2016 IEEE/CSAA International Conference on Aircraft Utility Systems (AUS)
The Review and Development of the Brake System for Civil Aircrafts
Zehua Liu *, Zhenshui Li, Cheng Qin, Yaoxing Shang, Xiaochao Liu
Abstract— the brake system is meeting with an important
opportunity and challenge with the research of the civil aircraft
deeply. This paper describes the main techniques of the brake
system for the famous civil aircraft A380 and B787. And points
out the developing trend of civil aircraft brake system, including
the electric brake technology, the auto-brake technology, the
advanced control law or control policy, the system integration
technology, the redundant control, the fault detection, the
system reconfiguration technology, the green taxiing control
and the brake system auxiliary measures. Comparing the
difference of here and abroad advanced technology, some
viewpoints about the development of aircraft brake system are
proposed.
I. INTRODUCTION
The development of civil aircraft is an important indicator
to measure the science and technology, the industrial level and
the overall national strength of the country. The modern civil
aircraft develops towards ultra large and ultra efficient two
directionsǏ1ǐ, and the most representative model is the large
wide-body aircraft A380 aircraft that Airbus has put into
operation and Boeing B787 aircraft.
The aircraft antiskid brake system is an important
subsystem of the aircraft hydraulic control system, and plays
an important role in aircraft take-off aborted and landings
securityǏ2ǐ. Brake system brakes for the large civil aircraft, and
it must absorb a large kinetic energy of aircraft landing in a
very short time, so it is naturally a severe test for the brake
system. It is not only required to ensure the safety, smooth and
reliable of aircraft landing process in each case, but also have a
strong adaptability to the runway when landing. The specific
requirements for the brake system are to ensure the safe and
efficient work.
This paper analyzes the current mainstream civil aircraft
B787 aircraft and A380 aircraft wheel brake system technical
characteristics, and preliminary explores the development
trend of civil aircraft brake system, and puts forward
development proposals and gaps between China and advanced
* Zehua Liu is with the Department of Flight Control & Hydraulic System,
AVIC The First Aircraft Institute, Xiÿan 710089 China (corresponding
author to provide phone: 86-29-8683-2406; fax: 86-29-8620-2493; e-mail:
liuzehua526@126.com).
Zhenshui Li is with the Office of Chief Designer, AVIC The First Aircraft
Institute, Xiÿan 710089 China (corresponding author to provide phone:
86-29-8683-2030; fax: 86-29-8620-2493; e-mail: lizhenshui@163.com).
Cheng Qin is with the Department of Flight Control & Hydraulic System,
AVIC The First Aircraft Institute, Xiÿan 710089 China (corresponding
author to provide phone: 86-29-8683-3911; fax: 86-29-8620-2493; e-mail:
qincheng@163.com).
Yaoxing Shang, is with School of Automation Science and Electrical
Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
Xiaochao Liu is with School of Automation Science and Electrical
Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
978-1-5090-1087-5/16/$31.00©2016 IEEE
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762
October 10-12,2016 Beijing,China
level. The formatter will need to create these components,
incorporating the applicable criteria that follow.
II. TYPICAL CIVIL AIRCRAFT WHEEL BRAKE
SYSTEM CHARACTERRISTICS ANALYSIS
At present, in here and abroad existing civil aircraft, B787
and A380 aircraft are the most representative of the
technology. As the most advanced large aircraft, the airborne
system of B787 and A380 aircraft are used the module
integrated avionics technology, advanced function system and
flight control system, and many other new technologies. This
technology represents the advanced level of the world of large
civil aircraft airborne systems technology. It shows the future
development trend of the large aircraft airborne systems
technology.
A. B787 Aircraft Brake system Features
Brake system of B787 uses electric as power, and
compared with the hydraulic brake system, which is greatly
simplified. The system reliability is improved. No hydraulic
lines and no leakage will reduce the workshop and route
maintenance cost for changing the brake system.
Figure.1 is a B787 aircraft brake system architecture
diagram, and from Figure.1, we can see that the system has the
following characteristics:
1. The integration of the brake system means that the data
is getting by using the bus. In each main landing gear has a
network hub, and in the network hub of each of the main
landing gear has a remote data center, and each remote data
center is responsible for the completion of monitoring wheel
speed, providing for antiskid braking instruction for each
brake controller, monitoring brake temperature and brake
pressure and other monitoring functions;
2. Redundancy framework: reflecting the security of the
system and the system provides two brake control units
(BCU), i.e. left and right brake controller. Under normal
circumstances, each brake controller completes a task of
landing gear brakes, and two BCU exchange data via bus
(CDN). Each brake controller is divided into two channels
inside and outside, and the inside channel is responsible for
braking of two inside wheels, and outside channel brakes is
responsible for braking of two outside wheels, and both inside
and outside channel exchange information via bus;
3. Advanced System Configuration: Set up automatic
brake system, temperature control, tire pressure monitoring,
fault detection and alarm and other security measures.
Based on the Wavelet transformation, Wavelet Packet
theory has been proposed by M.V Wickerhauser and
 Figure.1B787 Wheel Brake system Architecture
R.R.Coifman, and a series of further exactly derivation has
been processed.
B. A380 Aircraft Brake system Features
The A380 is the largest civil aircraft, which includes a pair
of fuselage main landing gear and wing main landing gear,
and the aircraft has 16 main brake wheels. Each fuselage main
landing gear is equipped with four brake wheels (there are two
wheels without brakes), and each wing main landing gear is
equipped with four brake wheels. The configuration of the
fuselage brake system is showing in Figure. 2.
The A380 aircraft brake system uses telex control and
hydraulic servo actuator technology, which uses 35MPa
high-pressure hydraulic energy. The brake system hydraulic
energy configuration uses non-similar energy Backup
(centralized hydraulic source and distributed electro-hydraulic
source). The main features of the system are as follows:
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1. Distributed electric hydraulic source: equipped with
local electrical hydraulic generation system (LEHGS) by
Mercier - Bugatti developed to provide backup power for
wheel brake;
2. High security: system architecture uses normal and
backup completely independent configuration, from the
energy, the control to the hydraulic valve completely
independent. The normal pressure of fuselage and wing brake
use two independent sets of aircraft hydraulic energy, and two
sets of system are configured independently distributed
electric hydraulic energy.
3. System Configuration: Set up automatic brake system,
wheels temperature control, tire pressure monitoring system
and fault detection and alarm and other advanced security
measures.
 Figure.2 A380 Wheel Brake system Architecture
III.BRAKE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT TREND OF CIVIL
AIRCRAFT
From the technical development of the world civil aircraft
products and future market demand, civil aircraft and civil
aviation technology focus on security as its core, improving
product economy, comfort and environmental protection and
other features. The development of civil aircraft brake system
technology is toward security, economy (maintenance costs,
repair time) and other aspects. The detailed description of the
development of civil aircraft brake system technology is as
follows.
A. Electric Braking Technology
Airborne electromechanical system multi electrochemical
development has become a kind of inevitable trend of aircraft
developmentǏ3ǐ. As a very important system in the aircraft
airborne systems, wheel brake system develops towards
electric brake directionǏ4ǐ, and compared with the hydraulic
brake system, electric brake system has obvious advantages.
In the electric brake system using electric power, the
process of oil filling the piston chamber does not exist, so the
brake pedal command response faster than the hydraulic brake
system. The frequency response of electric actuator can be up
to 20 to 30 Hz, while the frequency response of the hydraulic
unit is approximately 10 Hz. Similarly, the brake release
faster, helping to improve slip resistance.
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764
Electric brake control uses torque feedback control,
eliminating the abnormal changes in friction brakes, providing
a consistent brake response, making antiskid braking more
accurately, so that the aircraft have a greater deceleration, and
shorten the braking distance. The removal of the hydraulic
attachments reduces the risk of failure, improving safety.
Electric brake system is also easy to implement redundancy
brake function, greatly improving the security of the system.
Electric brake system also improves the ability of fault
diagnosis, reducing the maintenance workload and reduces
maintenance requirements. Therefore, the electric braking
technology is bound to be one of the important directions of
research and development in the future 5 .
Ǐ ǐ
B. Automatic Braking Technology
Currently the automatic brake system is widely used on
foreign civil aircraft, particularly civil transport aircraft, and
its technical development mainly depends on the United States
(Boeing series aircraft) and Europe (Airbus series aircraft).
The early Boeing B737 aircraft, B757 aircraft to later B777
aircraft and the latest B787 aircraft are equipped with an
automatic brake system; Airbus A320 aircraft, A330, A340 to
A380 aircraft into use and will be put into use A350 aircraft
are equipped with an automatic brake system. For instance,
ARJ21 aircraft is equipped with automatic brake system, and
EMB190 plane makes the automatic brake system as an option
system according to user needs.
 With the improvement of modern civil transport safety
requirements and occupant comfort requirements, the role of
the automatic brake system becomes more and more
important, and the automatic brake system has been
indispensable to aircraft brake system.
C. Advanced Control Algorithms / Control Strategy
With the continuous development of the control theory,
many methods have being applied to the control of the antiskid
brake system, such as the robust control, adaptive control,
input-output feedback linearization control, iterative learning
control. With the development of artificial intelligence and
intelligent control, a variety of intelligent control algorithms
have being applied to the brake system in the past, for
example, neural network control, fuzzy control. Artificial
Immune Systems, as an intelligent information processing
system, is the emerging field of research, and we have
achieved initial results of research in the brake system control.
In order to improve the utilization of the runway and the
braking efficiency, especially in the case of poor sight braking
safety, the ROW/ROP (Runway Overrun Warning and
Protection System) is gradually studied, and BTV (Brake-
to-Vacate) technology is the most representative 14 . BTV
Ǐ ǐ
system is a smart braking technology, which is a runway exit
based on the actual situation of the airport runway and the
crew selected, real-time adjusting the corresponding
deceleration rate, and achieving safe and stable and
comfortable on the runway designated. In addition to the
general automatic braking function, the biggest advantage of
BTV is to predict whether the aircraft could stop on the
designated runway safely. The brake deceleration rate
indicates the aircraft can park on the corresponding runway
safely, reducing runway occupancy time and improving
runway utilization. BTV involves flight control system,
landing gear systems, flight warning system, navigation, flight
management and the flight test.
D. System Integration Technology
From the A380 and B787 aircraft, we can see that the
technology of civil aircraft integrated avionics system has
reached an unprecedented level, which characterized by the
extensive use of integrated modular avionics and remote data
acquisition. The use of these systems embodies the latest level
in today's integrated avionics technology, but also indicates
the future trend of the avionics technology. As an important
airborne subsystem, the brake system integrated into the
system and the civil aircraft avionics system has entered the
stage of digital system from mechanical. The system not only
combining traditional avionics systems function, but also
combining many features of non-traditional avionics systems,
and widely use LRM technology and real-time operating
system, which has the following characteristics:
1. The architecture of the open system;
2. The IMA module;
3. The advanced bus technology;
With respect to the traditional distributed system, it has the
following obvious advantages:
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1. To reduce the weight of the aircraft, reduce the
complexity of the connection.
2. Enhance the ability of the system resources and the
reducing duplication of resources.
3. To increase fault tolerance and fault detection capability
of the system;
4. To increase reliability, eliminate intermediate portion
interconnecting test data.
5. To increase automation, help system optimization.
According to statistics, after the use of CCS and RDC, the
cabling numbers of B787 significantly reduce, and the wiring
length is 98 kilometers, equivalent to about 1/3 of similar
aircraft.
E. Fault Detection and System Reconfiguration Technology
At present, foreign advanced aircraft are used PHM
systems, such as aircraft B777, B787 and A380 aircraft and
other aircraft. According to preliminary estimates, Boeing,
after the use of PHM technology, the airline will enable to
save costs about 25% due to flight delays and cancellations,
and can greatly reduce maintenance and support costs 15 .
Ǐ ǐ
Such as aircraft health management and forecasting
systems, helicopter health management systems (HUMS),
civil aircraft hydraulic system real-time monitoring and health
management systems, research and development and
applications of aero-engine vibration monitoring and aircraft
mechanical and electrical system fault diagnosis and health
monitoring systems have made significant results.
Domestic aviation system on reconstruction is to study the
flight control system and the reconstruction of the brake
system is a blank state study. Commonly used method is to
downgrade, but did not use the reconstruction potential of the
normal and backup brakes, so that the system uses the brakes
too early, and runs the aircraft at risk, while not maximizing
the effectiveness of aircraft antiskid brake system, especially
for civilian aircraft, the fault reconstruction will be even
greater significance.
In short, with the increasing complexity of the aviation
system, its life, reliability and safety requirements continue to
increase, requiring the system can continue to detect abnormal
changes in the system, accurately determine the location and
cause of the failure, and then take measures to reconstruct and
fault isolation to prevent damage and failure of the entire
system.
F. Green Sliding Control Technology
With the aggravation of the energy supply and
environmental issues, energy saving and emission reduction
have become an essential strategy for sustainable development
in various industries. Aviation industry is no exception, and
now, a turbofan engine can achieve maximum efficiency in the
aircraft during flight, but the energy efficiency greatly reduced
when on the ground. Using the aircraft itself the main engine
power to glide, one of the major problems is that the aircraft is
on the ground taxiing, aircraft engine's status is far from the
best, and there are a lot of fuel consumption and waste.
 Based on the concept of aircraft design "green and
innovation", Honeywell and Safran company developed the
Electric Green Taxiing System (EGTS). This system is used
to drive the motor installed on the main wheel of main landing
gear with the auxiliary power unit of generator, and the aircraft
can be freely introduced, and then without using the engine,
taxiing between the runway and the boarding gate. Each
aircraft wheel driven by electric green taxiing system is
equipped with a control system that allows pilots to freely
movement during taxiing to grasp the speed and direction of
the aircraft. For Airbus A320 aircraft, the flight of 500 nautical
miles, using the EGTS can save up to 4% of fuel costs. In
addition to lower fuel consumption, the system can also help
reduce engine wear and brake pads, and minimum the damage
of foreign objects to the turbine engine.
G. Auxiliary Measures of Brake system
Traditional brake mode is difficult to meet the needs of
modern aircraft with high safety, high reliability, high
maneuverability, weather and comfort, economic and
environmental protection and energy saving requirements.
Concomitantly, the corresponding auxiliary measures of brake
system appear, and to improve the system performance.
1. Tire Pressure Monitoring Technology
In modern foreign advanced aircraft, tire pressure
monitoring system (TPMS) have been widely used in the
civilian and military aircraft, such as Airbus, Boeing and many
other models, including the latest A380 aircraft and B787
aircraft.
2. Braking Temperature Monitoring Technology
Braking temperature monitoring technology has been
widely used in modern civil aircraft, through dynamic
monitoring of brake disc temperature can lead to the
elimination of the wheel "puncture" when high temperature or
fire potential safety problems, when the temperature exceeds
the temperature limit, it can be protected by forced cooling or
other means to limit aircraft out again.
3. Fan Cooling Technology
Aircraft brake systems mainly rely on the brake device,
and the kinetic energy of the aircraft converted into the heat
energy of friction material and consumed. The plane in the
braking process will produce a lot of heat, and through the
brake disc to absorb. The economy is one of the most
important properties of civil aircraft, aircraft again dispatched
time and protecting the resource requirements will have an
impact on the economy. Therefore, civil aircraft are usually
configured with a fan cooling device, without ground support
resources to achieve reduction in aircraft again takeoff time.
4. Brakes Wear Monitoring Technology
The research of aircraft acceleration stop out of the runway
accident, the results showed that: in 80% of aircraft accidents,
brake device is in or very close to completely worn state 16 .
Ǐ ǐ
Thus, the brake disc wear monitoring is particularly important
to safety. Through wear on the brakes real-time monitoring,
compared to the regular replacement, both to improve the use
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766
of aircraft safety, but also to avoid the waste of brakes,
improve the economics of the brake system.
IV. GAP BETWEEN CHINA AND ADVANCED LEVEL AND
DEVELOPMENT SUGGESTIONS
In recent years, our nation pays attention on the aviation
industry, particularly the civil aviation industry, China's civil
aviation has made great progress, but with respect to Europe
and air power, China's civil aviation, particularly in the wheel
brake technology, mainly in the following aspects:
1. Design capability: China's aviation industry, especially
the civil aviation industry in the last century experienced
multiple project "dismount" dilemmas; the China Aviation
Industry in a very long period is by technology imitation,
relative foreign advanced design also has a certain gap.
2. System integration capabilitiesǏ17ǐ: in the domestic, there
are few enterprises to provide system level products in wheel
brake system, and to produce, provide independent
equipment, research and development strength is relatively
weak. In contrast, foreign companies such as MBD, Goodrich
company is able to provide complete undercarriage system
and wheel brake system.
3. Component level (reliability, quality): the consistent of
components quality and reliability are restricting the weakness
of domestic aviation industry development, especially in key
materials, key components, between China and advanced
countries there are still relatively large gaps.
4. System Verification capability: the verification of the
civil aircraft presented on the system airworthiness
verification. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
became the most experienced and the most powerful of the
airworthiness authorities; China since the beginning in the
1980s, according to FAA airworthiness system constructs the
airworthiness management mode, but it should admit that
China's system and Chinese aviation manufacturing industry
characteristics do not fully match. On the one hand, Chinese
aviation industry with long-term military aircraft has not
formed a complete industrial chain of civil aircraft, and on the
other hand, the development of civil aircraft lag also restricts
the development of China's airworthiness system, and now
there is still a very large gap.
In order to develop the technology of wheel brake system
of our country, make it the international competitive, we must
increase the strength from the following aspects:
1. To strengthen basic research (components): This is the
basis for the realization of the aviation industry technology.
2. To strengthen the special development (mechanical and
electrical): targeted to carry out special research and
development, focusing on the key, difficult, concentrated
resources focus on key problems.
3. To strengthen cooperation: actively carry out
international cooperation and selectively carry out key
projects of the division of labor, and realize the development
by leaps and bounds, both by means of external forces and
avoid being manipulated by others, and ultimately to achieve
the main goal of airborne equipment localization.
 V. CONCLUSION Multi-Strut Aircraft[J].Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical
Universityˈ2014ˈ32(4):646-650. (in Chinese)
At present, China's aviation industry development is
entering a rapid development period. For projects of civil
aircraft brake system that involves multi-disciplinary
integrated technology in many fields, the state should have a
long-term research and development plan, carrying out
pre-study for engineering applications targeted. We should
closely follow the development trend of the wheel brake
system, breakthrough technical difficulties, continue to study
the urgent and common key technical issues, establish
development goals, research development strategy, make
development plan, and push the brake system technology to
the front of the world.

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