brakes

[hari3392]

im a first timer for fsae.how does position of brake caliper on the knuckle(in front or back) affect braking/car's driving characteristics?given answers to this question in forums isn't very clear.

[shark.ashwa]

Originally posted by hari3392:
im a first timer for fsae.how does position of brake caliper on the knuckle(in front or back) affect braking/car's driving characteristics?given answers to this question in forums isn't very clear.

Draw a Free Body Diagram and find out for yourself. It will help your cause when you make your design presentation rather than telling the judges that you went this way as it was given in the forums.

Sharath

[Owen Thomas]

While I would agree with that statement 99% of the time, Sharath, I think in this case it may not provide the answer he/she is looking for.

For all practical purposes in an FSAE type competition, the placement of your calipers is negligible towards the overall characteristics of your vehicle. Now this may just be my opinion, but the best thing to think about when placing your calipers is to just package them correctly; make sure you can get brake lines to them, make sure you have adequate clearance on the inside rim, make sure they don't (somehow) impede any suspension components or any other part of your hub. A good model of your entire wheel assembly will make the whole process easier for you.

Don't get me wrong, it is entirely *possible* to maximize the braking performance by thoroughly analyzing your force curves, modeling the cooling characteristics, etc, etc. But is it worth it? My team certainly doesn't have the time, and I'm willing to bet that as a "first timer" you definitely do not either.

Now that I've gotten sufficiently off-topic, here's your summary:
The position of your caliper does not affect your braking performance. Get brakes that stop your car and go racing.

[shark.ashwa]

Owen,

The purpose of my post was not to get him to do an FBD and regard that as gospel and attempt an non-compatible design. My wish was to make him understand that you cannot go by the things written in forums, the specs might be completely different.
Anyways, the first thing we always did was electing the componenets to be used based on worst loading conditions and design around them finding a compromise between location of the calipers and an ergonomic design.

Sharath

[Peter7307]

hari3392,
One additional comment I would add to the helpful advice given by Owen Thomas above is to make sure the calipers can be bled of air easily.

If not , the task is either done less well than it needs to be or not at all.
Given we are talking about a safety item (brakes in this instance) half done really is not good enough.

Peter.