It depends on the year and type of air brake system we are dealing with.

We have two airbrake

systems in use in tractor units, FMVSS 121 airbrake systems, and the Pre 121 system. The 121 is the
most common, and will be explained here.

In the 121 system, you have 2 brake systems in one- a parking/emergency section of the brake
chamber that is air released and spring applied, and the service section that is spring released and
air applied. You can see that in the following picture of a brake chamber.

To release the parking brake, you push in the yellow handled parking brake valve for the truck, and
the red trailer control valve for the trailer. This will send air through the relay valves, then sending
air to the parking side of the brake chamber, which pushes the diaphragm, compressing the large
parking brake spring and releasing the parking brake.
When your driving the truck and you either lose air, or break a line, the air leaks out of the system
until the air can no longer hold back the spring and the brakes begin to apply. Eventually the
parking valves will pop out at a preset pressure, exhausting the air and allowing the spring to apply
the brakes.

Now when your driving down the road with the parking brake released, you will use the service
portion to apply the brakes to slow down or stop the truck under normal circumstances. You do
this by either using the foot treadle (which applies both the tractor and trailer brakes) or the trailer
brake hand valve or spike if the truck is equipped (which only applies the trailer brakes)
When you apply the service brakes, signal air is sent to relay valves at a pressure relative to how far
or hard you push the valve. The relay valve sends the corresponding air pressure to the brake
chambers which push on the diaphragm and applies the brakes. When you release the pedal, the
air is exhausted and the return spring releases the brakes.

There is also a pre 121 air system, found on old trailers and some specialized trailers that only have
a single chamber brake chamber, with the brakes being air applied and spring released for both
emergency and service applications. These were less safe then the 121 system because as soon as
the air leaked off the trailer the brakes released and the trailer could roll away if it wasn’t secured
properly. They are very rare today and you will hardly ever see them.