Improved emergency braking performance for HGVs

Paper i proceeding, 2014

Previous studies by the Cambridge Vehicle Dynamics Consortium (CVDC) have suggested that, by improving the control bandwidth of conventional pneumatic Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) brake actuators and using a ‘slip control’ braking strategy, HGV stopping distances could be reduced by up to 30% over existing systems. This paper presents results from Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) simulations and full-scale straight-line braking tests comparing a prototype slip control braking system to a commercially available HGV trailer Anti-lock Braking System (ABS). The novel braking system is shown to achieve a 14% improvement in stopping distance in preliminary braking tests from 40km/h on low adhesion surfaces with an unladen semitrailer. Air consumption is also reduced, on average, by 22% using the new system. HiL tests suggest that, with further tuning, the system could achieve reductions in stopping distance of up to 26%.