Study of Composite Leaf Spring for Light Duty Commercial Vehicle

Study of Composite Leaf Spring for light duty commercial vehicle In the present scenario, the primary focus of automotive industry is to reduce the vehicle weight to meet future, more stringent emission norms and to improve fuel efficiency. Weight reduction becomes particularly important for commercial vehicle segment as electric vehicles are more focused on the passenger vehicle segments. Moreover, the reduction of the unsprung mass of the vehicle is desired to improve the ride and handling characteristics. Composite leaf spring is an alternative to the conventional steel leaf spring used in the suspension system of light & heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Composite leaf springs have a significantly lesser weight as compared to steel leaf springs but having higher strength to weight ratio with better corrosion resistance and hence, is considered an alternative for the steel leaf springs. This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of replacing the steel leaf spring with a composite leaf spring. The feasibility is tested at the component level by analyzing the functional performance of the composite leaf spring as per design verification plan. The durability of the composite leaf spring was tested using FEA simulation. KEYWORDS: Composite leaf spring, Suspension, Commercial vehicle, Epoxy/E-glass, Lightweight