Calculation of Heavy Truck Deceleration Based on Air Pressure Rise-Time and Brake Adjustment

It has been shown that one can calculate the braking deceleration capabilities of an air-braked heavy truck given a modest amount of information about the components in the brake system and their adjustment level. The error introduced by ignoring the transient air pressure effects early in the event has been found to be negligible during stops from normal road speeds, but during stops from low speeds, the actual decelerations achieved can be expected to be lower than this overall average value. This paper presents an extension of the Heusser analysis technique to include the air pressure rise-time.