ANALYSIS AND SIZE OPTIMIZATION OF COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING USING FEA

Abstract

The Automobile Industry has shown increased interest for replacement of steel leaf spring with that of composite leaf
spring, since the composite material has high strength to weight ratio, good corrosion resistance and tailor-able properties.
The paper describes a static analysis of steel leaf spring and laminated composite Multi leaf spring. The objective is to
compare the load carrying capacity, stiffness and weight savings of composite leaf spring with that of steel leaf spring. The
dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a Light design calculations. Static Analysis of a 3-D model of
conventional leaf spring is performed using ANSYS 11.0 and hyper mesh. Same dimensions are used in composite multi
leaf spring using carbon/Epoxy and Graphite/Epoxy unidirectional laminates. The load carrying capacity, and weight of
composite leaf spring are compared with that of steel leaf spring. The design constraints are stresses and deflection. A
weight reduction of 80 % is achieved by using composite leaf spring. And if consider Mono leaf spring then Weight
reduction has achieved 88.57%. After size optimization thickness reduction in mono leaf spring 1 mm and mass reduction
88.97%.