion coefficient
that is theoretically required for the vehicle to achieve a particular rate of braking using rate of
breaking Equations. Up to the point of simultaneous front and rear wheel lock, i.e. where the front
and rear lines cross over, the front wheels require higher adhesion coefficient and therefore will
lock before the rear wheels.

4. Breaking efficiency
Braking efficiency is a measure of the use which a vehicle’s braking system is able to make of
the available coefficient of adhesion. Since it has already been shown that z cannot exceed k,
braking efficiency can be defined as:

For the case of a two-axle rigid vehicle, at the condition where the front wheels are on the point
of lock, and the rear wheels are braked but still rotating,

similarly, for the condition where the rear wheels are on the point of lock, and the front wheels
are braked but still rotating

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The variable front to rear braking ratio for a two-axle, four-wheel rigid vehicle such as a
passenger car is defined as Xvar1/Xvar2 , and this would ensure that the front and rear wheels of the
vehicle lock simultaneously under all conditions of loading and usage. This would represent the
best case of 100% vehicle braking efficiency where z = k and the maximum deceleration of the
vehicle is limited only by the tyre/road adhesion coefficient k:

5. Utilization of adhesion
The ratio of the braking force on the axle to the dynamic normal reaction on the axle. Therefore
the minimum coefficient of adhesion required by a particular axle to achieve a given rate of
braking.

For fixed breaking ratio:

The Adhesion utilization vs breaking rate graph indicates which axle will lock first for any
particular road surface and operating conditions as defined by the prevailing adhesion coefficient
k. The adhesion utilization f1 or f2 cannot exceed k so the axle with the higher adhesion utilization
will be the one that locks first.

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