Design optimization and numerical analyses of composite leaf spring in a heavy-duty truck vehicle

The suspension in automotive has been carried out for years by steel leaf spring. Despite this, the issue of emission and efficiency of fuel in automotive has remained in the forefront as one of the draw backs in automotive industry. This drawback can be solved by providing vehicles that are cost effective and gives fuel efficiency in terms of weight reduction in automobile. This is achievable by replacing steel leaf spring with composite materials with enhanced properties which can compare favorably with steel leaf. This is due to the fact the weight of a vehicle is carried by steel leaf spring. The aim of this research work is to optimize the design of the steel leaf spring by replacing it with composite materials for an extended application in automotive industry. The economic advantage and enhanced mechanical properties of composite materials like carbon epoxy, bamboo polyester, E-glass/epoxy and graphite epoxy made them choicy materials to be compared with the conventional steel leaf. CATIAVR9 and ANSYS software were both used for the model and the numerical analyses of the composite materials and the steel leaf. The results showed that all the four composite materials exhibited weight reduction compared to the conventional steel leaf. The Von Misses stresses of the composite materials were also compared with the conventional steel leaf and the results corroborated. Bamboo polyester showed maximum displacement of 1.5726 mm and followed by Carbon epoxy with deflection of 1.5469 mm. E-glass/epoxy showed the lowest displacement of 1.5172 mm as compared to conventional steel leaf with displacement of 1.2144 mm.