International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume: 3 | Issue: 3 | Mar-Apr 2019 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 - 6470

Design and Analysis of Pedal Box with Braking System

Md. Hameed1, B. Praveen Kumar1, B. Rohit2, B. Surya Sai2, G. Sai Kiran2
1Assistant Professor, 2 UG Student
1,2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, Telangana, India

How to cite this paper: Md. Hameed | B. ABSTRACT

Praveen Kumar | B. Rohit | B. Surya Sai | A design process for an automotive pedal box system is presented in this paper.
G. Sai Kiran "Design and Analysis of The work begins with a review of research carried out on pedal box system. It is
Pedal Box with Braking System" followed by the process of designing a complete pedal box system. Reverse
Published in International Journal of engineering process by using a steel pedal box system by use of MS Plate. The
Trend in Scientific Research and Pedal box design with proper pedal ratio and the use of single brake for both
Development front and rear braking is designed.
(ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-
6470, Volume-3 |
Issue-3, April 2019, KEYWORDS: Automotive pedal box system, Reverse Engineering Process and MS
pp.1446-1449, URL: Plate
https://www.ijtsrd.c
om/papers/ijtsrd23 IJTSRD23413
413.pdf

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1. INTRODUCTION
Pedal Box is a recent innovation in the racing world mainly In preparation to design the pedal box, it was essential to
in the formula cars. The main purpose of pedal box is to review the necessary requirements to construct, as well as
provide comfort and efficient working for the driver. Pedals performing a literature review on past similar projects for a
are mounted into the box type structure rather than basis. Once the research was completed, initial design ideas
mounting directly to the Chassis. One more use is that the were experimented until the final design was chosen for the
driver does not need to apply full pressure for throttle, less pedal box based on the requirements.
amount of force is enough to give full throttle.
More dynamic, improved throttle response, adjustable: Pedal
The Braking system of the Formula Student Cars should be Box has 3 different modes, “SPORT”, “SPORT Plus” and
very accurate that is the reason disc brakes are used for all “CITY”. Each program allows the driver to match the
the four wheels. The Braking system was designed initially response of the throttle to own needs and to the prevailing
and separately. The required sizes of calipers, discs and traffic situation. Each program can be fine-tuned using the
master cylinders as per the required braking force and plus and minus buttons, by which custom settings are
inertia were calculated. Two master cylinders are used possible!
which are tandem master cylinders taken from Maruti 800
Car and the calipers and discs are selected from KTM 390 RC. Today, most vehicles are “Drive-by-Wire” (called ECT or
Every car is necessarily equipped with a system to convert a ECM), and not cable sent as it used to be (Bowden cable).
small form of energy exerted by the driver into braking and Modern systems typically suffer excessive signal delay. That
accelerating the motor vehicle at high speeds. In the case of is the point where the Pedal box offers itself as a solution
the formula student car, it was required to construct such a and is able to unleash the full potential of the vehicle.
system, similar to the case of most vehicles, in which the
mechanical force from the driver’s foot on a lever caused the The curve indicates the speed with which an engine reacts to
car to accelerate or decelerate. The levers and the housing the pressing of the pedal by the driver. It’s not about the
construct a pedal box the levers are the main parts of a pedal power that the car develops, but how long it takes to unleash
box, which is the focus of this project. The purpose of the this power. A poor response and difficult acceleration is
individual project was to research and design the working clearly visible.
mechanics of the pedal box that was a reliable, safe, and cost
effective system for the Formula Student.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD23413 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 3 | Mar-Apr 2019 Page: 1446
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
The above figure shows the chassis of a formula student analysis is carried out in ANSYS software. The results have
vehicle. Where the pedal box is placed and the master shown polymeric-based composite material meets the
cylinder is also placed. requirements of manufacturer’s specification and can be
replaced with present metallic pedal. Weight reduction of
2. Literature Review 66.7% is achieved by using composite material [4].
In this study, a study of conceptual design for the polymeric-
based composite automotive pedal box system is presented. 3. Design Criteria
This study describes the importance of the concurrent The constraints of the pedal box design are as follows:
engineering technique in the total design activity. Seven idea  The pedal box needed to be designed around the
generation methods like the extension of the search space, geometry constraints set in the results from the braking
the morphological chart, the exploitation of the system calculations. That is the master cylinder mount
morphological charts enabled designers to identify the sub height and the distance between the master cylinder
solutions to each sub-functions of the pedal box system. The pivot and the brake pedal are fixed.
evaluation matrix method was used to decide on the final  The team’s frame engineer insisted that the total width
concept for the mounting bracket arrangement. The final be no more than 10inches.
solution for the polymeric- based composite pedal box  The length of both the gas and the brake pedal need to
system was three pedal mounted onto a common mounting be approximately the length of a human foot (~
bracket. The clutch and the brake pedals were finally 8.5inches).
compared and evaluated [1].  The SAE rules designate that the brake pedal must be
able to withstand a force of minimum 2000N.
The modern automotive industries are replacing acceletor
and clutch pedal by lightweight materials such as polymer Due to this constraint the material selection of the brake
composites, plastic, aluminium and its alloys, etc. The pedal and the overall pedal box must be strong, stiff and
purpose of replacement is reduction weight, cost, and have high toughness.
improvement in corrosion resistance. In aviation; the steel
material is replaced by light materials. In this study various The objective of the pedal box design was to satisfy all of the
lightweight materials are compared with conventional steel constraints mentioned above and optimize for a minimal
for brake pedal. These materials are analysed for different weight.
sections for different loading and boundary conditions. The 4. Final Design
aim of this study is to design and analyse the brake pedal To design a brake system comprising of an adjustable pedal
using CATIA and ANSYS software [2]. box which should be able to lock all four wheels at the same
time. The Acceleration and Clutch pedals are also designed
Nowadays, automotive industry is continuing to strive for
using the required pedal ratios with respect to the
light weight vehicle in improving fuel efficiency and
ergonomics of the driver.
emissions reduction. To produce a better performance car it
is important to design vehicles with optimum weight. In The brake pedal is connected to a balancing rod which is
order to reduce the weight of vehicle without sacrificing its divided to both the master cylinders to generate the
integrity, this project aims to employ topology optimization required braking force. The front braking force should be
technique to propose an optimal design of an automotive higher than that of the rear braking force hence the balance
component in early phase of product development. In this was made not as equal amount but as for rear 45% and for
project the material used for an existing brake pedal is front is 55%. The considered applying force by the driver is
unchanged as this study focuses on reducing weight of 300N – 500N. The total braking force required and the pedal
existing brake pedal without material substitution. The ratio considerations are explained in the below formulae.
digital model of an existing brake pedal was generated using
CATIA V5 solid modelling software. Topology optimization For Front:
was performed by using Altair Optistruct software under B.F = pM.C*Ab.c.p
linear static stress analysis. Finally, a new light weight design B. F = 2491.27 N
brake pedal is proposed. The result of the study shows that T b. f = B.F*N*μ*n
the weight of a new designed brake pedal was 22% less as T b. f =24912.76 N
compared to an existing brake pedal without sacrificing its For Rear:
performance requirement [3]. T b. f=b. f*µ*N*n
T b. f=11958.23 N
In recent years, the conventional brake, accelerator and
clutch pedals of automotive vehicles are replaced by Total Braking Force Required = Rear Braking Force +Front
polymeric-based composite pedals. The purpose of Braking Force.
replacement from metallic pedal to polymeric-based Total Braking Force = 36870.913 N.
composite material is to reduce the weight, cost and improve
material degradation by corrosion. In this paper four Only the master cylinders used cannot generate this much an
different sections of polymeric based brake pedals are amount of calliper force from that applied 300 – 500N hence
analysed as per the design parameters received from we had to use a pedal ratio of 6:1 which increases the
General motors. The sections are analysed and arrived at a applied load by 6 times and sends it to the master cylinder.
winning concept based on stiffness comparison. A full scale The retraction of the clutch pedal and accelerator pedal after
model is developed from the winning concept, while the load is removed was designed using torsion spring made
developing full scale model an ergonomic study has been of stainless steel. Pedal angle is adjustable with respect to
made on few hatch back and SUVs car’s to improve the the driver ergonomics. The pedal travel is taken as
driver’s comfort and reduce fatigue due to breaking 20degrees and the spring design was checked for safe limits
operation. The pedal is modelled using CATIA software and for that travel.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD23413 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 3 | Mar-Apr 2019 Page: 1447
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
5. Analysis Degree of freedom is 1 for the object that is Z direction only.
Then a load of 300N is applied on the front face of the pedal.
Material and other properties are entered and then solved to
obtain the results.

Fig.4. Equivalent Stress

Fig.1. Analysis Procedure and Steps

The 3D Model Part designed using Solid Works is imported

into Ansys and we had to do FEA on the body applying load
on the face.

Fig.5. Total Deformation Obtained.

6. Result
A safe, reliable and efficiently working pedal box with a
single brake providing both rear and front brakes as per the
Fig. 2: Pedal is imported into the software. requirement is designed.The design is also flexible and
adjustable with respect to the driver ergonomics. A driver
We used fine mesh with tetra and adaptive element size can apply a pedal force of 30kg to achieve maximum
function as the option for meshing. The total number of potential of the system, which is much lesser than the
elements generated are 648011 and number of nodes are average panic braking force. This pedal box has been used in
988711. the recent manufactured formula student car and the
performance of the pedal box was a charm. There is a great
potential to optimize, this safety limit which can be done by
removing material from low stressed region by further
decreasing the weight without effecting its structural
behavior.

Fig.3. Cylindrical Support and Load Application

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD23413 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 3 | Mar-Apr 2019 Page: 1448
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
7. References
[1] A Conceptual Design of the Concurrent Engineering
Design System for polymeric – Based Composite
Automotive Pedals” by the author S. M. Sapunan.
[2] Conceptual Design and Analysis of Brake Pedal Profile”,
by the authors K.K.Dhande, N.I.Jamadar,
SandeepGhatge
[3] Topology Optimization in Automotive Brake Pedal
Redesign”, by the authors Mohd Nizam Sudin,
Musthafah Mohd Tahir, Faiz Redza Ramli, Shamsul
Anuar Shamsuddin.
[4] Design and Analysis of Composite Brake Pedal: An
Ergonomic Approach” by the authors K KDhande, N I
Fig.6. Complete Pedal Box Assembly using Solid Works Jamadar, Sandeep Ghatge.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD23413 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 3 | Mar-Apr 2019 Page: 1449