How does an anti lock braking system work??

linlyons

when you're stopping, what you'd like is for your tires to turn slower than they should, to produce stopping force on your car.
but you don't want them to stop turning completely, because (A) your steering doesn't work at all then, and (B) the actual stopping force is less than when they are turning, sort of trying to stick to the road.

the way it works is that there is a sensor that determines whether your wheel is turning. when it senses that the wheel is not turning, it automatically releases pressure on the brakes, allowing the wheel to turn again. when it is turning, then the brake pressure is applied, stopping the car.

in high school physics, you learn that there are 2 types of friction. static friction, and sliding friction. static friction is greater than sliding friction. you could test this by placing a brick on a board, then tipping the board up, until the brick starts to slide. if you do this, you'll notice that the board is generally at the same angle when the brick starts to slide. however, if you prop the board at a slightly lower angle, and give the brick a push, it will slide. what that shows is that it takes more force to start the brick sliding than it does to keep it sliding.

similarly, your car brakes work better when the wheels are turning, sort of sticking to the road, rather than locked up, with the tire sliding on the road.

bikernoj

By getting a computer to do the job of an unskilled driver. If you know how to drive, and I mean TRULY know how, then ABS, traction control, stability control and GPS navigation are not necessary at all.

BDZot

ABS uses sensors to determine the speed of each wheel when you step on the brake.

If one wheel starts going slower than the other wheels (in the process of locking up), the system reduces the pressure to that wheels brake unit to allow it to continue spinning while still slowing the wheel down.

logicalgal

Okay......simplest way to explain............hmmm
If you are on a winter road (snow covered), you should brake BEFORE the corner to a managable speed (under 10 mph)......in town....
Whenever you have to slow down, you should come off the accelerator early, brake gently and then off the brake when entering a turn, and once you are coming out of a turn, you should gently accelerate.............
Most people panic and hit brakes in a turn or hit brakes too hard and steer at the same time to turn or avoid something.
This is why ABS was invented and developed.
If you know how to drive and possess the necessary skills, you don't need ABS.
Some higher end cars have independent traction control on each wheel.
What the ABS does allow you to do is maintain some steering control if you panic brake. I have ABS and have rarely used it.
When you apply the brakes hard on a slick or slippery road surface the ABS braking system brakes and releases at a very high rate of speed. Hope that helps.....

Anpadh

If you know the difference between AC and DC power, you will be able to understand the difference between regular (DC) and anti-lock (AC) brakes. Regular brakes LOCK the wheels, until the car stops. So, let's say you are on a slippery road, going straight, and you h it the brakes and they are regular brakes. The wheels all lock up. So, if the car starts to skid, you cannot turn into the skid (as you should, to retain control of the car). The wheels are locked into a certain position (straight, in this case). Anti-lock brakes help the car (via a computer) to apply the brakes but without locking the wheels. The way that is done is that the brakes go on and off about every hundredth of a second. So, if the car starts to skid, in the hundredth of a second that the brakes are off, the car will automatically turn into the skid, helping you to slown down without going out of control. Hope that makes sense. Regular brakes work best in ideal situations (you have exactly the right amount of air-pressure in your tires, you have new tires, you have new brake pads, you have sufficient brake fluid, you have a big, heavy car, you aren't going to hit a human being if you don't stop, you have plenty of time to stop, the road is smooth and dry, and there is no traffic around you). Anti-lock brakes work best when the situation is not an ideal one.

mr danger

The name of the game is not to lock -up a wheel. As long as the wheel keeps spinning you will retain some steering and directional control.
In the days before ABS was common in cars , if you treated your brake pedal like the foot pedal of rock drummers bass drum you could within reason simulate the rapidly engaging and releasing pattern of braking that ABS now does.
It's that simple.
BTW ABS was originally invented to stop commercial aircraft landing at high speeds on wet runways.

bigmiker2109

i'll do my best...anti lock brakes are controlled by the computer in your vehicle what they do is they allow the minimum amount of stopping distance by applying the maximum amount of stopping pressure but does not allow the vehicle brakes to lock up there fore you are able to keep better control of the vehicle....its all to do with regulating the pressure applied to the brakes compared to the amount of pressure applied to the brake pedal

Delphi

Without antilock brakes if you make a panic stop, the wheels will lock causing the tires to skid across the pavement. The heat from the skidding causes the rubber in contact with the pavement to melt and act like a lubricant. You will have a loss of steering control and in many cases will have much greater stopping distances.
With Antilock brakes a computer monitors the rotatiol speed of the wheels. During a panic stop if the wheel begins to lock up, the computer will activate a series of solenoids and valves isolating the brake pedal from the system, and modulating the amount of pressure going to each brake. The goal of the systenm is to allow about 17% wheel slip max. This gives you maximum stopping power while maintaining steering control.

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