Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

Electronic brake force distribution

(EBD)

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Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

ELECTRONIC BRAKE FORCE DISTRIBUTION (EBD)

Driving safety has been a major focus of the automotive industry for many years.
Car manufacturers have poured millions of dollars into researching safety and
regulatory devices and the result has been an astonishing improvement in the
safety of even the most inexpensive vehicles. It's easier now than it's ever been to
find a car that will let you and your family ride in comfort and safety.

Quite a few of the new automotive safety technologies are based around
computers, micro-circuitry that can sense what the car and its driver are doing and
compensate for any problems that may threaten the well-being of the car and its
passengers. Some of the most impressive safety improvements involve braking.
The ability to stop a car in a safe manner is crucial in preventing accidents.
Antilock braking systems (ABS) are now found in almost all cars, and with the
addition of refinements like electronic skid control (ESC) these systems, along
with an alert driver, can stop many accidents before they ever happen.

One of the most successful recent refinements to antilock braking systems has been
electronic brake force distribution, or EBD. EBD is based on the principle that not
every wheel needs to put forth the same effort into bringing the car to a stop.

EBD is based on the principle that the weight being supported by the wheels of
your car isn't evenly distributed. Some wheels carry a heavier load than others and
will require more brake force in order to bring the car to a stop without it going out
of control. Furthermore, the amount of weight being supported by a wheel shifts
during the braking process, so the amount of force necessary at each wheel can
change rapidly. An EBD system can not only detect how much weight is being
supported by each wheel, but change the amount of braking power sent to each
wheel on an instant-by-instant basis.

 Electronic Brake Force Distribution Components

The safety and regulatory hardware used by an electronic brake force distribution
system is much the same as the hardware used by an antilock braking system
without EBD. It's just programmed differently. For the purposes of EBD, three
different pieces of hardware are necessary: sensors that can determine the slip ratio
of each wheel, valves that can modulate the amount of brake force that goes to

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Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

each wheel and an electronic control unit that can calculate the amount of force
required.

1, Speed sensors:-

To determine the slip ratio of a wheel, the EBD system needs two pieces of
information:

 the speed at which the wheel is rotating and

 the speed of the car

If the speed at which the wheel is rotating is slower than the speed at which the car
is moving, then the wheel is slipping and a skid can result. A sensor is placed at
each wheel to determine wheel speed. There is no specific sensor to measure the
forward motion of the car. Instead, the speed measurements from all four wheels
are averaged to create an estimate of the vehicle's overall speed.(For detailed
operation of this sensor look at ABS system)

2, Brake force modulators:

Brake force is applied to the wheels hydraulically, with brake fluid pumped into
brake lines in such a way as to pneumatically activate the brake cylinders. The
EBD system can modulate the amount of brake fluid going to each wheel through
electrically actuated valves.

3, Electronic Control Unit (ECU):

The ECU is a small computer embedded in the antilock braking system. It receives
input from the speed sensors, calculates the slip ratio of the wheels, and uses the
brake force modulators to apply an appropriate amount of force to keep the slip
ratio of each wheel within a reasonable range.

Most EBD systems also include a yaw sensor, which detects the rotation of the
vehicle as it turns. This can be compared with the angle of the steering wheel by
using a steering wheel angle sensor to detect over steer (too much rotation
relative to the angle of the wheel) or under steer (not enough rotation relative to
the angle of the wheel). EBD can then correct the steering by activating one of the
rear brakes. For instance, if the car begins to under steer, the inner rear brake is
activated to increase the car's rotation. If the car begins to over steer, the outer rear

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Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

brake is activated to decrease the car's rotation. The yaw sensor can also be used in
conjunction with electronic stability control (ESC) to prevent rollover accidents.

Electronic Brake Force Distribution tips

Tires work by friction. When you step on the accelerator, the friction between the
tires and the road is what makes you move forward. When you step on the brake,
the friction between the tires and the road is what slows you down. That's why in
icy conditions it's sometimes difficult to get your car to start moving when you
want it to and even more difficult to make it stop.

Friction is also what keeps the car moving in the direction you want it to go. When
we accelerate, we often take for granted that the car will move in the direction that
the wheels are pointing; however, if there were no friction between the tire and the
road the car could easily slip sideways and go out of control.

It's important for driving safety to maintain the friction between the tire and the
road, yet there are a number of conditions under which this friction can be lost.
One is acceleration on icy roads, as mentioned above, but friction can also be lost
if you brake too hard. The forward momentum of the car can keep it moving at a
speed significantly greater than the speed at which the tires are spinning. This is
called wheel lock and it's a common cause of driving accidents. Once it happens,
the tires no longer grip the pavement and the car continues to travel in the direction
it was heading when the skid started.

The key to avoiding a skid is the slip ratio, the difference between the speed at
which the car is moving and the speed at which the tire is rotating. Antilock
braking systems (ABS) can sense the slip ratio of the individual tires and modulate
the brake force applied to each tire so that the slip ratio remains within a safe
range, thereby avoiding a skid.(for more about this paragraph look at the ABS
system)

When a car slows down, its weight shifts forward. In a front-engine car, the extra
weight up front increases the grip of the front tires while it reduces the grip of the
rear tires. This makes the rear tires more likely to lock up during braking. When
the rear wheels slip, the car can begin to fishtail or even go into a spin.
Traditionally, braking systems included a proportioning valve to allocate the

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Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

correct amount of brake force to the front and rear tires. However, with ABS the
proportioning valve no longer provides an ideal solution to the problem.

This is where electronic brake force distribution (EBD) comes in. With EBD, a
computer called an electronic control unit (ECU) determines the slip ratio of each
of the tires individually. If the ECU notices that the rear wheels are in danger of
slipping, it applies less force to them while maintaining (or, if necessary,
increasing) the force applied to the front wheels. EBD is also useful when the car is
braking while driving around a corner. While turning, the outer wheels of the car
rotate more quickly than the inside wheels. If too much brake force is applied to
the inner wheels they can lock, causing the car to oversteer and go out of control.
EBD can sense the slippage of the inner wheels and reduce the brake force on

those wheels without reducing the force on the outer wheels.

 Benefits of Electronic Brake Force Distribution

Imagine you're driving down the highway at 50 miles per hour (80.5 kilometers per
hour) and you see an obstacle in front of you -- a stopped car, for instance. You
step on your brakes but there isn't room to come to a full stop before you collide
with the car's rear bumper. In desperation you turn the steering wheel to one side to
go around the stopped car, even while you're still pressing down on the brake.

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Adama Science and Technology University Mechanical and vehicle Engineering Department

What happens? Well, if your car has a traditional braking system, you might be out
of luck. The shifting vehicle weight can cause the tires to lock, which reduces your
ability to steer. You may find that you can't get around the obstacle in time. Or the
car may over steer and go out of control. With electronic brake force distribution,
on the other hand, your vehicle's tires don't lock up and you retain the ability to
steer. And the over steer is prevented by maintaining the proper brake force to the
inner and outer wheels. As a result, you're more likely to get out of this situation
with your car intact and your passengers uninjured.

Now imagine that you're driving on an icy surface or a road slick with rainwater.
Under these conditions it's really easy for your car to go into a skid. And although
EBD cannot detect road conditions directly, it can deduce them from the slip ratio
of the wheels and compensate accordingly. If conditions are different for each
wheel -- for instance, if one wheel is on a patch of ice and the other is not -- this
can be detected through the slip ratio. Although there's no magic solution to the
problem of stopping a car under bad road conditions, EBD can make emergency
braking under these conditions as safe as possible.

Here's another less-than-obvious benefit of EBD: When you load the trunk of your
car with luggage, it changes the traction on your rear wheels, which means that
more force can be applied to these wheels during braking. A standard
proportioning valve wouldn't necessarily take this extra weight into account, but
electronic brake distribution compensates appropriately for your car's now heavier
rear end. EBD can't detect this extra weight directly, but the system becomes aware
of it through its effect on the slip ratio of the tires.

To state the obvious, driving safely is important to everyone -- even pedestrians.

Electronic brake distribution and antilock brake system technology, especially
when coupled with other safety technologies such as traction control and electronic
stability control, is a major contribution to driving safety and can help keep you
and your family safe, whether on long trips or just a drive to the local grocery.

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