Design Optimization And Analysis Of Composite Leaf Spring For Light weight Vehicle

A Leaf spring is used in a four-wheel automobile vehicle as a part of the suspension system. These springs are generally made from steel, which adds a lot of weight to the vehicle leading to a decrease in the efficiency. In the case of lightweight vehicles, things become worse, as the weight of these spring is too heavy it leads to lower performance. In this project, you are going to solve this problem by designing a leaf spring in a solid modeling software and optimizing your design by varying the dimension and type of composite material so that weight will be reduced without compromising the effect needed from the spring.

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Materials like Iron, Steel are better in tension but poor in compression, similarly Wood, Cast Iron is better in compression but poor in tension. To gain the benefit of having more such properties in one material we combine two or more materials in some arrangement. These types of materials are called composite materials. These composites are generally lighter but strong enough to hold the load. In this project, you need to do research on available composite materials which can be used in leaf spring and can produce the same effect as a steel leaf spring.

Project Description:

1. Leaf spring: A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. The purpose of the leaf spring is to observe vibrations and increase the comfort of the human. These are originally called a laminated or carriage spring and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring.
2. Composite Material: A composite material is defined as a material which is composed of two or more materials at a microscopic scale and has chemically distinct phases. Thus, a composite material is heterogeneous at a microscopic scale but statistically homogeneous at the macroscopic scale.

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Project Implementation:

1. Review the basic concepts needed to design a leaf spring from the book design of machine elements.
2. Then learn any solid modeling software and analysis software for designing and optimizing the leaf spring. CATIA and ANSYS are most preferred for this purpose.
3. Then obtain data of a real leaf spring being used in any vehicles.
4. By using any solid modeling software (CATIA) model the spring with actual dimensions.
5. After the modeling, analyze spring performance for different composite materials by varying the dimensions if needed.
6. In the same way, optimize the strength and weight saving as your aim should be to design a leaf spring for a lightweight vehicle.

Project Brief: With the successful completion of the project you can observe the following things in your design,

1. Your composite leaf spring will have less weight than existing leaf springs. This optimum design will increase the efficiency of the vehicle.
2. The damping capacity of your leaf spring will be higher, thus it will reduce vibration and noise.

Software requirements:

1. CATIA: This is one of the popular solid modelling software made by Dassault System. You will use this software to design your machine structure.
2. ANSYS: You will be needing ANSYS software to perform structural analysis and visualize the result.

• CATIA
• ANSYS

• Optimization
• Composite leaf spring
• Design

Design Optimization And Analysis Of Composite Leaf Spring For Light weight Vehicle