Review on Design, Analysis and Fabrication of a Composite Leaf Spring for Weight Reduction in Light Weight Automobile

Generally, in most of the cars, conventional friction brakes are used to stop or control the speed of cars while it is in motion. During the running condition, the car having lots of kinetic energy, when the brake is applied, this kinetic energy is losses by heat energy due to the friction between the brake shoe and brake plate. Thus this extra power loss reduces the overall efficiency of the vehicle. This type of heat losses of energy can be limit by use of regenerative braking system known as RBS. Generally, the main objective of regenerative braking system is to recover as much as possible torque while brakes are being applied. The kinetic energy of vehicle can be stored in another form of energy. In regenerative braking system, energy can be converted by means of generator, dynamometer, alternator, pump, compressor or flywheel or in other storage devices.Now a day the regenerative braking system is applied to many hybrid vehicles. But due to the complexity of design it can be applied to limited cars only. In this case, by using alternator or dynamo, the kinetic energy of the wheel, can be converted into the electric energy which is wasted while applying brakes. Looking at the present situation of Automobile industry, Weight reduction of an automobile ia an major area of concern to the manufacturer. Generally Leaf spring is used for the suspension charchteristics and having 10 to 20 % of unsprung weight. Thus a reduction in weight of the spring will improve efficiency of the vehicle.These springs are generally made of steel material which is having more weight. In order to reduce weight, here composite leaf spring is used instead of steel leaf spring.This Report describes design and anlysis of steel leaf spring and laminated composite leaf spring. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle are taken. Static structural analysis of a 3-D model of conventional leaf spring is performed using ANSYS. Same dimensions are used in composite multi leaf spring using E-glass/Epoxy unidirectional laminates. The load carrying capacity, and weight of composite leaf spring are compared with that of steel leaf spring. In the present work Hand lay-up composite fabrication process is used for making the composite leaf spring. E-glass/epoxy leaf spring will be tested on UTM for the static design load and compared with the steel (55Si2Mn90) leaf spring.