Saveetha Engineering College

Modeling and Analysis of Composite Leaf

Spring

Guide name : N.Raja Rajeswari M.E.,(Ph.D.)

Designation : Associate Professor

Name : D.Jagadesh
Reg-no : 212214402001

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 Outline of Contents
Introduction
Literature survey
Research gap
Problem definition
Objective
Research methodology
Material selection
References

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 Introduction
Leaf spring is the simple form of spring commonly used for the
suspension in wheeled vehicle

It is in the form of slender and shaped length of spring steel of

rectangular cross section

The centre of the arc provides location for the axle which tie holes are
provided at either end for attaching to the vehicle body

Conventional leaf spring, parabolic leaf spring, corvette leaf spring are
commonly used in the recent times

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 Composite Leaf Spring
composite leaf spring comes with the independent suspension in
order to replace conventional steel leaf spring
Composite leaf spring consist of single(mono) master leaf
instead of small graduated leaves
Composite leaf spring are used in order to reduce weight and to
increase the stiffness of the spring.

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 Literature survey
E Mahdi , A.M.S Hamouda , An experimental investigation into
mechanical behavior of hybrid and non hybrid composite semi
elliptical springs (2013)

The author have introduced a new composite semi elliptical

suspension spring by utilizing fiber reinforced composite

glass/epoxy , glass/carbon/epoxy were used

Compression , tension , torsion, and cyclic tests are presented

The carbon-glass/epoxy elliptical springs exhibited higher

spring rate but poor ride quality compared with non hybrid .

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 y.s kong m.z omar l.b chua s.abdullah Fatigue life prediction
of paraboic leaf spring under various road condition (2012)
The author et al have examined leaf spring with repeated
cyclic loading during operation condition
Fatigue life assesment of the parabolic leaf spring is a
significant aspect during component design stage
Variable amplitude load(VAL) val signals were gathered from
different road condition
With this design has been modified with the stress-strain graph
developed with the signals from VAL

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 c subramanian s.senthilvelan Effect of reinforced fiber length on
joint performance of thermoplastic leaf spring (2010)

The author have reported the influence of reinforced fiber length

on the performance of injection molded thermoplastic leaf spring
joint

Fiber reinforced polypropylene as well as un reinforced

polypropylene and evaluated for joint strength

Static and dynamic testing were carried out

Short fiber and long fiber were examined and resulted in load
deflection hysteresis is more in long fiber

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 Research Gap
The fiber reinforced polymers are only used as the composite
material for the mono composite leaf spring CRFP could be a
better replacement

Natural fibers can be used for the mono composite leaf spring

In the conventional leaf spring the interleaf friction provides a

damping action it is not well controlled and result in stiction in
the motion of suspension

Best deflection composite is to be numerically analyzed for the

mono leaf spring
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 Problem definition
The suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight
reduction in automobile as it accounts for 10-20% of unsprung
weight
In general leaf spring are made of steel alloys. In this project steel
material is replaced by composite materials
The reason for shifting from conventional to mono composite
material is due to some drawbacks
machining cost is high
Corrode resistance is low
More weight

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 Objectives
The main objective of the project is to reduce the weight by
increasing the stiffness .

To carry out numerical simulation of the conventional cast leaf

spring and to analyze the spring using finite element analyze

To carry out the mono composite leaf spring and to analyze the
spring using the finite element analyze

To compare and select between suitable composites of best

deflection for the mono composite leaf spring.

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 Research Methodology
Literature survey

Collection of data for

conventional leaf spring

Development of mono leaf

spring

Selection of materials

Numerical simulation of
conventional design

Fabrication of the mono leaf

spring

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 Material Selection
Fibre reinforced polymer
carbon/epoxy
E-glass/epoxy
Natural fibre
Banana fibre
Roselle fibre

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 References
C.subramanian s.senthilvelan Effect of reinforced fibre length on
the joint performance of thermoplastic leaf spring material design
31(2010)3733-3741

Y.s kong m.z omar l.b chua s.abdullah Fatigue life prediction of
parabolic leaf spring under various condition Engineering failure
analysis 46(2014)92-103

Dipendra kumar roy , kashi nath saha Nonlinear analysis of leaf

springs of functionally graded materials 51(2013)538-543

H.A al-qureshi Automobile leaf spring from composite materials

material processing technology 118(2001)58-61
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 Thank you

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