ABSTRACT

The intent of 21st century for automotive sector is fuel economy and emissions due to this
the automotive designers are revisiting automotive systems and parts for reducing the
weight of the vehicles. For suspension systems, leaf spring is one of the key targets for
weight reduction since it adds onto the unsprung mass which affects the ride of the
vehicle. The objective is to explore the viability of use of leaf springs made with
composites in light weight vehicles by comparing the load carrying capacity, stresses,
deflection and weight savings of composite leaf spring with that of steel leaf spring. A
leaf spring made of conventional material is modelled and analysed. Same geometry is
used to analyse a composite leaf spring, then the results of the analysis are compared.
Various composites like e-glass epoxy, s-glass epoxy and epoxy carbon have been
employed.

Acknowledgements
This project has consumed huge amount of work, research and dedication. This would not have
been possible without constant support from many individuals and organizations. Therefore we
would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our guide, Dr. Sunil Bhat for constantly guiding us
throughout our project. We would also take this opportunity to thank Dr. C V Chandrasekhar,
who suggested us ways to improve our presentation and report.

Lists of Symbols

MA - Sum of the Moments about A.

y -Tensile strength of the steel.

n

FOS- Factor of safety

- width of the leaf

- Thickness of the leaf

- Number of Leaves

P Load on Leaf Spring

2L - Leaf Span

C- Initial Nip

E- Youngs Modulus

Pi Initial Preload required to close the nip

n Number of graduated leaves

n Number of Full length leaves

P Stress developed in leaves due to closing initial nip

n Number of Full length leaves

Total stress in full length leaves due to pre-stress and external

stress

P Fraction of total load taken up by the full length leaves

n Number of Full length leaves
G

Total stress in graduated leaves due to pre-stress and external stress

P Fraction of total load taken up by the graduated leaves

n Number of graduated leaves

Youngs Modulus in longitudinal direction for a composite

Youngs Modulus in transverse direction for a composite

Youngs Modulus of the fiber

Youngs Modulus of the resin

Volume fraction of the fiber in the composite

Volume fraction of the resin in the composite

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

AKNOWLEDGMENTS

ii

LIST OF SYMBOLS

iii

1. INTRODUCTION

5-15

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4

LITERATURE REVIEW
PROCESS METHODOLOGY
ANALYTIC DESIGN (CONVENTIONAL LEAF SPRING)
FIBER AND MATRIX PROPERTIES OF COMPOSITES USED

2. CAD MODEL
3. FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

16
17-18

3.1 MESHING
3.2 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
3.3 LOAD DETERMINATION

4. STATIC ANALYSIS

19-22

4.1 CONVENTIONAL LEAF SPRING

4.2 COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

4.2.1. E-GLASS EPOXY (60% RESIN 40% FIBER )

4.2.2. E-GLASS EPOXY (50% RESIN 50% FIBER )
4.2.3. S-GLASS EPOXY (46% RESIN 54% FIBER )

5. CONCLUSION

23

INTRODUCTION
Automotive industries need tremendous amount of metal, alloys for producing different
parts of the vehicle. The replacement of metals was a distant dream but due to rapid
development in glass, polymers, ceramics, synthetic fibers and some organic and
inorganic substances have been proved as the turning point. More interesting aspect is, by
combining two or more materials one can obtain improved mechanical properties of
materials. Composites have better properties such as high specific strength, stiffness and
hardness. Due to the mentioned properties composite find wide range of applications not
only with respect to properties but also with its weight reduction. One such application is
Composite Leaf Spring. 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. It carries lateral loads, brake torque, driving torque in addition to shock
absorbing. 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. According to the studies made a material with maximum
strength and minimum modulus of elasticity in the longitudinal direction is the most
suitable material for a leaf spring.
The leaf spring model is created by modelling in SolidWorks and then it is imported in to
the analysis software (ANSYS) and the loading, boundary conditions are given to the
imported model and results are evaluated by Post Processor. Static testing condition is
applied and the comparative results of conventional leaf spring and various composite
leaf springs are obtained to predict the advantages of composite leaf spring over
conventional leaf spring for a light commercial vehicle..

Literature Review
I.

Ajay B.K. (1), Mandar Gophane(1), P Baskar(2), Design and Analysis of Leaf
Spring with Different Arrangements of Composite Leaves with Steel Leaves,
ISSN: 2231-5381,Volume 11 Number 2 - May 2014

II.

Sagar B Mahajan1, M.C.Swami2, Parmeshwar Patil3, Experimental and FEA

analysis of Composite Leaf Spring by varying thickness, eISSN: 2319-1163,
Volume: 04 Issue: 01 | Jan-2015

Process Methodology
A light weight vehicle is considered
for the design of the leaf spring.
Input parameters are taken from
the specification of the vehicle

Other dimensions of the leaf spring

are calculated using these
parameters using suitable FOS.

Initial nip required and preload

required for the stress
equalisation in full and graduated
leaf is calculated.

STATIC ANALYSIS
OF
CONVENTIONAL
LEAF SPRING

Solid model of the leaf spring is made

in Solid Works.

STATIC
ANALYSIS OF
LEAF SPRING
MADE OF
DIFFERENT
COMPOSITES

RESULT

RESULT

(Deformation field,
equivalent stresses,
equivalent strain,
FOS etc.)

(Deformation field,
equivalent stresses,
equivalent strain, FOS
etc.)

COMPARISON OF RESULTS.
(Stresses, weights, deformations, FOS
etc. of different leaf springs are
compared)

Analytical Design (Conventional Leaf spring)

Input Parameters for design
Type of Vehicle:

Commercial Light Weight Vehicle

Kerb Weight (including passenger weight):

840 kg.

Payload:

1000 kg.

Total Load:

1840 kg

Parameters from Vehicle Specification

No. of Leaves:

4, one full length and 3 graduated (including master leaf)

Span Length:

830 mm.

Camber:

90 mm.

Vehicle dimensions considered for load calculations

Reaction at B:

(2100)

On each leaf:
Load on the spring:

Calculation of dimensions of a leaf spring

R b =10454.66N

R b

P=

= 5227.33N
.

Leaf Span= 830mm = 2L

Camber = 90mm =y
n=4

b*

=
.

From DDHB, the standard values of width and thickness

For

t = 8mm

b= 112.98mm

t= 10 mm

b= 72.31~75mm

t= 12 mm

b = 50.21 mm

Let radius of curvature be R

AB =

mm

CD =

mm

R = R
R=

mm

Calculation of stresses in the full and graduated leaves before prestressing

+
(

(Tensile)

(Tensile)

As we can see that the stresses in the full length leaf are 50% more than that in graduated
leaves. This makes it more susceptible to failure as the stress developed in the full length
leaf is more than the permissible value. Hence, the leaves are pre-stressed by introducing
and initial nip which induces compressive stress in full length leaf and tensile stresses in
graduated leaves.
This reduces the strength in full length leaf and increases stresses in graduated leaves,
leading to stress equalization.

= .

Initial Pre load required to close the nip

=

10

Total stress in full length leaves due to pre-stress and external

stress

( )

Total stress in graduated leaves due to pre-stress and external stress

Maximum deflection on the application of external load

=

=16.6 mm

11

Fiber and Matrix Properties of Composites Used

Material

S Glass(Fiber)

E Glass(Fiber)

Epoxy (Resin)

G (shear modulus)

35 GPa

25

1.4

E (young's modulus)

90 GPa

73

3.8

(poisons ratio)

0.22

0.22

0.35

(tensile strength)

4750 MPa

3445

85

(density)

2490 Kg/m

2600

1160

Formulae Used In Calculation of Orthotropic Properties

of Composites

= +

12

Procedure for calculation of orthonormal properties of a composite by

knowing the properties and volume fractions of the matrix and Fiber
Sample Calculation for E-glass Epoxy (40% resin, 60 % Fiber)
=

= (73000)*(0.6) + (3780)*(0.4)
= 45312 MPa
=

= 8768.91 MPa

= +

= (0.6)*(0.22) + (0.4)*(0.35)
= 0.272 =

= 0.272 *

= 0.053 =
=

=
=

+ . .

MPa

= 5208.71MPa

13

Calculation of longitudinal strength (Strength along Fiber orientation)

Step 1: Calculate

Step 2: Calculate

, = Ultimate Tensile strength of fibre and resin

Step 3:

<

Case 1: If

Fiber fails first

=

=
= +

Case 2: If

>

=
= lower of ,

Resin fails first

=

Usually its the second case.

=
= +
=
= lower of ( , )

14

Final Property Table of the Composites Used

15

CAD Model
The leaf spring model is created by modelling in SolidWorks using the dimensions
calculated from the analytical method.

16

FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

The CAD model is imported in to the ANSYS software. In this study the conventional
model is designed for factor of safety 2. As FEA is a computer based mathematically
idealized real system, which breaks geometry into series of elements. It links a series of
equation to each element and solves simultaneously to evaluate the behaviour of the
entire system. This tool is very useful for problem with complicated geometry, material
properties and loading where exact and accurate analytical solution is difficult to obtain.

Meshing
This involves discretising of model into the small sections called as the element. Mesh
element for this analysis was tetrahedron (tet10). Fig. 1.1 shows the meshed model of leaf
spring in which the best suited size of mesh with an element size of 4.7 mm.

Fig 1.2
Meshed Leaf spring

Algorithm used:

Patch conforming.

Element mid-side nodes:

Kept.

No. of elements:

90499

No. of nodes:

165904

Element type:

tet10

17

Boundary Conditions

The left eye of the leaf spring has only one degree of freedom i.e. rotation about z
axis.

The right eye of the leaf spring has two degrees of freedom i.e. translation in the x
direction and rotation about the z axis.

18

Static Analysis
1. Conventional Leaf Spring
Equivalent (von-misses) stress distribution.

This analysis is made without pre-stressing the model. The stress obtained
using finite element analysis is 261 MPa. The stress that we get, theoretically
in the full length leaf (without any pre-stress) is 289.25 MPa. This deviation
of the FEM results from the theoretical is 9.7%. However, this stress is
further reduced by the amount of pre-stress applied i.e. 72.31 MPa.
Total Deformation distribution

In the case of total deformation distribution, the maximum deformation,

using FEM was found to be 15.384 mm. The deviation of the FEM result
from the theoretical deflection (16.6 mm) is 7.3%.
19

2. COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

Results for E Glass Epoxy (40% resin - 60% Fiber)
Equivalent stress distribution

Total deformation distribution

20

Results for E- Glass Epoxy (50% Fiber - 50% resin)

Equivalent (von-misses) stress distribution.

Total deformation distribution

21

Results of S Glass Epoxy (54% Fiber 46% resin)

Equivalent Stress Distribution

Total Deformation

RESULT COMPARISON

22

Conclusion
From the results, we conclude that composites also appear to be a
good option as far as their static strength is concerned.

The second important observation is the significant weight reduction.

23