Analysis of Fibre Reinforced Metal Matrix Composite Leaf Spring for off Road Vehicle
Authors:-Mr. V.V.N. Sarath, Kurada Praveen Srikanth, Peyyala Manikanta, Sanku Jaswanth Charan, Seelam Bhaskar Sai Ram
Abstract-The Automobile Industry has shown keen interest for replacement of steel leaf spring with that of glass fiber composite leaf spring, since the composite material has high strength to weight ratio, good corrosion resistance properties. The present study searches the new material for leaf spring. In present study the material selected was glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) and the epoxy resin is used against conventional steel. A spring with constant width and thickness was fabricated by hand lay-up technique which was very simple and economical. The numerical analysis is carried via finite element analysis using ANSYS software. Stresses, deflection and strain energy results for both steel and composite leaf spring material were obtained. Result shows that, the composite spring has maximum strain energy than steel leaf spring and weight of composite spring was nearly reduced up to 85% compared with steel material. This paper describes design and FEA analysis of composite leaf spring made of glass fiber reinforced polymer. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle are taken for evaluation of results.
