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This paper explains a method to estimate and reduce brake pulling of vehicles due to force difference between RH and LH brake during straight ahead braking. One of the cause of brake pulling during straight ahead braking is brake force difference between right and left brakes of front and rear axles. It is challenging to eliminate this unwanted pulling especially during panic braking in shorter wheelbase vehicles having high center of gravity (CG) and drum brake on all wheels. A mathematical model is developed to estimate amount of brake pulling from known parameters like brake force, tire properties, steering geometry, suspension hard points, vehicle CG, scrub radius, castor angle etc. Vehicle tests were conducted to measure amount of brake pulling and close correlation was observed between vehicle test results and derived model.

Air brake system is widely used in heavy duty trucks and buses due to its great performance and efficiency. Dual brake valve (DBV) is one the of major and crucial component of an air brake system as it is controlling the air flow from reservoir to brake chamber during braking operation. Currently, due to its own complexity, it is very difficult for designer to optimize different parameters. As experimentation is tedious and time consuming task, hence it is very important to have mathematical model of DBV during in early design stage. Differential equations have been formulated for individual component of DBV such as primary piston, primary valve, relay piston, and relay valve etc. system level mathematical model has been formulated and implemented in Matlab/Simulink to capture the dynamic pressure characteristic of DBV. At the same time mathematical model of DBV has been created in AMESim to check the validity of approach.

Apart from being an active safety system the brake system represents an important aspect of the vehicle dynamics. The vehicle retardation and stopping distance completely depend upon the performance of brake system and the functionality of all components. However, the performance prediction of the entire system is a challenging task especially for a complex configuration such as multi-axial vehicle applications. Furthermore, due to its complexity most often the performance prediction by some methods is limited to static condition. Hence, it is very important to have equivalent mathematical models to predict all performance parameters for a given configuration in all different conditions This paper presents the adopted system modelling approach to model all the elements of the pneumatic brake system such as dual brake valve, relay valve, quick release valve, front and rear brake actuators, foundation brake etc.