Optimization of Various Percentage of Fibers in Fiber Reinforced Composite Material Leaf Springs in Vehicles

Abstract

A spring steel leaf spring is commonly used for suspension system in all types of loading vehicles due to its good stiffness and fatigue strength. Today, spring steel leaf springs are used in majority of applications but they are heavy in weight, poor in terms of gets corrosion resistance and average in ride comfort. Fiber reinforced composite material leaf spring represents a key application of composite materials in the field of automotive vehicles due to improved ride comfort and light in weight. Stiffness, fatigue life and damping capacity are the critical parameter of fiber reinforced composite leaf springs. CAE software and experimental analysis have been mainly used for design and analysis for composite material leaf springs. Saman Jolaiy et.al. [2021] focused on the damping characteristics of the composite leaf springs and worked out that fabrication of composite leaf spring with viscoelastic core(2mm) decreases the damping ratio of the leaf spring system, which results in a smooth ride. Few studies evaluated the stress distribution, deflection and fatigue life assessment of composite leaf springs reinforced with glass fibers or carbon fibers or combination of carbon lass and carbon fibers. The main objective of the present work is to optimize various percentage of fiber reinforced composite material leaf springs along with insertion of viscous core. The optimized results thus obtained show that the fiber reinforced composite leaf springs with viscous core can be a good replacement of spring steel leaf springs with overall weight reduction and better damping characteristics. Replacing spring steel leaf springs with fiber reinforced composite leaf springs will improve safety, comfort, high elastic strain energy storage capacity and durability.