MARKS:

SCB 23503
CHASSIS & VEHICLE DYNAMICS

TITLE: BRAKE & SUSPENSION TECHNOLOGY

Mini Project date 6 SEPTEMBER 2017

Submission date 15 SEPTEMBER 2017
Team members 1) MOHAMAD WARDI BIN YAZIZ
2) MOHAMAD ZULFIKAR BIN YISOFF
3)

MADAM FAZIDAH BINTI SAAD

INTRODUCTION OF THE BRAKE AND SUSPENSION CURRENT
TECHNOLOGY

Automotive brake systems and suspension system have been refined for over 100 years and
have become extremely dependable and efficient. The brake system constitutes an integral
part of an automobile. It allows the driver to slow or stop the vehicle and prevents a stationary
vehicle from moving. Where else the suspension system apart from your car's tyres and seats,
the suspension is the prime mechanism that separates your bum (seated back side) from the
road. It also prevents your car from shaking itself to pieces. No matter how smooth you think
the road is, it's a bad, bad place to propel over a ton of metal at high speed. Failure of the
automobile brake system and suspension system can lead to accidents, property damage,
physical injuries or even death of an individual.

In recent years, brake systems have undergone tremendous changes in terms of performance,
technology, design and safety. Today, anti-lock braking systems (ABS) are more or less
standard. Modern ABS versions not only prevent wheel lock under braking, but also
electronically control the front-to-rear brake bias. This function, depending on its specific
capabilities and implementation, is known as electronic brake force distribution (EBD),
traction control, emergency brake assist or electronic stability control system. A further
technological step change can be expected with the emergence of the brake-by-wire
technology.
Suspension systems don't tend to get much publicity, but they're probably the most crucial
factor in the day-to-day enjoyment of your car. Automakers are always tweaking and refining
their designs in search of that elusive ideal: a perfect ride coupled with race-worthy handling.
We haven't quite gotten there yet, but the latest systems are better than ever at reconciling
the competing goals of comfort and performance. So we rely upon suspension. People who
travel on underground trains wish that those vehicles relied on suspension too, but they don't
and that's why the ride is so harsh. Actually it's harsh because underground trains have no
lateral suspension to speak of. So as the rails deviate side-to-side slightly, so does the entire
train, and its passengers. In a car, the rubber in your tyre helps with this little problem, while
all the other suspension parts do the rest.

For increased safety, modern car brake systems are broken into two circuits, i.e. a typical
master cylinder includes actually two completely separate master cylinders in a single
housing, each servicing two wheels. In order to better control the braking process, additional
valves are necessary. Many cars are equipped with drum brakes on the rear wheels and disc
brakes on the front. Drum brakes have more parts than disc brakes and are harder to service,
but they are less expensive to manufacture, and they easily incorporate an emergency brake
mechanism. Normally the disc brakes would engage before the drum brakes when the brake
pedal is actuated. The metering valve compensates this effect and ensures that the drum
brakes engage just before the disc brakes. Furthermore, regardless of brake type, the rear
brakes require less force than the front brakes. For this reason, a proportioning valve reduces
the pressure to the rear brakes. Modern cars use the anti-lock brake (ABS) hardware and the
on-board computer to replace these proportioning valve systems with an electronic brake
force distribution system in order to distribute the exact amount of pressure at each wheel
to ensure a balanced braking operation.

Auto Components manufacturers like ZF and Bosch are also working on Active Kinematics
Control (AKC) for passenger cars. If the rear wheels actively assist the front steering angle, a
passenger car enjoys enhanced agility, stability, and comfort when changing direction. The
steering movements of the rear trigger electronically controlled active track actuators either
one central actuator in the middle of the rear axle or two smaller actuators in the suspension
of each rear wheel, depending on the specific vehicle requirement.

Illustration 1: Suspension and Break System of Mercedes-Benz

Conclusion

Brake System

The auto-braking system has gone through a number of changes since its invention all this
changes are aimed at improving its performance and safety. The advancement in technology
has had had a lot of contributions towards the improvement of the automobile braking
system. For instance, the production of the automatic braking systems is a huge step towards
improving safety of automobile braking systems. The automatic braking systems have been
made in such a way that they can sense and avoid an impending collision with an obstacle
without any input from the driver. This braking systems is made of sensors that that are made
of radar, infrared, ultrasonic, and other technologies. Auto-braking systems are comprised of
several components such as the mechanical, electronic and the hydraulic systems that use
both the heating and friction to bring a car to halt. The braking systems used in cars can either
be disk or drum type where the disc braking systems are used in the front wheels while the
rear drum braking systems are used in the rear wheels. The auto-braking systems use a
braking fluid in the process of transferring force under pressure after it has been applied
through the hydraulic channels to the other mechanisms of the braking systems. Due to the
initial challenges that the auto-braking systems faced several changes have been made to it
but some of them have not been implemented due to different challenges. For instance auto-
braking systems have been produced having zero drag. Braking systems with torque vectoring
have also been produced, this is aimed at improving the grip when the driver is either
decelerating or accelerating. The activation time for the braking systems has also been
reduced to prevent accident during emergencies. In addition, automatic braking systems that
are fixed with sensors have been invented. This automatic braking systems brings a vehicle to
stop whenever it approaches an obstacle. Some of the challenges that face the
implementation of this inventions include the fact that majority of these inventions have not
been tested for their reliability when used in different conditions. Also, the new technologies
require both time and money for their implementation. In spite of all these challenges, it is
expected that this inventions will be implemented and automobile brakes will range from the
automatic emergency brakes to electric brakes that are installed with auto hold.
Suspension System

The fundamental conflict between ride comfort and suspension working space requirements
is the main problem in passive suspension system design. It is well known that the best
comfort is obtainable by the use of very soft springs which would require impractically large
suspension working space for travelling at normal speeds on normal roads, and would suffer
unacceptably large riding height changes with load changes, and attitude changes in
manoeuvring and hard braking. The suspension working space available is therefore the
starting point for a design, and best performances are obtained at values of suspension spring
stiffness at which riding height changes with loading in normal circumstances use up a very
significant proportion of the available suspension working space. This last factor is liable to
dictate the choice of a spring rate higher than that for optimum performance accompanied
by lower damping than that of the best dynamic system. Self-levelling removes the riding
height change constraint, and is clearly particularly valuable for high ratios of laden to unladen
weight. With the introduction of self-levelling, a reduction in spring stiffness and an increase
in damping will normally bring substantial improvements in comfort and tyre load control for
a given suspension working space.

Slight performance gains in ride comfort and somewhat more in dynamic tyre load control
can be obtained by reducing the unsprung mass, but in view of the practical difficulty of doing
so to any substantial degree beyond the point at which contemporary vehicles stand, the
benefits do not appear sufficient to warrant extreme efforts in this direction. Although some
performance gains in both ride comfort and dynamic tyre load control are achievable by
adding a dynamic absorber to the unsprung mass, these benefits become very small when a
practically dimensioned one is used. This limits the Cost/effectiveness of such systems.
Reference

1. https://www.wikipedia.org/

2. https://www.academia.edu/

3. https://www.scribd.com/

4. https://www.slideshare.net/

5. https://www.coursehero.com/