A Review Paper on Design and Analysis of Leaf Spring

Abstract

This paper reviews some of the general study on the design, analysis and fabrication of composite leaf spring. Leaf springs are one of the oldest suspension components they are still frequently used, especially in commercial vehicles. The literature has indicated a growing interest in the replacement of steel spring with composite leaf spring.The suspension system in a vehicle significantly affects the behavior of vehicle, i.e. vibration characteristics including ride comfort, stability etc. Leaf springs are commonly used in the vehicle suspension system and are subjected to millions of varying stress cycles leading to fatigue failure. A lot of research has been done for improving the performance of leaf spring. Lot of materials are used for leaf spring .but it is found that fiberglass material has better strength characteristic and lighter in weight as compare to steel for leaf spring. In this paper the author is reviewed few papers on use of alternate materials and effect of material on leaf spring performance.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Leaf springs are mainly used in suspension systems to absorb shock loads in automobiles like light motor vehicles, heavy duty trucks and in rail systems. The main function of leaf spring assembly as suspension element is not only to support vertical load, but also to isolate road-induced vibrations. The behaviour of leaf spring is complicated due to its clamping effects and inter-leaf contact etc. It carries lateral loads, brake torque, driving torque in addition to shock absorb. Springs are crucial suspension elements on cars, necessary to minimize the vertical vibrations, impacts and bumps due to road irregularities and create a comfortable ride. The suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight reduction in automobile as it accounts for ten to twenty percent of the unsprung weight. The introduction of composites helps in designing a better suspension system with better ride quality if it can be achieved without much increase in cost and decrease in quality and reliability. In the design of springs, strain energy becomes the major factor. In the present scenario the main focus of automobile manufacturers is weight reduction of the automobile. Weight reduction can be achieved mainly by introducing the better material, design optimization and better manufacturing processes. In automobiles, leaf spring is one of the potential parts for weight reduction as it accounts for 10% - 20% of the unsprung weight. Composite materials have made it possible to reduce the weight of leaf spring without any reduction in load carrying capacity and stiffness. Composite materials are now used extensively in place of metal parts. Several papers were devoted to the application of composite materials for automobiles.

The figure shows a laminated semi- elliptic spring. The top leaf is known as the master leaf. The eye is provided for attaching the spring with another machine member. The amount of bend that is given to the spring from the central line, passing through the eyes, is known as camber. The camber is provided so that even at the maximum load the deflected spring should not touch the machine member to which it is attached. The central clamp is required to hold the leaves of the spring.

To design composite leaf spring, a stress analysis was performed using the finite element method done using ANSYS software. Modeling was done for every leaf with CATIA V5R20 as shown in fig1. Also, analysis carried out for composite leaf spring with bonded end joints for Mild Steel, E-Glass/Epoxy and Jute E- Glass/Epoxy. The maximum and shear stresses along the adhesive layer were measured; represent FEA results for composite leaf springs of (Mild Steel E-Glass/Epoxy and Jute E-Glass/Epoxy). The maximum and shear stresses along the bonded adhesive layer for Mild Steel E-glass/Epoxy and Jute E-Glass/Epoxy were measured and plotted as shown in Figs.

Conclusion

The automobile chassis is mounted on the axles, not direct but with some form of springs. The stresses and deflection of steel leaf spring and composite leaf spring are found with great difference. Deflection of composite leaf spring is less as compared to steel leaf spring with the same loading condition. Weight and cost are also less in composite leaf spring as compared to steel leaf spring with the same parameters. Conventional steel leaf spring is also found to be 5.5 times heavier then Jute E- Glass/Epoxy leaf spring. Material saving of 71.4 % is achieved by replacing Jute E-Glass/epoxy in place of steel for fabricating the leaf spring. Composite leaf spring can be used on smooth roads with very high performance expectations.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Bhushan Funde, Prof. Ritesh Banpurkar . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.