Research Article

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

2019, Vol. 11(5) 1–10
Ó The Author(s) 2019
Study on braking stability of DOI: 10.1177/1687814019848593
journals.sagepub.com/home/ade
commercial vehicles: An optimized air
brake system

Ren He and Zhecheng Jing

Abstract
The braking stability has significant importance for commercial vehicles, especially tractor-semitrailer. However, the
brake lag of air brake system brings serious safety risk to the vehicle. To improve the braking stability of tractor-semitrai-
ler, an optimized air brake system is proposed. Using characteristic of the fast exhaust response of spring brake cylinder
of composite brake chamber, a normally open solenoid valve and a normally closed solenoid valve are connected with
the spring brake cylinder of composite brake chamber of semitrailer to control the spring brake force, which responds
more quickly than service brake force. A strategy is proposed to control the difference between the actual braking tor-
que of the semitrailer brake and the target braking torque and is simulated based on AMESim and SIMULINK. An experi-
ment is made to verify the effectiveness of the optimized system. The simulation shows that the improved scheme
reduces the response time of semitrailer brake system by 0.19 s, and effectively restrains the lateral movement of the
vehicle downhill braking and improves the stability of the braking direction of the vehicle. And the experiment indicates
that the brake of semitrailer responds earlier than tractor, which means the brake lag is improved significantly.

Keywords
Braking stability, commercial vehicle, air brake system, brake lag, transportation

Date received: 8 August 2018; accepted: 15 April 2019

Handling Editor: James Baldwin

Introduction increasing, especially for the tractor-semitrailer, and

the problem of excessive brake load is becoming more
As a major road transport vehicle, tractor-semitrailers prominent. Tractor-semitrailers, often driven in moun-
are often at full capacity, which proposes higher tainous areas, have to go long downhill. In order not to
requirements of braking stability. Air brake system is accelerate to a dangerous speed due to the action of its
often applied to tractor-semitrailer as primary braking gravity, the vehicle needs brake continuously.2 In addi-
system, because it can provide large braking force with tion, complex road conditions require frequent braking
small pedal force and short pedal stroke, meanwhile, of different intensities. In these cases, long-time fre-
using air as medium, there is no need to considering the
quent work will not only make its temperature increase
issue of medium recovery, and the sealing requirements
of the system is also lower than the hydraulic braking
system. A typical air brake system contains pneumatic
subsystem and mechanical system and includes air School of Automotive and Traffic Engineering, Jiangsu University,
compressor, storage reservoirs, treadle valve, quick Zhenjiang, China
release valve, parking brake control valve, relay valve,
Corresponding author:
brake chamber, and trailer control valve.1 Zhecheng Jing, School of Automotive and Traffic Engineering, Jiangsu
However, with the increasing speed of the modern University, Zhenjiang 212000, China.
vehicles, the braking load of the vehicle is also Email: jingzc@foxmail.com

Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
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open-access-at-sage).
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

greatly, but also cause brake fade, and even the braking pneumatic brake system based on closed-loop feed-
efficiency declines or fails completely.3 back. The controller was designed based on PID, and
The hydraulic retarder can be used to augment or the feasibility and effectiveness of the scheme were veri-
replace some of the functions of primary friction-based fied by simulation. Lu13 proposed to use the electronic
braking systems.4 It is usually used as an additional control system to control the pneumatic brake system,
‘‘assistance’’ to reduce speed, so that the main brake and designed the trailer air brake electronic control sys-
will achieve an increased life. Hydraulic retarders con- tem, thus achieving the optimization goal of the trailer
vert the kinetic energy of the vehicle into heat energy of brake coordination consistency. Rajaram and
the fluid. The oil is pumped into the working chamber, Subramanian14 developed nonlinear controller for
when retarder is required, and then the vanes, attached heavy commercial vehicle based on Lyapunov theory.
to the transmission driveshaft in the chamber, churn The controller was tested and compared with a control-
the oil to induce viscous drag to decelerate the drive- ler developed using a linear full state feedback control-
shaft. The working oil will heat and circulate in the ler. It was proved that the nonlinear controller has an
cooling system. advantage in terms of reduced brake delay.
Due to the length of pneumatic tube and the Current techniques used to reduce brake lag can be
response time of pneumatic components of air brake broadly divided into four categories: improving the
system, longer time is required for the compressed air structure of pneumatic valve, optimizing the parameters
to reach the brake chambers in semitrailer than in trac- of pneumatic components and pipe, adding high-speed
tor, and the time difference is called brake lag. The switch valve, and applying PID controller. But hydrau-
brake lag makes semitrailer produce a braking force lic retarder is not considered when calculating the brake
later than the tractor, which may cause an impact force lag. In this article, an improved structure of air brake
between tractor and semitrailer and introduce unstable system is proposed to decrease the brake lag of tractor-
situations,5 such as folding and drift, and these situa- semitrailer-equipped hydraulic retarder; the simulation
tions may lead to serious traffic accident. However, as and experiment are also made to verify the effect of the
the retarder could produce braking torque much faster new structure.
than air brake system, which means tractors with The organization of this article is given as follows: in
hydraulic retarder brake earlier than those without the next section, the improved scheme of air brake sys-
hydraulic retarder, hydraulic retarder may make brake tem is presented. Then the simulation model based on
lag worse. Thus, it is significant to reduce or avoid AMESim, SIMULINK, and TruckSim is developed.
brake lag. Next, the control strategy is proposed and developed in
Some research has been done with brake lag nowa- SIMULINK. Then the analysis of brake lag and lateral
days. Ma et al.6 reduced the brake response time by movement stability are made to validate the effective-
optimizing the diameter of pneumatic pipe of the air ness of the optimized air brake system. And experiment
brake system. He7 optimized the parameters such as is also made to verify the improved structure. Finally,
the exhaust space of the brake valve and the relay valve conclusions regarding the presented study are given.
and the diameter of the pneumatic line to reduce the
brake lag. Karthikeyan and Subramanian8 proposed a
proposal using an electronically controlled regulator Introduction of the optimized air brake
instead of the foot valve to improve the braking system
response of the air brake system. Kumav et al.9 shor-
tened the time required for brake start-up by adding The semitrailer in this article is equipped with compo-
PID (proportional integral derivative) controllers based site brake chamber, which is consisted of spring brake
on the research of Karthikeyan P. Wang et al.10 cylinder and service brake cylinder, and the exhaust
designed an electronic pneumatically controlled auxili- speed of spring brake cylinder is much faster than
ary brake device using a high-speed on–off valve. The inflating speed of service brake cylinder. So the service
device uses a PI controller output pulse width signal to brake cylinder can produce faster if using the air from
regulate the open and close state of the high-speed on– exhaust port of spring brake cylinder as input instead
off valve to control the brake chamber air pressure to of original input at the begging of braking process.
reduce the response time of brake system. Zhu et al.11 Plus, a normally open solenoid valve and a normally
proposed a set of hysteresis compensation system for closed solenoid valve are added into air brake system to
the brake lag of semitrailer. The system adds two infla- control the spring brake cylinder electronically, which
tion valves, two isolation valves, two exhaust valves, can reduce the time to receive control signal signifi-
and two one-way valves to the original car air brake cantly. Target braking torque of semitrailer is calcu-
system, and electronically controls the inflation valve lated by ECU (electronic control unit) (1) in accordance
and the exhaust valve to overcome the brake lag. Qi with the displacement of tractor brake valve mandrel
et al.12 proposed a hysteresis control method for and braking torque of hydraulic retarder, then the
He and Jing 3

working modes. First, if they are energized, the com-

pressed air flows from spring brake cylinder into atmo-
sphere through normally closed solenoid valve (8) and
the braking torque rises. Second, if valves (8) and (7)
are unenergized, the pressure of spring brake cylinder
increases and the braking torque reduces. Third, if nor-
mally open solenoid valve (7) is energized and normally
closed solenoid valve (8) is unenergized, the braking
torque remains the same. By switching working modes,
the spring brake can be used to produce braking torque
for semitrailer to shorten the brake lag.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the modified air brake system

of semitrailer. Simulation model
1: ECU; 2: hand brake valve; 3: tractor brake system; 4: trailer brake
valve; 5: spring brake cylinder; 6: diaphragm brake cylinder; 7: normally A simulation model of a semitrailer parking brake sys-
open solenoid valve; 8: normally closed solenoid valve; 9: relay valve; 10: tem is built in AMESim, mainly including solenoid
parking storage reservoir; 11: emergency relay valve. Dashed dotted valve model (since there is no normally closed valve in
line: control signal; dashed line: control air; dotted line: supply air; black
the software, a normally open valve is used instead), a
line: original air brake system; red line: optimized part based on original
brake system. relay valve model, a composite brake chamber model,
a drum brake model, and the link unit to SIMULINK.
The models are shown as Figures 2–4.
normally open solenoid valve (7) and normally closed The variables input from the AMESim to the
solenoid valve (8) are powered on or off according to SIMULINK include braking torques of all brakes, fill-
the difference between actual and target braking torque ing rate of hydraulic retarder, pressure of spring brake
to control spring brake. The schematic diagram of the cylinder, mandrel displacement of treadle valve, and
modified air braking system of semitrailer is shown in the interaction force between the spring brake push rod
Figure 1. and service brake push rod. Variables input from
The normally open solenoid valve (7) and normally SIMULINK to AMESim include dynamic pressure of
closed solenoid valve (8) are set in the inflating and hydraulic retarder outlet port, depth and radius of fluid
exhausting circuit, respectively, and there are three in hydraulic retarder circulating cavity, and control

Figure 2. Relay valve model.

Figure 3. Composite brake chamber.

4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

the pressure is beyond 0.275 kPa. This is to reduce

overheating and abrasion of energy storage spring, reg-
ulator rod, camshafts, and so on. So the air in the
spring brake cylinder cannot be emptied. In addition,
considering the overheating and abrasion, in order to
increase the braking torque rapidly, half the maximum
pressure (0.55 kPa) of the parking brake chamber, that
is, 0.275 kPa, is set. Then, determine the interaction
force between the spring brake push rod and the service
brake push rod. If the force is 0 N (i.e. the pressure of
the service brake chamber can drive the drive brake
push rod independently), inflate the spring brake cylin-
der and release the exhaust brake. Next, the target
braking torque TbGtar of the single brake of the semi-
Figure 4. Drum brake model. trailer is calculated based on the displacement of the
top rod of the series dual-chamber brake valve and the
braking torque of the hydraulic retarder is
signal of solenoid valve. The model of the modified  
parking braking system of semitrailer is shown as 1 fb xpt + ig i0 Tr
TbGtar =   ðFZA4 + FZA5 + FZA6 Þ
Figure 5. 4 FZA1 + FZA2 + FZA3
Other models of pneumatic valves of tractor- ð1Þ
semitrailer are shown in Figures 6–9
where, fb (xpt ) is the total braking torque of the tractor
brake corresponding to the displacement of the man-
Control strategy drel, ig is the transmission gear ratio, i0 is the ratio of
The strategy is aiming for controlling the difference the main reducer, FZA1 is the ground normal force of
between the actual braking torque of the semitrailer the front axle of tractor, FZA2 is the ground normal
and the target braking torque to be within 6 100 Nm. force of the middle axle of tractor, FZA3 is the ground
First, determine the relationship between the pressure normal force of the rear axle of tractor, FZA4 is the nor-
in spring brake cylinder and 0.275 kPa, and make sure mal ground force of first axis of semitrailer, FZA5 is the

Figure 5. Simulation model of the modified parking braking system of semitrailer.

He and Jing 5

Figure 6. AMESim model of series double chamber brake valve.

Figure 7. AMESim model of emergency relay valve.

ground normal force of second axis of semitrailer, FZA6 e = TbG  TbGtar ð3Þ
is the ground normal force of third axis of semitrailer.
where, Fs is status flag (1 is pressurizing, 0 is holding
According to the difference between the actual brak-
pressure, 21 is decompression), e is the difference
ing torque and the target braking torque, the pressure
between the actual braking torque and the target brak-
of the spring brake air chamber switches among three
ing torque of the semitrailer brake, TbG is the actual
modes: pressurizing (braking torque decreases), holding
braking torque of the semitrailer brake.
pressure (braking torque remains), and decompression
At last, determine the displacement of the mandrel
(braking torque increases). Since the pneumatic–
of tractor brake valve, and the braking ends when the
electronic control system well oscillates if switched
displacement is 0 mm.
between pressurized and depressurized mode fre-
The flow chart of control strategy is shown in
quently, reasonable upper and lower threshold values
Figure 9. This strategy is built based on SIMULINK/
are determined after several simulations, which are
100 Nm and 2100 Nm, respectively, and the switching Stateflow and linked to AMESim and TruckSim, which
logic is as follows is presented in Figure 10.
The simulation is made on a downhill with 0.2 road
8 adhesion coefficient of left side and 0.5 of right side,15
< 1 e ø 100
Fs = 0 100\e\100 ð2Þ the initial speed of braking is 30 km/h, the time step is
: 0.01 s. The result of original air brake system is shown
1 e ł  100
in Figure 11. It can be seen that the braking torque of
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Figure 8. AMESim model of the trailer control valve.

The simulation of the optimized braking system of

semitrailer is made under the same condition, and the
result is shown in Figures 12–14.
At the beginning of braking, due to the slow
response of the service brake chamber, the difference
between the actual braking torque of the brake and the
target braking torque is much less than 2100 Nm, so
the normally open valve closes, the normally closed
valve opens, and the semitrailer spring brake cylinder
begins to exhaust, with its pressure decreases within
0.04 s. Meanwhile, the semitrailer brake starts with
braking torque increasing. Afterward, the pressure in
spring brake cylinder decreases to 0.275 kPa within
0.03 s. Since the braking torque of the semitrailer brake
increases rapidly, the absolute value of e decreases, and
the actual braking torque approaches the target braking
torque gradually. After 1.20 s, e has a fluctuation that
lasts for 0.42 s in the vicinity of 0 Nm, which indicates
that the actual braking torque of the semitrailer brake
is basically equal to the target braking torque, and the
pressure of the spring brake cylinder starts to rise with
fluctuation. At 2.16 s, e is equal to 0 Nm, the pressure in
spring brake cylinder is restored to 0.55 kPa, and the
exhaust brake is released. In another word, the opti-
mized scheme reduced the time required for the start of
semitrailer to 0.04 s, which is a reduction of 83.6%,
compared with the 0.23 s of original brake system. And
the brake lag is reduced from 0.2 s to 0.01 s, which is a
Figure 9. Flow chart of control strategy. reduction of 95%, which means the tractor and semi-
trailer can start braking almost simultaneously.
tractor rises in about 0.03 s, while braking torque of The lateral movement stability is also analyzed and
semitrailer starts to increase at about 0.23 s, which the lateral movements of tractor and semitrailer are
means that the brake lag is 0.2 s. presented in Table 1 and Figures 15–17. It can be
He and Jing 7

Figure 10. United simulation model of optimized system in SIMULINK.

Figure 11. Brake lag of original air brake system.

obtained that the maximum lateral displacement of 30 km/h, the improved scheme inhibits the lateral
center of gravity and maximum yaw velocity of tractor movement of the tractor-semitrailer obviously on the
are 0.60 m and 14.97 °/s, respectively, and in the new bisectional road, and reduced the brake lag by 0.19 s.
system, they are 0.46 m and 8.38 °/s. For the semitrai-
ler, the maximum lateral displacement of center of
Experimental verification of the improved
gravity and the maximum yaw velocity are 4.37 m and
4.05 °/s, respectively, and in the new system, they are air brake system
2.54 m and 3.85 °/s. The maximum hitch angle is 60.95° An experiment is designed to compare the brake lag
corresponding to 27.9° after optimization. The simula- before and after the air brake system being optimized
tion results show that when the initial braking speed is to verify the effectiveness of this study. For the tractor-
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Table 1. Results of lateral movement stability analysis.

Original Optimized
brake brake system
system

Tractor Maximum lateral 0.64 0.60

displacement
of center of
gravity (m)
Maximum yaw 14.97 7.47
velocity (°/s)
Semitrailer Maximum lateral 4.37 1.65
displacement
of center of
gravity (m)
Figure 12. e (Difference of actual and target braking torque). Maximum yaw 4.05 3.85
velocity (°/s)
Maximum hitch angle (°) 60.95 27.9

Figure 13. Actual braking torque of drum brake of semitrailer.

Figure 15. Move track of center of gravity.

Figure 14. Pressure of spring brake cylinder of semitrailer.

Figure16. Yaw velocity.

semitrailer, the performance of time lag is the difference solenoid valve and normally closed solenoid valve will
in response time of brake chambers between the tractor get the signal to active.
and semitrailer. So air pressure sensors are installed on The photo of experimental facility is presented in
the brake chambers of both tractor and semitrailer. Figure 18.
Due to limited test conditions, the experiment only tests Figure 19 presents the changes in air pressure of ser-
for the brake and does not validate the control strategy. vice brake cylinders of both tractor and semitrailer,
And once the brake pedal is pushed, the normally open while Figure 20 shows the corresponding data of the
He and Jing 9

Figure 17. Hitch angle. Figure 19. Pressure change of service brake cylinders of
tractor and semitrailer of original air brake system.

Figure18. Photograph of the experimental facility.

Figure 20. Pressure change of service brake cylinders of

optimized air brake system. It can be seen that, for the tractor and semitrailer of optimized air brake system.
original system, after the pressure of the brake chamber
of tractor rising 0.05 s. As a contrast, the optimized air
brake system has an obvious better performance in It can be concluded that the optimized structure of
brake lag. The pressure of the brake chamber of semi- air brake system gives the service brake cylinder of
trailer rises even earlier than tractor. Figure 20 shows semitrailer a 0.1 s improvement of response time.
that the pressure of the brake chamber of semitrailer Compared with the result of simulation, although there
responds 0.05 s earlier than tractor. The main reason is is a difference which is mainly caused by the model
that the brake of semitrailer of optimized air brake sys- accuracy, the overall trend of change is the same, and
tem is controlled by electric signal, which is much faster
the results of both simulation and experiment verify the
than pressure. The composite brake chamber responds
effectiveness of the optimized structure of air brake
almost at the time as the brake pedal being pushed.
system.
Besides, the pressure of service brake cylinder of semi-
trailer remains around 0.25 kPa at 0.11 s for about
0.05 s, then continuous climbing. It is because the air
Conclusion
pressure of the spring brake cylinder is equal to the air
pressure of the service brake cylinder after exhausting, An optimized scheme of air brake system for tractor-
and once the compressed air, from the storage reser- semitrailer to improve braking stability by reducing
voir, get in the service brake cylinder, the pressure goes brake lag is presented in this article. A normally open
up continuously. solenoid valve and a normally closed solenoid valve are
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering

added into air brake system to control the spring brake 3. Subramanian SC, Darbha S and Rajagopal KR. Model-
cylinder electronically to shorten the response time of ing the pneumatic subsystem of a s-cam air brake system.
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show that compared with the original air brake system, surfaces. SAE technical paper 831788, 1983.
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