Optimization of composite leaf spring for reduced weight and improved noise,vibration,and harshness in an electric vehicle

Abstract

In automobiles suspension system, laminated springs are widely used for the absorption of shock and vibration. These laminated springs account for approximately 10%–20% of the unsprung weight of the vehicle. It has been found that composite material is used to reduce the weight of the vehicle in order to obtain better efficiency. Therefore, in the current research work, composite material is used for the fabrication of laminated spring. Among the various types of glass fiber available, the C-glass fiber has been widely used due to its better corrosion resistant property. Commercial software package ANSYS is used to optimize the composite-laminated spring. The optimized leaf spring is then fabricated by the hand layup method. It was found that the spring with composite graduated leaf resulted in 40% reduction in weight than the spring with steel graduated leaf. Similarly, the stress concentration and deformation values are reduced by 76.39% and 50% in comparison with those of steel graduated leaf. The composite-laminated spring showed better damping property and also resulted in less transmission of force to the chassis of the vehicle. The noise induced by the composite-laminated spring is also reduced in comparison with steel graduated leaf. Finally, a composite-laminated spring is found to be lighter in weight and with better noise, vibration, and harshness in comparison with steel graduated leaf. Thus, it is found to be best suited for an electric vehicle.

Keywords

Laminated spring composite materials finite element analysis vibration analysis noise vibration and harshness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Tanabe

Seino

Kajio

. Characteristics of carbon/glass fiber reinforced plastic leaf spring. SAE Trans 1982; 91:1628–1636.

Lyu

M-Y

Choi

. Research trends in polymer materials for use in light weight vehicles. Int J Precis Eng Manuf 2015; 16(1): 213–220.

Daugherty

. Composite leaf springs in heavy truck applications. In: Proceedings of the Japan-US conference on composite materials, Tokyo, Japan, 12–14 January 1981, pp. 529–538.

Beardmore

Johnson

. The potential for composites in structural automotive applications. Compo Sci Technol 1986; 26(4): 251–281.

Al-Qureshi

. Automobile leaf springs from composite materials. J Mate Proces Technol 2001; 118(1–3): 58–61.

Corvi

. A preliminary approach to composite beam design using FEM analysis. Compo Struc 1990; 16(1–3): 259–275.

Shokrieh

Rezaei

. Analysis and optimization of a composite leaf spring. Compo Struc 2003; 60(3): 317–325.

Kumar

Teja

. Design and analysis of composite leaf spring. Int J Mech Indus Eng 2012; 2: 2231–6477.

Jancirani

Assarudeen

. A review on structural analysis and experimental investigation of fiber reinforced composite leaf spring. J Reinfor Plast Compo 2015; 34(2): 95–100.

10.

Suprith

Annamalai

Naiju

, et al. Design and analysis of automotive multi-leaf springs using composite materials. Appl Mech Mate 2013; 372: 533–537.

11.

Singh

Brar

. Characterization and investigation of mechanical properties of composite materials used for leaf spring. Mate Today Proceed 2018; 5(2): 5857–5863.

12.

Saini

TRS

Rao

PJM

. Ply wise failure analysis of mono leaf spring using hybrid C-GFRP composites. IJITR 2016; 4(6): 5179–5186.

13.

Sancaktar

Gratton

. Design analysis, and optimization of composite leaf springs for light vehicle applications. Compo Struc 1999; 44(2–3): 195–204.

14.

Shankar

GSS

Vijayarangan

. Mono composite leaf spring for light weight vehicle–design, end joint analysis and testing. Mate Sci 2006; 12(3): 220–225.

15.

Thippesh

. Fabrication of hybrid composite mono-leaf spring with unidirectional glass fibers. Mate Today Proceed 2018; 5(1): 2980–2984.

16.

Ashwini

Mohan Rao

. Design and analysis of leaf spring using various composites—an overview. Mate Today Proceed 2018; 5(2): 5716–5721.

17.

Kueh

Faris

. Finite element analysis on the static and fatigue characteristics of composite multi-leaf spring. J Zheji Univ Sci A 2012; 13(3): 159–164.

18.

Rajendran

Vijayarangan

. Optimal design of a composite leaf spring using genetic algorithms. Comput Struc 2001; 79(11): 1121–1129.

19.

Yang

Shi

Chen

, et al. Composite mechanics and energy method based stiffness prediction model for composite leaf springs. Mech Based Design Struc Mach 2019; 47(3): 375–386.

20.

Dutt

Babu

Murugan

, et al. Design and analysis of composite parabolic leaf spring under fatigue load condition. In: Hiremath

Shanmugam

Bapu

(eds) Advances in manufacturing technology. Singapore: Springer, 2019, pp. 527–532.

21.

Ismaeel

LMA

. Optimization and static stress analysis of hybrid fiber reinforced composite leaf spring. Adv Mate Sci Eng 2015; 8: 1–13.