GURU NANAK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

City Office : B2, 2nd Flr, Above Bata, Vikrampuri Colony, Karkhana Road, Secunderabad-500009, Telangana, India.
Ph: +91-04-6632 3294, 6517 6117, Fax: +91-40-2789 2633 www.gniindia.org
Campus : Ibrahimpatnam, R.R.District, Hyderabad-501506, Telangana, India. Ph: (0/95) 8414-20 21 20/21.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the mini project entitled “MODEL ANALYSIS AND STATIC
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF LEAF SPRING” is being presented with report by
Mr. K. MANOHAR, Mr. M. PARUSHURAMUDU, and Mr. S. KARTHIK in partial
fulfillment for the award of Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering,
to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad is a record of bonafide work
carried out by them under my guidance and supervision.

The results embodied in this Mini-project report have not been submitted to any other
University or Institute for the award of any Degree or Diploma.

Mr. M. SAMPATH KUMAR Dr. B. VIJAYA KUMAR

Associate Professor Professor & HOD
Internal Guide Department of Mechanical Engineering

EXTERNAL EXAMINER

Hyderabad’s First campus to become

Approved By AICTE Affiliated by JNTU-HYD GOLD PARTNER

New Delhi

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that mini project report entitled “MODEL ANALYSIS AND STATIC
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF LEAF SPRING” is the work done by
Mr. K. MANOHAR, Mr. M. PARUSHURAMUDU and Mr. S. KARTHIK bearing the Roll
no. 15835A0313, 15835A0317 and 15835A0332 towards the fulfillment of the requirement for
the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering, to
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, is the result of the work carried out
under the guidance Mr. M. SAMPATH KUMAR, Associate professor, Guru Nanak Institute
of Technology, Hyderabad.

I further declare that this project report has not been previously submitted before either
in part or full for the award of any degree or any diploma by any organization or any universities.

K. MANOHAR 15835A0313
M. PARUSHURAMUDU 15835A0317
S. KARTHIK 15835A0332

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The mini-project entitled “MODEL ANALYSIS AND STATIC STRUCTURAL

ANALYSIS OF LEAF SPRING” is the sum of total efforts of our batch. It is our duty to bring
forward each and every one who is directly or indirectly in relation with our project and without
whom it would not have gained a structure.
We also extend my sincere thanks to Mr. M. Sampath Kumar, Associate professor of
Mechanical Engineering for his valuable guidance and unstinting support which gave us the
confidence required to overcome the obstacles that we faced in the completion of this project.
We extend my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. S. Sreenatha Reddy Principal and the
Management of Guru Nanak Institute of Technology for providing us the best amenities to
enable us completes our project in the stipulated time.
We owe our immense thanks to Dr. B. Vijaya Kumar, Professor & Head of
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Guru Nanak Institute of Technology for
his sustained interest, constructive criticism and constant encouragement at every stage of this
Endeavour.
Also, we thank to Dr. R. Dhanasekaran, Professor. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,
Guru Nanak Institute of Technology for his constant encouragement.
Last but not least; we are very thankful to our parents, friends and other faculty of the
Department of Mechanical Engineering for their constant support for completion of this project.

K. MANOHAR 15835A0313
M. PARUSHURAMUDU 15835A0317
S. KARTHIK 15835A0332

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 ABSTRACT
Overall weight reduction of the vehicle is the main issue in automobile industries.
Weight reduction can be achieved primarily by the introduction of better material, design
optimization and better manufacturing processes. In this paper main focus is to review all such
work in which the weight reduction of the vehicle was achieved by considering leaf spring.
Many of authors suggested that weight reduction can be achieved by using composite material
having suitable properties and capable of carrying such heavy load of the vehicle. Different
methods for analyzing and manufacturing for composite leaf spring are also discussed. It was
shown that the weight can be easily achieved but there are more aspects which should also be
considered i.e. cost, new composite materials.

This paper review some of the general study ion design, analysis and fabrication of
composite leaf spring. Leaf springs are one of the oldest suspension components they are still
frequently used, especially in commercial vehicles. The literature has indicated a growing
interest in the replacement of leaf spring with composite leaf spring. The suspension system in
a vehicle significantly affects the behavior of vehicle, i.e. vibration, stability etc. leaf springs are
commonly used in the vehicle suspension system and are subjected to millions of varying stress
cycles leading to fatigue failure.

A lot of research has been done for improving the performance of leaf spring lot of materials
are used for leaf spring but it found that fiber glass material has better strength characteristics
and lighter in weight has compared to steel for leaf spring.

KEY WORDS

Steel leaf spring, Composite material, ANSYS, FEA.

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 CONTENTS

Title Page. no
Certificate i

Declaration ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

List of figures ix

List of tables xi

Chapter 1 Introduction 1-3

1.1 Leaf spring 1

1.2 Types of leaf spring 2

1.3 Manufacturing process 2

1.4 Characteristic 3

Chapter 2 Literature Review 4

Chapter 3 Introduction to ANSYS and FEA 5-14

3.1 Introduction to ANSYS 5

3.2 Introduction to FEA 5

3.2.1 General working of FEA 6

3.2.2 Stiffness matrix 7

3.2.3 Degree of freedom 7

3.2.4 Boundary condition 7

3.3 Elements and Element shapes 8

3.3.1 Elements 8

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 3.3.2 Element shapes 8

3.3.3 Line elements 8

3.3.4 Area elements 9

3.3.5 Volume elements 9

3.4 General procedure to conduct 9

3.4.1 FEA through software 10

3.4.2 Pre-processor 10

3.4.3 Solution 10

3.4.4 Post processor 11

3.4.5 FEA software 11

3.5 Advantages and Limitations of FEA software 11

3.5.1 Advantages 11

3.5.2 Limitations 12

3.6 Starting of ANSYS work bench using taskbar 12

3.7 Tool box windows 13

3.8 Table of Analysis and definitions 13

Chapter 4 Project schematic windows 15-42

4.1 Custom system analysis 15

4.2 Units in any workbench 15

4.3 Component of the system 16

4.3.1 Engineering data cell 16

4.3.2 Geometry cell 16

4.3.3 Modal cell 17

4.3.4 Mesh cell 17

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 4.3.5 Setup cell 17

4.3.6 Solution cell 17

4.3.7 Result cell 18

4.4 Introduction to Modal analysis 18

4.4.1 Performing the Modal analysis 19

4.4.2 Adding Modal analysis system to Ansys workbench 19

4.4.3 Starting the Mechanical window 19

4.4.4 Specifying analysis setting 20

4.4.5 Plotting the deformed shape 21

4.4.6 Creating the Model 22

4.4.7 Generating the Mesh for the model 22

4.4.8 Setting the boundary condition 23

4.4.9 Solving the medal Analysis 23

4.4.10 Retrieving Analysis results 24

4.5 Introduction to Static structural Analysis 27

4.5.1 Pre-processing 28

4.5.2 Solution 28

4.5.3 Post processing 29

4.5.4 Project overview 29

4.5.5 Starting a project and creating the Modal 29

4.5.6 Generating the Mesh 30

4.5.7 Setting the boundary and loading conditions 31

4.5.8 Solving and post processing the Finite element model 35

4.5.9 Results 37

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Chapter 5 Materials and Results 43-44

5.1 Consider materials 43

5.2 The modal Analysis 44

5.3 Static structural Analysis 44

Chapter 6 Conclusion 45

References 46

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Fig 1 Representation Of A Two Spring Assembly. ......... ……………………….........6
Fig 2 A Node And An Element .......... ………………………………………………...8
Fig 3 Line Element .......... ………………………………………………………..........8
Fig 4 The Area Elements .......... ……………………………………………….............9
Fig 5 Volume Elements .......... ………………………………………………………...9
Fig 6 The Component Of The Workbench Windows ......... ………………………....12
Fig 7 The analysis system tool box displaying various analysis system in it………...13

Fig 8 Static, Thermal, Transient, Thermal analysis and modal analysis imported in to project
schematic…………………………………………………………………………......15

Fig 9 The Engineering Data Workspace .......... ……………………………………...16

Fig 10 The shortcut menu displayed on right clicking on the geometry cell………. .17
Fig 11 The mechanical window with the modal node displayed in tree outline……..20

Fig 12 Meshing........... ……………………………………………………………….23

Fig 13 Displayed, Refer To Figure............ …………………………………………..24
Fig 14 Project Details ........... ………………………………………………………..25
Fig 15 Deformation 5th ,6th ,7th And 8th Modes…………………………................26
Fig 16 The static structural analysis system added to the project schematic window.27

Fig 17 The Environment Contextual Toolbar ........... ………………………………..28

Fig 18 The Solution Contextual Toolbar............ …………………………………….28
Fig 19 The Report Generation In Progress............... ………………………………...29
Fig 20 The Mechanical Window ............ …………………………………………… 30
Fig 21 Mesh Generated With Default Mesh Controls ........... ……………………… 31
Fig 22 Choosing the fixed support tool from the supports drop down……………….32

Fig 23 The Loads Drop-Down…………………………………………………….…33

Fig 24 Applied Loads And Fixed Supports............ ……………………………….…34
Fig 25 The Details Of Solution Window ........... …………………………………….35
Fig 26 Choosing The Total Tool From The Deformation Drop Down ........... ………36
Fig 27 Total Deformation…………………………………………………………….37

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Fig 28 Equivalent Stress ........... ……………………………………………………...38
Fig 29 Equivalent Strain ........... …………………………………………………..….39
Fig 30 Life ........... …………………………………………………………………....40
Fig 31 Damage ........... …………………………………………………………….…41
Fig 32 Safety Factor .......... …………………………………………………………. 42

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Analysis And Definitions ............................................................ 14
Table 2 Loads With Time Intervals ......................................................... 34
Table 3 Materials ...................................................................................... 43
Table 4 Result of Modal Analysis............................................................ 44
Table 5 Results of Static Structural Analysis........................................... 44

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