A Finite Element Analysis of Automobile Leaf Spring

Leaf springs are a special kind of springs and are one of the most important components of an automobile suspension system. Leaves are actually made as a combination of series of flat plates which have semi elliptical shape. Generally, a multi-leaf spring used in automobile suspension consists of two types of leaves i.e. graduated-length leaves and full-length leaves. Leaf spring can be not only guided along a definite path but also be used as an energy absorber. This functionality can’t be found in helical spring. Leaf spring basically absorbs the vibration caused by the bumps in road. It also supports vertical load. It is subjected to millions of load cycles leading to fatigue failure. The static analysis determines the safe stress and strain of the leaf spring and also to study the behavior of structures under practical conditions. Our present study attempts to analyze the safe load of the leaf spring. It also validates the concept of cantilever beam employed in the theoretical analysis of multi-leaf spring. A lot of research work has been carried out in the context of leaf spring considering its material and significant progress has been observed in the field of weight reduction, and improvement of load-carrying capacity under the replacement with any advanced material. Finite element analysis has been carried out to determine safe stresses and payloads. The multi-leaf spring was modeled in SOLIDWORKS 2015 and the same were analyzed under similar conditions using ANSYS Workbench 19.2 software considering structural steel and SAE 1074 spring steel as the spring material. Theoretical and software-based results are presented and compared for validation. Dimensions are taken from the multi-leaf spring used in the vehicles in Bangladesh.