Design, analysis and optimization of a composite leaf spring for light vehicles

Abstract

Leaf spring is the most widely used suspension system in automobiles which is subjected to various types of stresses and deflection. Generally, steel is used as a material for the leaf spring but steel is having high density due to which its weight is also more. There is a lot of scopes to replace the steel with other material to reduce the total weight of the vehicle. The advancement in plastic-reinforced fibre is useful for decreasing the weight of the component the composite materials are having high strength and low weight as compared to steel. In this proposed work composite material is used in place of conventional steel. The composite material is made up of glass and fibre called Epoxy resin. Various test is performed to carry out the properties of the composite material. Ant colony optimization approach is used to design and optimization of composite leaf springs. A geometric model of the leaf spring is prepared in the CATIA V5 software and analysis is done. It is found that composite springs can sustain the load the same as that of the steel leaf spring, and less deflection is observed in composite springs than in steel leaf springs. The density of the composite material is low so eventually, weight is also reduced by 70 % to 80%.