Performance Characteristics and Evaluation of Alternate Materials for Automobile Advanced Leaf Springs

Abstract

Leaf springs are crucial suspension elements in automobile, necessary to minimize the vertical vibrations, impacts and bumps due to road irregularities. The functions of the suspension springs for an automobile are to maintain a good control stability and to improve riding comfort. In other to meet the requirements of natural resource conservation and energy economy, automobile manufacturers have been attempting to reduce the weight of vehicles in recent years. The research reviewed the automotive leaf spring in it entirety as well as the used of CES EduPack 2011 software to justify the conventional material used for leaf spring. The paper also analyse an indebt configuration and methodologies that enable the researcher to select an alternate and advanced composite material suitable for leaf spring using the Cambridge Educational Software (CES) in other to meet the global glamour for automotive weight reduction, conservation of natural resources and energy minimization as been focus by automobile manufacturers in the present state.