09MAE021 and 09MAE023

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CAMBERED LEAF SPRING AND LAMINATED

COMPOSITE STRAIGHT LEAF SPRING

I VENKATA NAGA SRI HARSHA

B. KARTHIC

M.Tech - AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

Sriharsha.ivn@gmail.com
Kart8227@yahoo.co.in

modulus of elasticity in the longitudinal direction is the

Copyright © 2010 VIT most suitable material for a leaf spring. Fortunately,
composites have these characteristics.
ABSTRACT
CAMBER LEAF SPRING
This paper describes static analysis of steel leaf
spring and laminated composite multi leaf spring made
For the present problem, existing eleven-leaf steel
up of carbon fiber reinforced polymer. The
spring of a Corvette model automobile is taken into
dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf
consideration. Dimensions include:
spring of a light commercial vehicle are taken and
1. Total length 1100mm;
are verified by design calculations. Static analysis of
2. Camber radius 6.1m;
3-D model of conventional leaf spring is performed
3. Spring rate 20N/mm;
using ANSYS 12.0. Same dimensions of conventional
4. Number of full length leaves 2;
leaf spring are used to fabricate a composite multi
5. Number of graduated leaves, 9;
leaf spring using carbon and Graphite/ Epoxy
6. Width of the leaves, 34 mm;
unidirectional laminates. The load carrying capacity,
7. Thickness of the leaves 6.0 mm;
stiffness and weight of composite leaf spring are
8. Taking the sprung mass of the Corvette into
compared with that of steel leaf spring analytically.
consideration, maximum load at each end of
The design constraints are stresses and deflections.
leaf spring is 3250N.
A weight reduction of 40.15 % is also achieved by
Parameters Analytical FEM
using composite leaf spring.
Load (N) 3250 3250
Maximum Stress (M pa) 356.8 266.8
Keywords: composite multi leaf spring, Camber
Maximum Deflection(N/mm) 53.24 49.532
leaf spring, static analysis.
Design
INTRODUCTION
The Cambered spring model been designed in Pro-e
In the present scenario, weight reduction has been the
Wildfire 4.0 with the above said dimensions and
main focus of automobile manufactures. The
imported into Ansys 12.0 in IGES format. The element
suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for
used to analyze is ansys is Solid 45. This element is
weight reduction in automobiles as it accounts for ten
suitable for large deflection modes as well as analysis
to twenty percent of the unsprung weight, which is
of elastic and plastic deformation.
considered to be the mass not supported by the leaf
spring. The introduction of composite materials made it
possible to reduce the weight of the leaf spring without
any reduction on the load carrying capacity and
stiffness. Studies were conducted on the application of
composite structures for automobile suspension
system. The leaf spring should absorb the vertical
vibrations and impacts due to road irregularities by
means of variations in the spring deflection so that the
potential energy is stored in spring as strain energy
and then released slowly. So, increasing the energy
storage capability of a leaf spring ensures a more
compliant suspension system. According to the studies
made, a material with maximum strength and minimum FIG: 1 Meshed Camber Leaf Spring
COMPOSITE LEAF SPRINGS Properties Graphite epoxy Carbon epoxy
EXY (M pa) 142 206.842
Leading car and truck designers are achieving EXZ (M pa) 103 517.1
significant weight and cost savings by building leaf EYZ (M pa) 103 517.1
springs in composites, and gaining performance ΜX 0.27 0.25
advantages from the material. Composite leaf springs µY 0.20 0.25
weigh up to 60% less than their steel counterparts. ΜZ 0.20 0.25
These weight savings save costs by providing the GXY (M pa) 720.0 258.5
driver or operator with a greater loading capacity GYZ (M pa) 429.0 258.5
and/or reduced fuel consumption. The mechanical
GXZ (M pa) 720.0 258.5
properties of composites are another advantage over
traditional materials. The energy absorption and
fatigue resistant characteristics of Prepregs are Design of Straight leaf spring
outstanding. Composite leaf springs absorb energy
more readily than steel, giving driver and passengers a The dimensions of the composite leaf spring are
more comfortable and quieter journey. The fatigue taken as that of the conventional steel leaf spring.
resistance is greater than with steel, and it is The number of leaves is also the same for
composite leaf spring. The design parameters
reassuring that in the unlikely event of a fracture with
selected are as follows: each composite leaf
composites, the failure would be gradual and consists of 3 layers; thickness of Carbon epoxy
identifiable, avoiding sudden catastrophic failure of layer is 0.1 mm and thickness if Graphite epoxy layer
material parts. Composite leaf springs can withstand is 0.2mm; width of each leaf, fiber and resin is
the harshest environmental conditions to which vehicle kept at 34 mm; thickness of each leaf, fiber and
suspension systems are subjected. They are non- resin are 6 mm, 0.2 mm and 0.075 mm
corrosive and resistant to salt damage in winter respectively. Since the properties of the composite
climates as well as oil, petrol and battery acid. Unlike leaf spring vary with the directions of the fiber, a
metal, it is unnecessary to coat them with anticorrosive 3-D model of the leaf spring is used for the analysis
paint. in ANSYS 12.0. The loading conditions are
assumed to be static. The element chosen is
SOLID46, which is a layered version of the 8-node
Composite leaf springs are molded into shape in a structural solid element to model layered thick
single operation. The Prepregs process enables leaf shells or solids. The element allows up to 250
springs designers to incorporate contoured shapes, as different material layers. To establish contact
a single part, providing the best solution for any between the leaves, the interface elements
specific axle unit. The reduced part count and volume CONTACT174 and TARGET170 are chosen.
processing of composite leaf springs can provide
added cost-saving benefits for the manufacturer.

Material selection

Based on the specific strain energy of steel spring and

composite materials, a laminated composite leaf spring
with layers of carbon epoxy sand witched between
graphite epoxy is taken. Many attempts have been
made to substitute more economic resins for the epoxy
but all attempts to use polyester or vinyl ester resins
have been unsuccessful to date. The stored elastic
strain energy in a leaf spring varies directly with the
square of maximum allowable stress and inversely
with the modulus of elasticity both in the longitudinal
and transverse directions according to: Fig 2: Meshed Composite leaf spring

S = 0.5s² / ρE

Where S is the strain energy, s is the allowable stress,

E is the modulus of elasticity and ρ is the density. The
epoxy materials in the direction of fibers have good
characteristics for storing strain energy. So, the
unidirectional lay up along the longitudinal direction of
the spring is selected which also helped in fabricating
process using filament-winding machine. It is also
concluded that using a seven leaf spring is sufficient to
bear the given deflection and stress values.
STATIC ANALYSIS RESULTS

Deformed Shapes

Fig 6

Maximum Deflection Values

Cambered leaf spring

Nodes 344 65 475 347
Value -16.041 -48.324 2.2192 49.532
Fig 3 Straight leaf spring
Nodes 33 431 9818 431
Value 0.251 -52.156 -2.1676 52.674

The nodal deflection values shows almost similar

deflection values in both the springs. Difference is
cambered leaf spring consists of eleven leafs where
as, composite leaf spring has only seven.

NODAL STRESS DEFLECTION

Fig 4

Nodal Deflection Values

Fig 7

Fig 5

Fig 8
Maximum Nodal Stress Values to steel spring, the composite leaf spring is found
to have higher stress values, this can be
compensated by using strengthening materials. The
Cambered leaf spring conventional multi leaf spring weighs about 13.5
Nodes 317 316 355 355 kg Whereas, the l a m i n a t e d multi leaf spring
Value 153.54 329.95 115.41 266.30 weighs only 10.3 kg on account of decreased leafs
Straight leaf spring and density of the epoxy materials. This reduction in
Nodes 94 9943 9496 1537 weight could be a major advantage to the heavy
Value 1238.29 290.376 124.53 1524.09 vehicles.

Higher stress values are seen in composite leaf spring.

The reason may be because of lesser number of
leaves handling the same load.
Graph
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Mr. C D Naiju for motivating us to
undertake the project in comparative study of the leaf
springs. I would also like to thank Mr. S. Ravi for
providing us the technical support.

REFERENCES

[1] Spring Design Manual Design and Application of

leaf springs AE-11, Society of Automotive Engineers
HS-788, 1990.

[2] Vehicle Dynamics-YG WONG.

[3] Fundamentals of Machine design – by T. Prabhu.

[4] Design Data Handbook- by K.Mahadevan.

Fig 9 CONTACTS

CONCLUSION I VENKATA NAGA SRI HARSHA

M.Tech automotive engineering

Static analysis was carried out on conventional
cambered leaf spring, and deflection and stress
values were noted. Comparing the deflection values Email id: sriharsha.ivn@gmail.com
with the data tables available, it was observed that
a seven layers of composite leaf spring would give B. KARTHIC
the equivalent amount of deflection for the same
load as compared to the eleven leaf in cambered M.Tech automotive engineering.
leaf spring. Design and static analysis of composite
laminated composite leaf spring using c a r b o n Email id: kart8227@yahoo.co.in
fiber reinforced polymer was carried out. Compared