The braking performance of a vehicle anti-lock brake system featuring an electro-rheological valve pressure modulator

This paper presents the braking performances of a vehicle anti-lock brake system (ABS) featuring an electro-rheological (ER) valve pressure modulator. As a first step, the principal design parameters of the ER valve and hydraulic booster are appropriately determined by considering the Bingham property of the ER fluid and the braking pressure variation during the ABS operation. An ER fluid composed of chemically treated starch particles and silicone oil is used. An electrically controllable pressure modulator is then constructed and its pressure controllability is empirically evaluated. Subsequently, a quarter-car wheel slip model is established and integrated with the governing equation of the pressure modulator. A sliding mode controller for slip rate control is designed and implemented via the hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS). In order to demonstrate the superior braking performance of the proposed ABS, a full car model is derived and a sliding mode controller is formulated to achieve the desired yaw rate. The braking performances in terms of braking distance and step input steering are evaluated and presented in time domain through full car simulations.