Improvement in the Brake Pedal Feel Comfort for Light Commercial Vehicles with Hydraulic Brake System

Being a safety critical aggregate, every aspect of brake system is considered significant in vehicles operations. Along with optimum performance of brake system in terms of deceleration generation, brake pedal feel or brake feel is considered as one of the key elements while evaluating brake system of vehicles. There are many factors such as liner and drum condition, road surface, friction between linkages which impress the pedal feel. Out of these, in this paper we will be discussing the factors which influence the brake pedal feel in relation to the driver comfort and confidence building. Under optimum braking condition, brake operation must be completed with pedal effort not very less or not very high, brake pedal feel must be firm throughout the operation, in such a way that it will not create fatigue and at the same time it will give enough confidence to the driver while operating with acceptable travel. These aspects are considered while evaluating the brake system performance in comparison with other competition vehicles. As results of these evaluations, mathematical model is built by considering brake pedal feel as dependent variable and factor influencing brake pedal feel as independent variables. Effects of most influencing variables on pedal feel are derived and compared with practical testing results to get optimum brake pedal feel.