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Abstract
The automobile industry has shown increased interest in the replacement of steel springs with ®berglass reinforced composite leaf
springs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a general study on the analysis, design and fabrication of composite springs. From this
viewpoint, the suspension spring of a compact car, ``a jeep'' was selected as a prototype.
A single leaf, variable thickness spring of glass®ber reinforced plastic (GFRP) with similar mechanical and geometrical properties to the
multileaf steel spring, was designed, fabricated (molded and hoop wound) and tested. The testing was performed experimentally in the
laboratory and was followed by the road test. Comparison between the performance of the GFRP and the multileaf steel springs is
presented. In addition, other relevant parameters will be discussed. # 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Fig. 3. Hoop filament wound GFRP spring together with the mandrel.
4. Test procedures
Table 1 of carbon ®bers (15 wt.%), located near the neutral axis
Comparison between steel and GFRP springs where they will not suffer a great deal of deformation. The
Specification Steel GFRP present experimental results of static loading have shown an
increase of about 10% of the spring constant over the all-
Average thickness (mm) 38.0 29.5
Transverse area (mm2) 1634 1386 ®berglass/epoxy, with no signi®cant weight reduction, but
Modulus (kgf/mm2) 1250 1100 with slight increase in the cost. Needless to say, the increase
Spring constant K (kgf/mm) 6.4 3.1±6.1 of the percentage of carbon ®ber would improve creep and
Total weight (kg) 18.7 3.5 fatigue as well as increase the stability temperature.
No. of leaves/layer 7 88
Width (mm) 45 45
Collapse load (kgf) ± 720
5. Conclusions