DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

Brake shoe analysis

Before examining a practical twin-shoe brake we must understand the behaviour of a single shoe. Various shoe configurations are illustrated. Each consists of a body whose motion is braked together with a shoe which can swing freely about a fixed hinge H. A lining is attached to the shoe and contacts the braked body. The actuation force P applied to the shoe gives rise to a normal pressure and corresponding braking friction distributed over the area A of contact between lining and braked body. The illustration below explains this contact in more detail. An element dA of the lining is shown with the braked body moving past at velocity v. Since sliding must occur the force resultant on dA comprises the elemental component dN = p.dA orthogonal to dA together with the elemental friction component dFf = p.dA coplanar with dA and in the sense of v. Shoes are classed as being either short or long. A short shoe is one whose lining dimension in the direction of motion is so small that contact pressure variation is negligible, ie. the pressure is everywhere uniform, at p m say. The contact resultant therefore consists of the normal reaction N = dN = p dA --> p dA = pm dA = pm A together with the friction force dN = .pmA. Short shoes are statically determinate. In a long shoe the variation of contact pressure in the direction of motion is not negligible and integrals of the above form ( pdA ) cannot be evaluated unless the p-variation is known. A long shoe is thus statically indeterminate and must be appraised by the three -pronged attack used for cylinders, welds, thick curved beams and so on - a plausible spatial distribution of lining deformation ( geometric compatibility ) is first assumed, then the lining constitutive law ( presumed elastic ) and finally equilibrium are applied to establish completely the pressure variation for a given actuation. Long shoes are more complex than short. The pivot G of a hinged shoe introduces a second degree of freedom permitting the lining to adopt a position which tends to spread wear more uniformly over the lining and hence to

1 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

increase lining life. The braked body may translate or it may rotate about a fixed shaft axis O. External rotational shoes only are sketched above - the treatment of internal shoes is identical to that of external. All these configurations behave qualitatively in identical fashion, and they are all analysed in a similar manner - it's only their differing geometries which introduce complications. We shall lead up to the analysis of practical rotational long shoes by first considering the following simpler cases - translational shoes - although these are uncommon since mechanical power is usually transmitted rotationally, they are geometrically simpler than rotational shoes, and - short shoes - although these are generally impractical because of their small lining area ( recall the 'Linings' section above ), they are simpler than long shoes as contact pressure is uniform. A shoe behaves very differently depending upon whether it trails or leads. If the braked body drags the lining away from the hinge then the lining trails behind the hinge and the shoe as a whole is said 'to trail.' The shoes in the lower row of the above sketch all trail while the shoes in the upper row all lead for the motion senses drawn. In each of the following shoe analyses, the shoe geometry is defined and the coefficient of friction between lining and braked body is known. In the first instance it is required to find the resultant of the lining/braked-body contact for a given actuation. Determination of the braking effect, shoe performance parameters, and hinge & shaft reactions is thereafter straightforward. It is useful to realise that effect is always proportional to cause for constant geometry and friction coefficient - thus if a shoe's actuation is doubled then the braking effect, lining pressure, hinge reaction etc. all double.

Short translational shoe

The geometry of a short translational shoe is sketched. The uniform pressure over the contact area A is pm . The braked body may move in either direction at a fixed distance, h, from the hinge axis. Free bodies of the shoe are shown for the two possible directions - evidently the shoe in the left configuration trails while that in the right leads. The three contacts which each free body makes with its surrounds are the actuation force P the braked body characterised by the normal reaction N = pmA (see previous section), together with the friction force N in the sense of the braked body's

2 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

motion, and the hinge support reaction RH . It is the reaction to the illustrated friction force N which brakes the translating body. The normal reaction and friction force are correlated with a given actuation via the equation for moment equilibrium about the hinge (thus eliminating the as yet irrelevant hinge reaction) - the equation appears under each free body. The normal reaction depends upon the moment Pe rather than on P itself. The product Pe is termed the actuation moment, M, so the two equilibrium equations may be written ( iii) leads N = p m A = M / ( a h ) - the sign depending upon whether the shoe trails or

All terms on the RHS of this equation are geometric - apart from the actuation and the (presumably constant) friction coefficient - so the normal reaction and the frictional braking force are directly proportional to the actuation. The difference between the two behaviours is as follows In the LH sketch the moment of the friction force opposes the actuation moment; friction tends to throw the shoe off the braked body, to reduce the actuation - the shoe is said to be counter- actuating. In the RH sketch the moment of the friction force assists the actuating moment; friction tends to drag the shoe onto the braked body, to augment the actuation - the shoe is said to be self- actuating. Mathematically, the negative sign in the denominator of ( iii) causes a significantly larger contact resultant for a given actuation than does the positive sign. Once the normal and friction forces have been found via ( iii) for a given actuation, the hinge reaction, RH, may be ascertained easily from force equilibrium of the shoe free body. All forces are then known, allowing safe design to be carried out.

Long translational shoe

The lining thickness and compliance of this translational long shoe are grossly exaggerated to demonstrate how lining deflection varies in response to changing actuation. For a given actuation the deflection at any point along the lining is approximately proportional to the point's distance x from the hinge, with the maximum deflection occuring at the end of the lining furthest from the hinge. Assuming the lining to behave elastically, the compressive stress and the contact pressure p are also proportional to x. This proportionality is a reasonable postulate for practical linings which are not wholly elastic. A long shoe is analysed by dividing it up conceptually into infinitessimal elements - each of whose contact with the translating body is identical to that of the short shoe above - then

3 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

summing (integrating) the equilibrating effect of all the elements. The free body of the long shoe is similar to that of the short in having three contacts, however the contact with the braked body is distributed. Consider such a trailing shoe whose lining, of constant width w normal to the sketch plane, extends from xmin to xmax as sketched { nomenclature explanation }. The lining pressure is p on the typical element of length dx located at x from the hinge, so the normal force on the element is dN = p.dA = p w dx, while the corresponding friction force will be p w dx. Moment equilibrium of the assembly of elemental short shoes about the hinge (to eliminate the as yet unwanted hinge reaction) requires M - dN.x - dN.h = 0 or in the limit on substituting for dN : M = w p ( x + h ) dx Integration is possible only if the pressure distribution p(x) is known, so the above- noted proportionality between pressure p and distance x is formalised as p = pmax ( x / xmax ) the severity of contact loading being characterised by the peak pressure pmax which depends upon the actuation. Inserting this into the equilibrium equation and integrating between the lining limits xmin and xmax leads to ( iv) p max = ( M xmax / w ) / [ ( xmax3 - xmin3 )/3 + h ( xmax2 - xmin2 )/2 ]

The relation ( iv ) for a long shoe is similar to ( iii) for a short shoe as it expresses the essential proportionality between actuation and the resulting contact effects - if the actuation is doubled then the peak pressure pmax and the pressures at all points of the lining are also doubled. The total braking effect, hinge reaction etc. produced by a certain actuation follow from ( iv) - for example total braking effect = pw dx = [ pmax( x/xmax )] w dx = w pmax ( xmax2 - xmin2 ) / ( 2 xmax ) or substituting for pmax from ( iv) = M / [ h + 2 ( xmax3 - xmin3 ) / ( 3 ( xmax2 - xmin2 ) ) ] The details of this final result notwithstanding, it is clear that the braking effect is again proportional to actuation since only constant geometric and frictional terms occur.

Short rotational shoe

Turning now to drum brakes, we first consider the external, trailing short shoe sketched at ( a). The drum of radius r is centred at O which forms the origin of a Cartesian system whose x-axis passes through the shoe hinge H distant a from O. The

4 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

y-axis is directed generally towards the short lining - whether this system is right- handed or not is irrelevant. The lining is located at angle m from the x-axis. The shoe free body is shown at ( b) with the actuation moment M = Pe and the effect of the braked body (drum) contact on the lining expressed by the normal reaction N and the friction force N in the sense of braked body motion - just like the short translational shoe. For rotational equilibrium about the hinge to eliminate the as yet unwanted hinge reaction ( v) N = pm A = M / ( a.sin m - ( r - a.cos m ) )

This is analogous to ( iii) in expressing the essential proportionality between the normal reaction and the actuation - other forces follow from force equilibrium. This is really all there is to short shoe brake analysis - however it is useful to introduce two artifices to simplify later work ( v ) applies only to an external trailing shoe. Rather than derive other relations for internal and/or leading shoes, we shall employ a "double delta" notation and re-derive a general form of ( v) which will describe all possible configurations simply by inserting appropriate 1 values for the deltas. When short shoe results are extended to long shoes it will be seen that the normal and friction components vary in both magnitude and direction around the lining contact. It is much easier to handle these if they are moved to the shaft centre, O. It will be recalled from basic Statics that a force may be moved transverse to its line of action without altering the equilibrium of a body on which it acts provided a corresponding moment is introduced equal to the force multiplied by the transverse distance moved. The double delta notation utilises upper case to designate shoe position - if a shoe is external then = +1; if the shoe is internal then = -1. lower case to designate shoe sense - if a shoe is trailing then = +1; if the shoe is leading then = -1. The forces and torques of sketch ( b) which enter into the hinge moment equation are repeated with the - terminology in sketch ( c), though this is not a complete free body of the shoe. It should be noted that : if the shoe leads rather than trails then the friction force on the shoe N will act in the SE direction, ie. negatively in the NW sense sketched since = -1 for the leading shoe; if the shoe is internal to the drum rather than external, then the normal reaction N will act radially inwards on the lining while, to rotate the shoe clockwise against the surrounding drum, the actuation M must be clockwise ie. negative in the senses sketched since = -1 for the internal shoe. Next the drum's net effect on the shoe sketch ( c), is replaced by the equivalent effect in Cartesian components at the drum centre, sketch ( d).

5 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

If the arrangements of sketches ( c) and ( d) are identical then :Fx = N cos m - N sin m ; Fy = N sin m + N cos m ; T = Nr - or briefly :-

pmis the uniform pressure over the short lining whose contact area is A. The reaction to the torque T is the braking effect exerted by the shoe on the drum. Taking moments about the hinge for the free body ( d) - [ ( c) serves equally well ] ( vi) M = a Fy - T = N [ a ( cosm + sinm ) - r ] - and solving for N

( 6a) N = M / [ a sin m - ( r - a cos m ) ] - a generalisation of ( v) applicable to all layouts = M / [ r ( m - n ) ] - in which m 1/ a/r sin m and n 1 - a/r cos m are constant dimensionless characteristics of the shoe. Summarising the analysis steps for a short shoe of known geometry and friction coefficient : Evaluate the shoe constants, m & n from ( 6a); for a given actuation M ascertain the corresponding normal reaction N from ( 6a) with , appropriate to the shoe's configuration; determine contact resultants including braking torque from ( 5a), then other forces if desired from force equilibrium. So much for the mechanics of analysis - let's now examine the physical implications . . . .

Shoe figures of merit

The performance of a single shoe or a complete brake is described by either of two dimensionless figures of merit The mechanical advantage (or "brake factor"), ( vii) = output/input = braking effect/corresponding actuation necessary The sensitivity, S, reflects the proportional variation of braking torque with fixed actuation as the friction coefficient varies, thus ( viii) S = /T . [ T/ ]M = / . d/d For a single shoe, use of ( 5a), ( 6a) leads to ( 8) = T/M = 1/( m - n ) and S = m

6 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

These are plotted below for representative short shoes of typical proportions. The curves demonstrate that the same trends apply for both figures of merit, namely = -1 External leading and internal trailing shoes of the given proportions are counteractuating. Both mechanical advantage and sensitivity are low and the shoes are inherently stable. = +1 External trailing and internal leading shoes of the given proportions are self- actuating. Both mechanical advantage and sensitivity can become high - giving rise to instability, to vibration and squeal, to judder if the assembly is flexible, or even more dangerous, to grabbing of the brake. Physically this is due to friction not merely assisting actuation but swamping it. Self- actuation occurs if m and n in ( 6a) & ( 8) are approximately equal due to design, or to the shoe becoming out of adjustment because of hinge wear, or if the coefficient of friction increases after the ingress of dirt, drum scoring, or other environmental changes. While significant self- actuation may be advantageous for an emergency brake, generally it should be avoided. Experience has shown that shoes should be designed with a maximum sensitivity of 2 under heavy duty conditions, or 2.5 for moderate duty.

This example analyses a brake with two separately- actuated short shoes, and considers braking torque, sensitivity and bearing loads.

It is now appropriate to examine long shoes - which are more practical than short - before proceeding to look at complete twin shoe brakes.

| Notes contents | chapter index | previous | top of page | next |

7 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44

DANotes: Brakes: Analysis of short shoes

http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~dwright/DANotes/brakes/analysis/analysi...

Copyright 1999-2005 Douglas Wright last updated May 2005

8 of 8

27-07-2013 15:44