What Is Brake Horsepower In Cars

Chances are youve heard about horsepower.

What is brake horsepower in cars. In europe the din 70020 standard tests the engine fitted with all ancillaries and exhaust system as used in the car. Bhp is measured within the engines output shaft. Brake horsepower is the pure amount of power generated by a car engine before the loss in power caused by various auxiliary components such as gearbox drive train water pump alternator power steering pump and etc. The term brake horsepower bhp refers to a device called prony brake invented by gaspard de prony which was used to measure engine power in the early 1900s.

On the other hand brake horsepower measures the hp of an engine without considering the loss in power that is caused by some parts of the engine like the generator gearbox water pump and other auxiliary parts. Sometimes referred to as pure horsepower brake horsepower is measured within the engines output shaft. The torque times the engine speed then gives the power output called brake horse power bhp. Just about every car ad on tv mentions it people talking about their cars bandy the word about and even most lawn mowers have a big sticker on them to tell you the horsepower rating.

Brake horsepower bhp is another common term that always appears in car engine specification especially new car brochure. What hp actually measures is the maximum rate of acceleration and the top speed of the car. But what is horsepower and what does the horsepower rating mean in terms of performance. Power measured like this with the engine on a test bed is expressed as a power output at the flywheel.

Brake horsepower bhp is the power measured at the crankshaft just outside the engine before the losses of power caused by the gearbox efficiency and drive train efficiency. This work is calculated without the consideration of the effects of any auxiliary component that may slow down the actual speed of the motor. It is possible to run the car on a rolling road dynamometer to measure the power output at the driving wheels instead. Brake horsepower is in car terms effectively the same as horsepower and simply indicates that an engines energy loss due to friction has been taken into account though because horsepower usually includes this anyway they are effectively the same.