Author : Parkhe Ravindraand Sanjay Belkar

This paper describes design and analysis ofcomposite mono leaf spring. Weight reduction is now the main issue in automobile industries. In the present work, existing mono steel leaf spring of a light vehicle is taken for modeling and analysis. A composite mono leaf spring with Carbon/Epoxy composite materials is modeled and subjected to the same load as that of a steel spring. The design constraints were stresses and deflections. The composite mono leaf springs have been modeled by considering Varying cross-section, with unidirectional fiber orientation angle for each lamina of a laminate. Static analysis of a 3-D model has been performed using ANSYS 12.0. In present project work comparative analysis of Carbon/epoxy composite leaf spring and steel leaf spring is done by analytical, FEA using ANSYS 12. The result of FEA is also experimentally verified. Compared to mono steel leaf spring the laminated composite mono leaf spring is found lesser stresses and weight reduction of 22.15% is achieved

Keywords: Composite leaf spring (CLS), Static analysis, Carbon/Epoxy, ANSYS 12.

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.2 (April- 2014)