MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF

COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

PRESENTED BY
MUSHINI NARENDER
160120736302

AT
National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(ni-msme)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING,

CBIT ,
HYD
 ABSTRACT
• The fuel efficiency and emission of gas regulation of automobiles are two
important issues. To fulfill this problem the automobile industries are
trying to make new vehicle which can provide high efficiency with low
cost.

• The best way to increase the fuel efficiency is to reduce the weight of the
automobile. The weight reduction can be achieved primarily by the
introduction of better material, design optimization and better
manufacturing processes.

• The achievement of weight reduction with adequate improvement of

mechanical properties has made composite a very good replacement
material for conventional steel
 INTRODUCTION
• What is a Spring?
A spring is defined as an elastic body, whose function is to distort
when loaded and to recover its original shape when the load is
removed. Springs are elastic bodies that can be twisted, pulled or
stretched by some force. They can return to their original shape
when the force is released.

• Leaf Spring
Leaf spring (also known as flat springs) is made out of flat plate. The
advantage in 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 the energy absorbing device. Thus the leaf
springs may carry lateral loads, brake torque, driving torque etc., in
addition to shocks.
 APPLICATIONS OF LEAF SPRING

• To cushion, absorb or control energy due to either shock or vibration as in

car springs, railway buffers, air-craft landing gears, shock absorbers and
vibration dampers.

• To apply forces, as in brakes, clutches and spring loaded valves.

• To control motion by maintaining contact between two elements as in cams

and followers.

• To measure forces, as in spring balances and engine indicators.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEAF SPRING

• The leaf spring acts as a linkage for holding the axle in position and thus
separate linkage are not necessary.

• The positioning of the axle is carried out by the leaf springs

• Acceleration and braking torque cause wind-up and vibration

 MATERIAL FOR LEAF SPRING
• The material used for leaf springs is usually a plain carbon steel having
0.90 to 1.0% carbon. The leaves are heat treated after the forming process.
The heat treatment of spring steel produces greater strength and therefore
greater load capacity, greater range of deflection and better fatigue
properties.

• The material of the spring should have high fatigue strength, high ductility,
high resilience and it should be creep resistant. It largely depends upon the
service for which they are used i.e. severe service, average service or light
service
• The composite leaf spring having 67.35% less stress, 64.95% higher
stiffness and 126.98% higher natural frequency than that of existing steel
leaf spring.

• A weight reduction of 76.4% is achieved by using optimized composite

leaf spring.
 DESIGN CALCULATIONS
STEP 1 - MATERIAL OF LEAF SPRING

•Material selected steel : 50 Cr 1 V 23

•Composition of material : 0.45% C,
0.1-0.3% Si,
0.6-0.9 % Mn,
0.9-1.2 Cr

STEP 2 - BASIC DATA OF FORCE MOTORS TRAX CRUISER LEAF

SPRING

•Total length of the spring (Eye to Eye) = 1250 mm

•No. of full length leaves (nf) = 02
• STEP 4 - CALCULATION OF THE LOAD AND EFFECTIVE
LENGTH OF LEAF SPRING

1. Consider the leaf spring is cantilever beam. S the load acting on the
each assembly of the leaf spring is acted on the two ends of the leaf
spring. Load acted on the leaf spring is divided by the two because of
consideration of the cantilever beam.

2W = 7125 N
W = 7125/2
W = 3562.5N
2. For support and clamping of the leaf spring the “U” bolt is use and the
distance between the “U” bolts is 110 mm. This is considered as an unbent
portion of the leaf spring. Ineffective length of the leaf spring is as under:

l = 100.00 mm

Effective length of the spring:

2*L = 2*L1 – l
2*L = 1250 – 2/3 (110)
2*L = 1176.67
L = 1176.67/2
L = 588.34 mm
 COMPOSITE MATERIALS
• Composite materials (also called composition materials or shortened to
composites) are materials made from two or more constituent materials
with significantly different physical or chemical properties, that when
combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the
individual components.

• Typical engineered composite materials include:

• Composite building materials such as cements, concrete
• Reinforced plastics such as fiber-reinforced polymer
• Metal Composites
• Ceramic Composites
 CHARACTERISTICS

1. A composite material is defined as a material composed of two or more

constituents combined on a macroscopic scale by mechanical and
chemical bonds.

2. Typical composite materials are composed of inclusions suspended in a

matrix. The constituents retain their identities in the composite.

3. Many composite materials offer a combination of strength and modulus

that are either comparable to or better than any traditional metallic
materials.
4. The fatigue strength weight ratios as well as fatigue damage tolerances of
many composite laminates excellent. For these reasons, fiber composite
have emerged as a major class of structural material and are either used or
being considered as substitutions for metal in many weight- critical
components in aerospace, automotive and other industries.

5. High internal damping. This leads to better vibration energy absorption

within the material and results in reduced transmission of noise and
vibration to neighboring structures.
 WHY A COMPOSITE?
• Unlike conventional materials (e.g. steel), the properties of the composite
material can be designed considering the structural aspects. The design of a
structural component using composites involves both material and
structural design. Composite properties (e.g. stiffness,) can be varied
continuously over a broad range of values under the control of the
designer.

• Careful selection of reinforcement type enables finished product

characteristics to be tailored to almost any specific engineering
requirement.
 BENEFITS

• Weight Reduction.

• High Strength.

• Corrosiveness and

• Low specific gravity

 CARBON FIBRE
• Carbon fiber–reinforced polymer, carbon fiber–reinforced plastic or carbon
fiber–reinforced thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP or often simply carbon
fiber, or even carbon), is an extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced
polymer which contains Carbon fibers.

• CFRPS are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and

rigidity are required, such as aerospace, automotive and civil engineering,
sports goods and an increasing number of other consumer and technical
applications. which contains carbon fibers.

• The binding polymer is often a thermoset resin such as epoxy, but other
thermoset or thermoplastic polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester or
nylon, are sometimes used.
 PROPERTIES OF CARBON FIBRE

• The reinforcement will give the CFRP its strength and rigidity; measured
by stress and elastic modulus respectively.

• Unlike isotropic materials like steel and aluminum, CFRP has directional
strength properties

• It has high initial strength-to-weight ratio

 MANUFACTURING
• MOLDING

• VACUUM BAGGING

• COMPRESSION MOLDING

• FILAMENT WINDING

• DISPOSAL AND RECYCLING

 APPLICATIONS
• Aerospace engineering

• Automotive engineering

• Civil engineering

• Carbon fiber microelectrodes

• Sports goods
MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF
COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING
• Based on the dimensions obtained from the conventional design of leaf
spring, the model of the leaf spring was created with the help of the PRO-
CATIA

• Solid works is modeling software for modeling various mechanical designs

for performing related design and manufacturing operations. The system
uses a 3D solid modeling system as the core, and applies the feature base
parametric modeling method.

• Some of the features of solid works are as below:

Ease of use
Parametric & feature based modeling
Robustness
User Friendly Environment
 MODELING OF LEAF SPRING
1. Create sketch with the help of leaf spring length and camber. Divide leaf
spring length and camber into equal division and draw a spline which
passes through intersection of camber and length division.
2. Extrude above sketch to leaf spring width to create one leaf.
 INTRODUCTION TO ANSYS
• In most structural analysis applications it is necessary to compute
displacements and stresses at various points of interest. The finite element
method is a very valuable tool for studying the behavior of structures. In
the finite element method, the finite element model is created by dividing
the structure in to a number of finite elements.

• The process of performing ANSYS can be broken down into three main
steps.

1) Pre-processing
2) Solver
3) Post-processing
 ASSUMPTIONS

• Meshing size is limited to computer compatibilities.

• Static analysis is considered.

• Material used for steel leaf spring analysis is isotropic

ANALYSIS OF CAST IORN LEAF SPRING

Maximum Von mises Stress Plot, in MPa

MAXIMUM DEFORMATION PLOT FOR
CAST IRON
ANALYSIS OF CARBON FIBRE LEAF
SPRING
Maximum Deformation Plot, in Mpa (Carbon /Epoxy) of leaf spring
ANALYSIS OF STEEL LEAF SPRING
Von misses stress
COMPARISON OF RESULTS
PROPERTIES OF STEEL AND
CARBON/EPOXYLEAF SPRING
Material Von-misses stress Shear stress Weight
(MPa)
(MPa) (Kg)

Cast iron 3.7011 1.8609 24.091

Steel 3.6879 1.8569 25.931

Carbon/epoxy 3.6892 1.8573 5.3535

MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF
CARBON/EPOXY
Tensile modulus along x-direction(Mpa 68457

Tensile modulus along y-direction(Mpa) 66527

Tensile modulus along y-direction(Mpa) 10000

Shear modulus along xy_direction(Mpa) 4570

Shear modulus along yz_direction(Mpa) 3570

Shear modulus along zx_direction(Mpa) 3570

Poisson ratio along xy_direction 0.39

Poisson ratio along yz_direction 0.0044

Poisson ratio along zx_direction 0.045

Mass density(kg/mm3) 1500e-9

 COMPARISON OF STEEL &
CARBON FIBRE
Comparison of Displacements (mm)

Displacement (mm)
6

4.969
5

0.359419

0
Steel Carbon-Fibre/Epoxy
 Comparison of Stress (N/mm2)

Von-Misses stress (MPa)

3.705

3.7

3.695
Series1

3.69

3.685

3.68
Cast iron Steel Carbon/epoxy
 Comparison of weight (kg)

Chart Title
30
25
25.931
24.091
20
15
Series1
10
5
5.3535
0
Cast iron Steel Carbon/
epoxy

Weight (Kg)
 CONCLUSION
• All the three composite leaf springs have lower displacements
and stresses than that of existing steel leaf spring

• Composite leaf spring reduces the weight by 79.66% for

Carbon epoxy over steel leaf spring
THANK YOU