The figure compares the brake characteristics of different brake designs over the friction coefficient.
It becomes clear that in the case of brakes with high self-energization the variations in friction coefficient Δμ have a stronger effect on the circumferential force than in the case of brakes with low self-energization. A measure on how much the brake characteristic depends on changes of the friction coefficient is the so-called sensitivity E0:
Eq. 3-59
A constant value results for the disk brake:
Eq. 3-60
The sensitivity of the Simplex-brake rises progressively already at low friction coefficients:
