Rapid Optimal Design of a Light Vehicle Hydraulic Brake System

Designing automobile brake systems is generally complex and time consuming. Indeed, the brake system integrates several components and has to satisfy numerous conflicting government regulations. Due to these constraints, designing an optimal configuration is not easy. This paper consequently proposes a simple, intuitive and automated methodology that enables rapid optimal design of light vehicle hydraulic brake systems. Firstly, the system is modeled through cascaded analytical equations for each component. A large design space is then generated by varying the operational parameters of each component in its specific reasonable range. The system components under consideration include the brake pedal, the master cylinder, the vacuum-assisted booster, the brake line and the brake pistons. Successful system configurations are identified by implementing the requirements of the two most relevant safety homologation standards for light vehicle brake systems (US and EU legislations). Ergonomics constraints and the compensation for the fluid losses are then retained as further design requirements. Finally, the optimal design identification is carried out based on overall system braking performance and the cost. Particularly, optimal braking performance is based on the defined braking efficiency, while a cost function criterion is developed quantifying the overcapacity of the design. The developed methodology is proved to identify the optimal brake system design in a short period of time by generating and testing over 150000 candidate designs for each considered vehicle.