Development of mono leaf spring with composite material and investigating its mechanical properties

Abstract

At present, the automobile industry is focusing on composite and light-weight materials for a substitute to the conventional steel material, because of their excessive strength, lesser weight. The main objective of this work is to develop a mono composite leaf spring to replace the conventional multi-leaf spring in automobiles. The composite material has a variety of advantages like excessive energy to weight ratio, convenient availability, ease and hassles free fabrication methods and improvised thermal and Mechanical properties. The mechanical residences of a leaf spring depend on the type of material, Fabrication methods, and fiber orientation used. Some unique composite materials have higher stiffness and greater pressure rate as associated with metals, the strength of composite material additionally depends on the geometry and shape. In this paper, the mechanical properties of different composite materials are examined to find out the greatest suitable composite fabric for the fabrication of a mono composite leaf spring. Overall weight, stiffness, and load-carrying capability of the fabricated leaf spring were determined using distinctive experimental tests. The experimental results show a weight reduction of 69.4% and 75% respectively for the aid of the usage of glass fiber epoxy and Carbon fiber.