Abstract—In recent years, the conventional brake, accelerator and clutch pedals of automotive vehicles are replaced by polymeric-based composite pedals. The purpose of replacement from metallic pedal to polymeric-based composite material is to reduce the weight, cost and improve material degradation by corrosion. In this paper four different sections of polymeric based brake pedals are analyzed as per the design parameters received from General motors. The sections are analyzed and arrived at a winning concept based on stiffness comparison. A full scale model is developed from the winning concept, while developing full scale model an ergonomic study has been made on few hatch back and SUVs car’s to improve the driver’s comfort and reduce fatigue due to breaking operation. The pedal is modelled using CATIA software and analysis is carried out in ANSYS software. The results have shown polymeric-based composite material meets the requirements of manufacturer’s specification and can be replaced with present metallic pedal. Weight reduction of 66.7% is achieved by using composite material.

Index Terms—Brake pedal, SUVs car (Sport utility vehicles), CATIA, Erogonomics, Composite

Cite: K K Dhande*, N I Jamadar and Sandeep Ghatge, "Design and Analysis of Composite Brake Pedal: An Ergonomic Approach," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 474-482, July 2014.