Experimental Investigation on Laminated Composite Leaf springs Subjected to Cyclic Loading

An automobile industry have an interest in replacement of conventional leaf spring with composite leaf spring to get better performance with less weight. This paper deals with by replacing the conventional leaf spring with composite leaf spring. The dimensions of an existing conventional steel leaf spring of a light commercial vehicle were taken to fabricate the special die which is further used to manufacture the composite leaf spring. A single leaf with constant cross sectional area similar to that of conventional leaf spring(CLS) in each case such as bidirectional glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP), bidirectional carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), bidirectional carbon-glass reinforced plastic (CGFRP) and bidirectional glass-carbon reinforced plastic (G-CFRP) were fabricated by hand layup technique and tested by universal testing machine. By using universal testing machine, load per deflection and maximum load that a leaf spring can withstand were measured. The cyclic loading with specific duration was given to the above mentioned composite leaf springs by using a laboratory designed loading set up through milling machine. From the experimented results it was observed that if conventional leaf springs are replaced by composite leaf springs an appropriate amount of weight reduction and there by improved vehicle performance could be achieved.