Design and Fabrication Composite Leaf Spring for Medium Vehicle

Design and Fabrication Composite Leaf Spring for Medium Vehicle

Special Issue – 2015

International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181

NCRAIME-2015 Conference Proceedings

Mr.Velliyangiri1

1, PG Scholar Dept. of Mech.Engg,

Sri Krishna college of Technology, Kovaipudur, Tamilnadu, India-641042.

1. Mohan Raj2

   2, Assistant Professor, Dept. ofMech.Engg,, Sri Krishna college of Technology, Kovaipudur,

   Tamilnadu, India-641042.

   Abstract:- Nowadays automobile industry focus on the light weight vehicles suspension system replacement of steel leaf spring to the polymer matrix composite leaf spring. Polymer matrix Composite leaf spring weights arereducing without decrease load carrying capacity. The aim of automobile industries was reduced overall fuel consumption of the vehicles. The polymer matrix material and natural was used to fabricate composite leaf spring because more elastic strain energy storage capacity and more strength to weight ratio as compared than steel. Comparatively the costs of polymer matrix materials are less than steel.Therefore, the aim of my works is to present a low cost fabrication of mono graduated polymer matrix composite leaf spring. Hybrid composite material was chose to fabricate the composite leaf spring. Composite material such as Glass fiber, resin and natural fiber. The objective of the present work is to testing (impact test, flexural test, tensile test) a result of two different combination of hybrid composite leaf spring.

   Keywords: (E-glass/Epoxy/Jute and E-glass/Vinyl ester/Jute)

   1. INTRODUCTION

      Leaf springs was absorbs the vehicles vibration, shock and bump load by mean of spring deflections, so that the potential energy are stored in the leaf spring and then relieved slowly. Ability to stores and absorbs more amount of elastic strain energy ensure the comfortable suspension system. Nowadays the main issues of automobile industries are weight reduction.

      Fig 1. Graduated and master leaf spring

      Fabricate the graduatedpolymer matrix composite leaf spring. The master leaf spring length is higher than graduated leaves. Hybrids composite materials are using to fabricate graduated leave. Composite material such as natural fiber, glass fiber, resin.

   2. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

      After reviewing the literatures, we identify some of the problem which generally occurs in case of composite leaf spring. The usual steel leaf spring has various problems identified which are listed as below:

      • High weight.

      • High cost.

      • Less compressive strength.

   3. DESIGN PARAMETER OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITE MONO GRADUATED LEAF SPRING

      Fig 2. Leaf spring design parameter

      Special Issue – 2015

      Mono Graduated leaf spring design parameter:

      Total length of graduated leaf spring = 762mm

      Width of leaf spring = 60mm

      Thickness of leaf spring = 6mm

   4. DESIGNS OF HYBRID COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

      Consider several types of vehicles leaf spring and different load acting on them, various types of composite leaf spring have developed. The below different method used to fabricate the hybrid composite leaf spring.

      • Constant thickness, Constant widthdesign.

      • Constant thicknessVarying widthdesign.

      • Varying width, varying thickness design.

   5. CONSTANT WIDTH, CONSTANT THICKNESS

      DESIGN

      I chose constant thickness; constant width design method to fabricate the mono graduated hybrid composite leaf spring. Polymer matrix with natural fiber materials was used to fabricate the composite leaf spring. Single mold was used to fabricate the constant width: constant thickness design method. Mold cost is less compare to other methods. Two different resin were used to fabricate the monograduated composite leaf spring (epoxy and vinyl ester). I compare to both experimental results after chose best one.

   6. MOLD DESIGN The mold design parameter given below:

      Fig3. Wood mold design parameter

      International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

      ISSN: 2278-0181

      NCRAIME-2015 Conference Proceedings

      Fig4. Leaf spring testing specimen

      Manufacturingmold

      Fig5.Composite leaf spring manufacturing wooden mold.

   7. MATERIALS ARE USED TO FABRICATE THE HYBRID COMPOSITE LEAF SPRING

      • PVA- mold release agent

      • Biaxial direction jute

      • E-glass chopped strand mat

      • Biaxial direction E-glass

      • Resin (vinyl ester, epoxy).

   8. MANUFACTURING PROCESS TYPES

      • Hand Lay-up Technique.

      • Prepreg lay-up.

      • Resin Transfer Molding.

      • Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding.

      • Pultrusion.

      • Filament Winding

      • Bag Molding Processes.

      • Autoclave processing.

      • Compression molding.

      Special Issue – 2015

      1. Selection of manufacturing process

         • Chosen easy process.

         • The process has choosing to easy manufacture.

         • To choose less cost of mold and manufacturing method.

           Hand Lay-up process mentioned above fulfills the requirement. Therefore it can be chosen in manufacturing process.

      2. Hand lay-up-technique used to fabricate the composite leaf spring

         The hand lay-up technique also called wet lay-up. In this method simplest and most widely used manufacturing process. The wet composite rolled using hand roller to facilitate uniform resin distribution and removal air pocket. This process repeating until the desired thickness reached. The layered structure is cured after.

         The hand layup process divided into four basic steps:

         • Mold preparation

         • Gel coating

         • Lay-up

         • Curing

      The mold preparations one of the most critical step in hand layup process. The mold may be male or female type, depend on which surface need to be smooth. A coating of PVAmold release agent is applied to the mold to facilitate the removal of the finishing part.

      Fig6 Lay-up

      International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

      ISSN: 2278-0181

      NCRAIME-2015 Conference Proceedings

   9. RESULT COMPARISONS

1. Tensile test

   Tensile testing, also known as tension testing, is a fundamental materials science test in which a sample is subjecting to a controlled tension until failure.

   The results from the test commonly used to select a material for an application, for quality controls, and to predict how a material will be react under other types of forces. Properties that are measuring directly via a tensile test are ultimate tensile strength, maximum elongation and reduction in area. Tensile load, tensile strength, elongation results was compared to two different type of hydride composite materials.

   Table 1. Comparison of tensile testing results ofvinyl esterand epoxy type leaf spring.

   Leaf Spring type	Tensile Load [kg]	Tensile Strength [Mpa]	Elongation [mm]
   E-glass/Epoxy/jute	415	78.5	5.6
   E-glass/Vinyl ester/jute	467	88.45	6.2

   Fig 8.Load vs displacement of polymer matrix leaf spring (E-glass/Vinyl ester/jute).

   Fig 7.Final curing stage

   Special Issue – 2015

   Fig 9.Load vs displacement of polymer matrix leaf spring (E- glass/Epoxy/jute).

2. Impact test

   A test specimen, usually of square crossed section was notched and held between a pair of jaws, to be broken by a swinging weight. When the pendulum of the Izod testing machine released it swings with a downward movement and when it reached the vertical the hammer make contacts with the specimen which is broking by the force of the blow. The hammer continues its upward motion but the energy absorb in breaking the test piece reduces its momentum. A graduated scale enables a reading to taken of the energy using to fracture the test piece. To obtain a representative result the average of three tests was used.

   S.no	Izod Impact Value [J]
   1.	E-glass/Epoxy/jute	E-glass/Vinyl Ester/jute
   	3.30	5.11

   Table 3.Izod impact test result compare to Epoxy and Vinyl ester leaf spring.

3. Weight comparisons

   We have compared the two different combination of hybrid Composite Leaf Spring. We have chosen the less weight of leaf spring because of reducing the weight in automobile and increase the fuel efficiency.

   International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

   ISSN: 2278-0181

   NCRAIME-2015 Conference Proceedings

   Leaf Spring Type	Epoxy	Vinyl Ester
   Weight (g)	451	369

   Table 4. Weight Comparisons

   CONCLUSIONS

   The experimental investigation was conducted on two different hybrids composites leaf spring lead to the following conclusions.

   • Both composite leaf spring [E-glass/Epoxy/Jute and E-glass/Vinyl ester/Jute] experimental results compared such as tensile strength, impact strength and weight.

   • To choose the best one result. Vinyl ester composite leaf spring experimental test result are good than Epoxy composite leaf spring.

   • These types of leaf spring are using for light weight commercial vehicles. Composite and steel leaf spring load carrying capacities are same for medium vehicles.

   • In this type of composite leaf spring are less cost and weight compare to steel leaf spring. To increase the fuel efficiency of vehicle.

REFERENCES

• Amrita Srivastava* and Sanjay Choudhary Design and Structural Analysis of Jute/E-glass Woven Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Based Hybrid Composite Leaf Spring under Static Loading ISSN 2249- 0019, Volume 3, Number 6 (2013), pp. 573-582.2.

• Suhas1, Jaimon D. Q, Hanumanthraya R, Vaishak N. L, Mahesh B. Davanageri Investigation on different Compositions of E- Glass/Epoxy Composite and its application in Leaf Spring e-ISSN: 2278-1684,p-ISSN: 2320-334X, Volume 11, Issue 1 Ver. V (Feb. 2014), PP 74-80.

• VivekRai *, GauravSaxena**Development of a Composite Leaf Spring for a Light Commercial Vehicle (Tata Magic.Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sep-Oct 2013, pp.110-114.

  2. Books

  • Ever J.Barbero Introduction Of Composite Materials Design Second edition 2013.

  • O.P.KhannMa Material Science & Metallurgy: DhanpatRai Publication 2014.