According to the studies, a material with maximum strength and minimum modulus of elasticity in the longitudinal direction is the most suitable material for a leaf spring. Although you may not ever have heard about or even noticed leaf springs on larger tow vehicles, the technology has been around for centuries and is one of the earliest forms of suspension. Sowjanya, design and analysis of automotive multi leaf springs using composite material, ijmperd 22496890 vol. The objective of this paper is to compare the load carrying capacity, stiffness and weight savings of composite leaf spring with that of steel leaf spring. It consists of a center bolt that properly aligns the leaves and clips to resist its individual leaves from twisting and shifting.
Multileaf spring and hotchkiss suspension cae simulation. The material used directly affects the quantity of storable energy in the leaf spring. Therefore, once the design parameters, given on the left side of the above equation, are fixed the value of plate thickness, h can be. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the different types of iso documents should be noted. Leaf spring design and engineering strength of materials. Leaf springs are long bundles of spring material that flex when under pressure from the moving of a vehicles axle. Being able to capture the leaf spring characteristics is of signi. Paszek performed a three dimensional contact analysis of the car leaf spring. In the present work, a nineleaf steel spring used in heavy vehicle. Leaf spring failure analysis springs are a limited life component.
I stopped at a spring shop and they let me dig in the dumpster. And that dimensions are used for composite multi leaf spring as well by taking composites as carbonepoxy and graphiteepoxy. The benefit of leaf spring over helical spring is that the ends of the spring may be leaded along a definite path as it deflects to act as a structural. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring international journal of mechanical and industrial engineering ijmie, issn no. Experimental investigation on laminated composite leaf. Stresses and strains under different loads were analyzed. The heat treatment of spring steel produces greater strength and therefore greater load.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the isoiec directives, part 1. With proper care and experience it is possible to forge weld out any fractures and normalize the steel into very usable stock. Design, analysis and fabrication of leaf spring for passengers car under guidance of. The single leaf spring, or monoleaf, is a single layer spring that is thick in the center and tapers down at each end. The ends of the spring are rolled or looped to form eyes. A wide variety of small leaf spring options are available to you, such as industrial, automobile. Threequarter elliptic some larger vehicles can be seen sporting an extra half of a leaf spring to support the normal leaf spring, positioned over the top of the axle.
Material and processing effects on fatigue performance of. Pdf weight reduction is now the main issue in automobile industries. Jeevan kumar 39 leaf springs are unique kind of springs used in abstract automobile suspension systems. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring by using fea and. A composite material is made by combining two or more materials often ones that. Automobile leaf springs from composite materials sciencedirect. Nonlinearity from large deformation, interleaf contact, and friction was included. Leaf springs are semielliptical in shape and are made of high quality alloy steel. This helps the vehicle with increasing fuel efficiency and riding qualities to be improved. They were originally called carriage or laminated springs. Regardless of how well a spring is maintained or how favorable the operating conditions are, all springs will eventually fail from fatigue caused by the repeated flexing of the spring. Use of leaf spring plates lsp01 or lsp02 is recommended.
Analysis and optimization of a composite leaf spring. The material selected was glass fiber reinforced plastic gfrp and the polyester resin netpol 1011 can be used which will reduce total cost of composite. Better to work with known material and processes until you know what you are doing. Generally we can remove the frp leaf spring from the profile used, after 3 hours from the time of completion of leaf spring. Another material used for leaf springs is beryllium copper, but i am not using this for an electrical application where low resistance is needed for electrical current flow. Arch is measured to the center of the end mounting eyes. Different types of leaf springs replacement leaf spring.
Distance bw horizontal axis joining 2 eyes and main leaf. Thus the leaf springs may carry lateral loads, brake torque, driving torque etc. Spring specification the sheet on the page opposite is a spring specification sheet which ssa uses as a means of recording preliminary information about a leaf spring s specifications. Leaf spring technical information landrum performance. Prior to the mid fifties grease was put between the spring leaves, in fact springs of many pre50 cars were wrapped in metal liners to hold the grease in. Good morning stovebolters ive seen alot of part listings lately for leaf spring teflon liners, like a teflon gasket that goes between each leaf spring to keep them from grinding and squeeking.
The leaves are heat treated after the forming process. They are also commonly utilized by amateur and hobbyist. Even leonardo da vinci used leaf springs in his diagram for a selfpropelled car. Materials for leaf spring the material used for leaf springs is usually a plain carbon steel having 0. Both are a height measurement, and both are referenced from the center mounting surface. This is all thanks to the brilliant invention of leaf springs. Spring specification the sheet on the page opposite is a spring specification sheet which ssa uses as a means of recording preliminary information about a leaf springs specifications. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring by using fea. The objective of the project is to design and analysis of mono steel leaf spring and also laminated composites leaf spring made of different composite materials. Center of the spring is fixed to the axle of the automobile. Designing of a leaf spring in terms of deter mination of the leafs requisite crosssectional dimension. Here you can find everything youd need to add to, upgrade, improve, fix or even replace your entire leaf spring. Research paper static and dynamic analysis on composite leaf. Leafspring suspension system total control products leafspring suspensions for 196473.
In order to utilise the material to the best advantage, all the leaves should be equally stressed. A leaf spring is a spring comprising leaves and is commonly used for suspension in the wheeled vehicles. Leaf spring glass fiber reinforced material, composite material. In addition, analytical analysis can be used to develop an expression which is a function of thickness and position along the spring. A leaf spring takes the form of a slender arcshaped length of spring steel of rectangular crosssection.
There is a difference in measurement between the terms spring arch and spring camber. The suspension of leaf spring is the area which needs to focus to improve the suspensions of the vehicle for comfort ride. In some countries, such as india, nepal, and pakistan, where traditional blacksmiths still produce a sizeable ammount of the countrys tools, leaf springs are commonly used to make knives, khukris, and machettes. Pdf leaf springs design, calculation and testing requirements. Leaf spring bushings total control leaf spring, polyurethanebushing sets provide a more stable interface between the leaf springs and the chassis. Pdf design and analysis of a composite mono leaf spring. Dont ask me how i know this, as im far from experienced in forging, but the company i choose to involve myself with has made a decent living and reputation out of using reclaimed 5160 steel for almost 30 years now. The specific strain energy of steel spring and some composites are compared in fig. Design and analysis of leaf spring o global journals.
Forming and heat reatment operations will affect material material and processing effects on fatigue performance of leaf springs r. Research paper static and dynamic analysis on composite leaf spring in heavy vehicle. Design,improvement and manufacturing of four wheeler leaf. Vijay kumar chauhan vipin sahai pankaj 1 virendra pratap singh 1.
So it can be concluded the e glass epoxy compos ite material is the better material for leaf spring and 8mm girth numbers form is the better calculation mode. Camber is the perpendicular distance between the reference line and the master leaf and its magnitude is such that the spring is approximately straight under the max static load. E the modulus of elasticity material property and depends on the type of spring material chosen. Composite leaf spring for light weight vehicle materials. Due to manufacturing ease, a composite leaf spring with. If you know of other flat strip material used for leaf spring applications, please post the information. Reducing weight while increasing or maintaining strength of products is getting to be highly important research issue in this modern world. Pdf a five leaf steel spring used in the rear suspension system of light vehicles is. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light design calculations. Multileaf spring this type of leaf spring has more than 1 leaf in its assembly. The ends of the leaf spring bundle are attached to the chassis of the car or truck, and the axle is then attached to the center of the leaves. From sae spring design manual the moment of inertia of. Composite materials are one of the material families which are attracting researchers and being solutions of. Static analysis of 3d model of conventional leaf spring is performed using analysis commercial software.
Sontyam mandal,anandapuram,vizag531173 abstract a leaf spring is a simple form of spring, commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. The guy there didnt seem to know what kind it was other than it was high carbon spring steel. Leaf spring should absorb the vibrations and impacts due to road irregularities. It is a semielliptical arm consisting of one or more leaves which are strips of steel or other materials that are meant to flex under pressur. Design and analysis of leaf spring with different arrangements of. So the composite are used as a material in place of conventional leaf spring. The dimension of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of commercial vehicle are taken for evaluation of result. By using the composite materials in leaf spring it reduces the weight by 70%. Therefore, once the design parameters, given on the left side of the above equation, are fixed the value of plate thickness, h can be calculated. It can cause more bad habits and confusion than it saves you money in the end. They considered static three dimensional contact problem of the leaf car spring and the solution is obtained by finite element method performed in adina 7. Further when the front wheel strikes a bump it starts.
For centuries, weve been spoiled with the luxury of a relatively smooth transportation that our vehicles provide. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring idconline. The advantage of leaf spring over helical spring is that the ends of the spring may be guided along a definite path as it deflects to act as a structural member in addition to energy absorbing device. Design,improvement and manufacturing of four wheeler. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring semantic scholar. This paper presents detailed finite element modeling and analysis of a twostage multileaf spring, a leaf spring assembly, and a hotchkiss suspension using abaqus. In order to reduce the cost and weight of leaf spring, the automobile sector is replacing steel leaf spring with fiber composite leaf spring, the objective of study was to replace steel material for leaf spring, the.
For weighty vehicles, a leaf spring can be made from several leaves piled on top. Mono leaf spring consists of one main leaf where the materials width and thickness are constant. The suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight reduction automobile as it. There are two types of leaf springs single leaf and multileaf fig. Leaf springs are suspension system used in vehicles. Design and analysis of leaf spring by using composite material for light vehicles syambabu nutalapati b.
Once the spring life limit is reached a fatigue failure will or has occurred. The shorter the leaf spring, the closer to the bottom it will be, giving it the same semielliptical shape a single leaf spring gets from being thicker in the middle. Leaf spring, composite material, eglassepoxy, fea, ansys. In fact they are made blunt or even made straight to increase the load bearing capacity. A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles.
It can be easily observed that material having lower modulus and density will have a greater specific strain energy capacity. Like many auto parts, a leaf spring is one of those items on a vehicle that you never know you need until it breaks or wears down. If you encounter a vehicle leaf spring that you need to communicate detailed specifications for, please use this sheet provided. Originally called a laminated or carriage spring, and sometimes referred to as a semielliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it is one of the oldest forms of springing, appearing on carriages in england after 1750 and from there migrating to france and germany. After removing the frp leaf spring from the profile, it should be cutted to proper shape of leaf spring with the help of hacksaw blade. I pulled out some leaf springs with lables on, along with the numbers, they said made in the usa. International journal of engineering trends and technology. Some cars had hollow center bolts with a grease fitting so the springs could be lubed on the car.
The objective of present study was to replace material for leaf spring. E machine design andhra university, andhra pradesh, india abstract reducing weight while increasing or maintaining strength of products is getting to be highly important research issue in this modern world. This condition may be obtained in the following two ways. Based on the specific strain energy of steel spring and some composite materials, the eglassepoxy is selected as the spring material. Static and dynamic analysis of automobile leaf spring. The analysis has been carried out for the leaf spring made up of steel and composite materials. By capturing the fundamentals of combining dissimilar materials and thus its equivalent modulus affects the overall stiffness characteristics of. A wide variety of small leaf spring options are available to. We offer things like addaleafs, to decrease sag and improve strength and ride, or fitted leafs to allow for a little extra towing, full leaf springs, and ubolts and blocks as well. Quarter elliptical this is an older type of spring with a similar structure to that of a normal leaf spring, only different being that it is half.
Leaf springs are a favorite material for blacksmiths. Poly material has a significantly higher durometer making it more difficult to compress, resulting in reduced deflection and better handling. This deigned leaf spring is built up of several plates with steel material, but the steel leaf spring has an excessive weight. A leaf spring is a simple form of spring, commonly used for the suspension wheeled vehicles.
Nipping in leaf spring the stress in the full length leaves is 50% greater than the stress in the graduated leaves. Static and dynamic analysis of automobile leaf spring tata ace. Oct 01, 2017 a leaf spring is a spring comprising leaves and is commonly used for suspension in the wheeled vehicles. This paper presents detailed finite element modeling and analysis of a twostage multi leaf spring, a leaf spring assembly, and a hotchkiss suspension using abaqus. These properties are mainly depends upon strain energy storing capacity of the composite material. Stock plates will not accept our largerdiameter ubolts. Material quantity used for the manufacturing the frp leaf spring e glass fibers 6mts each csm and rovings 1500 rs epoxy resin 6kgs 2000 rs resin hardener 600gms 250 rs wax polish 200gms 250 rs we have not manufactured a mould, but we used. Design and analysis of leaf spring by using composite. Leaf spring modeling niklas philipson modelon ab ideon science park se22370 lund, sweden niklas. The weight of leaf spring may perhaps be reduced by using strength. This could be manipulated by introducing the bending and shear stresses developed during bending of a simple beam into the tsaihill failure criterion of composite which yields the following equation. In the most common configuration, the center of the arc provides location for the axle, while loops formed at either end provide for attaching to the vehicle chassis. Leaf spring composite material mechanical engineering.