Design and Fatigue Life Comparison of Steel and Composite Leaf Spring

Abstract

It has been a significant challenge to reduce weights of the vehicles to satisfy the regulations that require development of environmentally-safe vehicles with low CO2 emissions. The conventional leaf springs, designed for the optimized performance together with safety factors, are made of steel. However, it is considered that the steel leaf springs are replaced by lighter ones in order to fulfill the specified requirements. Fiber reinforced composite materials with polymer based matrix offer a great potential for manufacturing leaf springs with lightweight, high mechanical and fatigue performance. Therefore, leaf spring manufacturers have great interest in those materials to replace steel parts with the composite ones and an increasing number of studies have been published in the literature in recent years. In this study, fiber reinforced composite compared with steel leaf springs based on endurance rig tests will be presented.

A theoretical model used for determining the stiffness of composite leaf springs with a main spring and an auxiliary spring

“…Then, f n−1 and f n+1 can be obtained from formula (12), and n can be obtained by substituting them into formula (9).…”

“…Therefore, the design method and performance investigation of composite leaf springs are the research hotspots in the application field of composite structures. Joint reliability [5,6], structure design [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], ply design [16], stiffness calculation [17], optimization [18][19][20][21], performance investigation [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and structural health monitoring [34][35][36][37][38] of composite mono leaf springs have been studied comprehensively and systematically. However, there are great differences in the requirements of suspension stiffness in some working conditions of automobile such as only the driver on the automobile, all the passengers plus the driver and the luggage on the automobile.…”

Thermal fatigue analysis and structural optimization of sliding composite leaf spring

“…Recently, composite structures have been increasingly used to replace conventional metallic components for saving weight and increasing energy efficiency. Compared with traditional steel leaf springs, composite leaf springs (CLSs) with service cycle, sound noise reduction, strong design ability, and good safety fracture (Shamsaei and Rezaei, 2004;Kueh and Faris, 2012;Soner et al, 2012;Ke et al, 2019). It is reported that the CLS can replace the traditional steel leaf spring and have better fatigue performance (Tadesse and Fatoba, 2022a;Tadesse and Fatoba, 2022b).…”

Fatigue Behaviour of Tempered and Isothermal Heat Treated Aisi 5160 Leaf Spring Steel

“…To meet the leaf spring specifications, the steel leaf springs were replaced with lighter ones made of fiber reinforced composite materials. Carbon fiber composites were discovered to save roughly 80 % of material while providing stronger endurance strength than steel [9]. The fatigue life of leaf springs was investigated using two materials, SAE5160 and SAE51B60H, with constant amplitude loading.…”