Servo Shoe Brake Calculations: An Analytical Basis for the Study of the Problem of Brakes with any Number of Shoes Available to Purchase

IT appears from published work on brakes that no general theoretical basis has been presented on which the problem of the servo shoe brake can be studied, though empirical procedures have been used and special cases have been examined analytically. In this essay a simple theory is presented for dealing with brakes having any number of shoes; in it the pressure distribution on any shoe is a function of the conditions of equilibrium, of the system and of simple assumptions which it is thought will be generally acceptable. By means of this theory, the effects of variations in the factors involved in servo shoe brake design can be investigated, and it is hoped that it may consequently prove useful to brake designers.