Electro-Magnetic Brakes on Aircraft

Introduction
The aviation industry witness consistent and constant changes and upgrades on the existing technologies. These changes could be either on large scale or small scale depending on their nature and their effect on the aircraft. An aircraft consists of numerous major and minor components which are essential for its safe operation on ground while take off or landing including taxing and towing or in flight during cruise. With the advancement of production of high expertise equipment and skilled man power the modern era has had the exemplary opportunity to have a glimpse of the development of huge and extra ordinary aircrafts with state- of the- art technology such as Airbus 380 and Boeing 787 Dream liner aircrafts. Both these types of aircraft have deployed commendable techniques to achieve their enormous size and capability to safely handle more than 500 passengers at once from the process of take-off to landing through various destinations. These aircrafts are heavier and faster than ever before and surpass all their previous ancestors in terms of science, technology and capability. To achieve such great heights aircraft manufactures have put in years of hard work of research and detailing on each and every aspect related to aircraft flight ranging from avionics to structural analysis. Every structural component has undergone a huge renovation in order to support the load and stress the aircraft fuselage will be subjected to on ground and in air. Also in the present era an important factor which has been specially taken into consideration and laid emphasis on is controlling pollution. The Aviation Industry is with each passing day putting in massive amount of effort to turn green and save the planet from negative environmental effects. There is tremendous pressure on the aircraft manufacturers to design the structure such a way that is economic, reliable and healthy with reduced greenhouse gas emissions in order to survive in this age of cut-throat competition. The never heard before innovative ideas have played a huge role in the success of these new aircraft models. This project will throw some light on such a technology which is a completely new in the block. We will discuss the innovative topic of use and implementation of magnetic brakes on aircraft. This technology is quite popular in automobiles and electric trains however lately thoughts have been given to implement the same ideas on aircrafts to help in improving braking systems and ground manoeuvring. This technology has well excellent potential to take over the current friction based braking system taking into consideration its effectiveness, low cost maintenance, saving on engine power and fuel and subsequently less taxing time and airport charges. This can prove to be a beneficial step to increase revenue by a substantial margin

Reason of Change
As airplanes increase in weight and speed, and as runways differ in terrain nature at various airports a major objective to be accomplished was to make significant improvements on the existing types of wheels, brakes and anti-skid systems of aircrafts. Brakes are needed on wheels to control the aircraft on ground. The quest of flying with high speed and greater load-carrying capability requires bigger engines with high power ratings. These subsequently bring in the need of lengthier take-off and landing runs at the airports. To do this successfully there should be great control on the aircraft on the ground which is only possible with improved wheels, brakes and anti-skid system. In this project, history of several types of braking systems of aircraft which have been used till date will be discussed briefly. Then an illustration of magnetic brakes will be projected as to what lies in its design, construction and the principle involved. The following topics will be discussed upon: Types of Brake Systems used on Aircraft Summary of Hydraulic Brake system Short- comings of Hydraulic Brake System How does an electro-magnetic brake and clutch work? Resistance formula and derivations will be discussed Different types of magnetic brakes. The features or characteristics of magnetic brakes The benefits of magnetic brakes

Types of Aircraft Brake System

The history of aircraft brakes genre could be distinguished either as a single or multiple disk brake system since its conception. They are operated in any of the three ways: Mechanical Hydraulic Pneumatic

The Mechanical brake system on aircraft use simple machines such as pulleys, cables, bell cranks. This type of brake system is popular in general aviation light aircraft where brakes are used for the primary purpose of ground manoeuvring and does not require kinetic energy dissipation in great amount. They are single- disc brakes using spot type organic linings which have a high co-efficient of

friction and good thermal characteristics. If there is a requirement to increase the capacity of singledisk brakes, addition of supplemental cylinders and lining pucks have been carried out.

A majority of large commercial aircrafts use hydraulic system pressure to deploy their brakes. Since they are much heavier comparatively they take assistance of typical engine or electric driven gear type pumps to provide pressure to the system. We can find use of several inert-connected hydraulic pumps with back up pumps for emergency purposes in large commercially operated aircrafts.

Hydraulic system is also used on light aircraft where several system components are combined and treated as one single system. This kind of combined system is called Power Pack hydraulic system.

Pneumatic brake systems use only air to run their system. They are used in gliders on the wings at approach control at the time of landing. They are popularly known as Air Brakes. They are specifically designed to augment the drag while making a slight reduction in lift. They should not be confused with Spoilers. It could be found that some hydraulics use air as a backup pressure supply.

In the above section we have briefly discussed about various types of brake systems used on aircraft in the aviation history. In the next section we shall be discussing Hydraulic Brake System in a bit detail to see its operational principles and later illustrate how electro-magnetic brakes would prove to be a more advantageous system in near future of the aviation world.