The Development of a Temperature Alarm Device for Failure Prevention of the Automobile Hydraulic Brake System 1999-01-0474

The pursuit of safer and more reliable car is the trend of modern automobile engineering. The major protection against an automobile accident is the brake system. However, to date, there is no safety device, which is designed to prevent failure from high temperature of the hydraulic brake system. In general, the brake force is generated from the friction between brake shoes and brake drums or disks. As the vehicle slows down, the moment of inertia of the vehicle is transformed into heat to raise the temperature of the brake system. The rapid rising of temperature may result in serious safety concerns of the brake system and its failure could be expected. The main purpose of this research is to develop a device, which can detect high temperature in the hydraulic brake system and provide a safety alarm before it fails. The device utilizes temperature sensors to monitor temperatures of the brake shoe lining and hydraulic fluid of the brake wheel cylinders. Both of the current temperatures are checked with alarm control parameters. When either one of the temperatures exceed the preset value, the control unit will send an alarm signal to warn the driver who should then take precaution and/or prevention actions