Abstract: This project describes design and experimental analysis of composite leaf spring made of glass fiber reinforced polymer. The objective is to compare the load carrying capacity, stiffness and weight savings of composite leaf spring with that of steel leaf spring. The design constraints are stresses and deflections. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle are taken. Same dimensions of conventional leaf spring are used to fabricate a composite multi leaf spring using- Glass/Epoxy unidirectional laminates. Static analysis of 2-D model of conventional leaf spring is also performed using ANSYS 10 and compared with experimental results. Finite element analysis with full load on 3-D model of composite multi leaf spring is done using ANSYS 10 and the analytical results are compared with experimental results. Compared to steel spring, the composite leaf spring is found to have 67.35% lesser 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. The Automobile Industry has shown increase 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 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 3-D model of conventional leaf spring is performed using ANSYS 11.0 and hypermesh. 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.
Keywords: Composite materials, design constrain, leaf spring, material property, static ANSYS.
Title: Vibration Analysis Composite Material Mono Leaf Spring
Author: Mr. Rathod Jairam C., Prof. Gaur Abhay Singh V.
International Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Technology
ISSN 2348-7593 (Online)
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