The riding comfort of an automobile is greatly affected by the suspension system. Springs are crucial suspension elements, necessary to minimize the vertical vibrations, impacts and pumps due to road irregularities, vertical vibrations and impacts are buffered by variations is the spring deflection so that the potential energy is stored in spring as strain energy and then released slowly. Composite leaf spring made of Eglass/Epoxy is the best alternate to steel spring for having excellent higher strength-to-weight ratio, high energy spring capacity, excellent corrosion resistance and higher natural frequency.In the present paper, shape optimization of mono composite leaf spring was carried out with design constraints as stress and displacements. Through finite element technique, structural parameters are computed for both steel and optimized composite leaf springs. Experimental validations were done on steel and composite leaf spring for both static and dynamic conditions. The dynamic analysis is computed through Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and MATLAB code is developed to determine the natural frequencies of the leaf springs. Composite leaf spring is found to have low deflections, less stress, weight, high natural frequency and high damping property compared to steel leaf springs. This results in fuel savings and better riding comfort in automobiles.
">The riding comfort of an automobile is greatly affected by the suspension system. Springs are crucial suspension elements, necessary to minimize the vertical vibrations, impacts and pumps due to road irregularities, vertical vibrations and impacts are buffered by variations is the spring deflection so that the potential energy is stored in spring as strain energy and then released slowly. Composite leaf spring made of Eglass/Epoxy is the best alternate to steel spring for having excellent higher strength-to-weight ratio, high energy spring capacity, excellent corrosion resistance and higher natural frequency.In the present paper, shape optimization of mono composite leaf spring was carried out with design constraints as stress and displacements. Through finite element technique, structural parameters are computed for both steel and optimized composite leaf springs. Experimental validations were done on steel and composite leaf spring for both static and dynamic conditions. The dynamic analysis is computed through Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and MATLAB code is developed to determine the natural frequencies of the leaf springs. Composite leaf spring is found to have low deflections, less stress, weight, high natural frequency and high damping property compared to steel leaf springs. This results in fuel savings and better riding comfort in automobiles.