Finite Element Analysis of Stresses and Deflections in Multi Leaf Springs

Abstract

Leaf spring in an automobile provides a good suspension and plays a vital role in carrying loads and absorbing vibrations. The leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight reduction in automobile as it accounts for ten to twenty percent of the unsprung weight. Mainly leaf springs are made of isotropic steel. The automobile industry has shown great interest in replacement of steel parts with composite materials. Owing to high strength and stiffness to weight ratios the requirement of computer aided analysis arises because of anisotropy of composites which makes calculations quite intensive and large number of variables on which the mechanical properties of composite depends. For example fiber material, matrix material, fiber orientation in a ply, layup of a laminate etc. In the present work stress and deflection analysis of leaf spring are calculated by finite element analysis. The leaves of the spring are assigned properties of steel or fiber reinforced composites. The leaf springs are analyzed in ABAQUS 6.10 for stresses and deflections. The results indicate that for the same load carrying capacity there is lowering of induced stresses and deflections when steel leaves are replaced by fibrous composite leaves.