During heavy acceleration, accelerating on a slippery road, snowy road, and climbing hills, the wheels can lose traction and reduces the driver's control of the vehicle. Traction Control system prevents this wheel slip or spinning. There are two ways the traction control can do this. It will either reduce the amount of power sent to the wheels or it can apply the appropriate brake pressure to the wheels that are spinning. Let us see how does it work in this article.
Traction Control System uses the same components as ABS. It comes as a supplement to the existing ABS facility. This system also utilizes the same components used in ABS. They are, Wheel speed sensors to monitor the rotational speed on each wheel, a hydraulic modulator to apply appropriate braking pressure on each wheel and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) to receive information from the wheel speed sensors to operate the hydraulic modulator accordingly to apply proper braking pressure on wheels.
The ECU of the traction control module monitors data from the wheel speed sensors and the power train control module. It collects the data and compares the rotational speed of each wheel. If one or more wheels are rotating faster than the others, it will indicate traction loss to the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and the system instructs the power train control module to reduce torque and the hydraulic modulator to apply appropriate braking pressure to the slipping wheel until it regains the traction. So, the traction control system allows drivers to safely apply heavy acceleration while driving fast on some of the highways and on slippery or loose surfaces.
Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is often confused with the Traction Control System (TCS). Please note that the traction control system is for wheel spin or slip control and it does not control the vehicle's direction. But, ESC system monitors how fast each the wheel is rotating and uses the sensors such as roll, yaw, throttle position, steering wheel angle and more to identify whether the car is going as per the driver's intended direction.
Some other automotive safety-related articles:
Automotive Safety systems- Introduction
Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) - Simple Explanation
Electronic Stability Control (ESC)
Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
Tire (Tyre) Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) - Simple Explanation
Lane Departure Warning (LDW) - Simple Explanation
Night Vision System (NVS) in Automobiles - Simple Explanation
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