Design of a Composite Leaf Spring for Railway Vehicles

Abstract

The paper deals with the design/optimization of a leaf spring for railway vehicles using composite materials. The optimization was carried out based on the main mechanical parameters of the current design solution for steel leaf springs. A numerical simulation was created to obtain the data, then the simulation was verified using an experimental test. Glass fibre reinforcement with epoxy resin was chosen as the material for the composite leaf spring. The main shape of the composite leaf spring was created using geometrical optimization. An advanced finite element model which modelled individual plies of the laminate was created to check the strength of the composite spring. A maximum stress strength criterion and transverse shear interlaminar criterion were used to evaluate the failure index.

A review of composite leaf springs for automotive vehicles

“…It is clear from the table that the yield stress and deformation of composite material have no significant difference from that of steel but, the use of composites contribute to a considerable reduction in vehicles weight; the benefits of the composite leaf springs outweigh its shortfalls. Three years later, after Vivek's study, Sedlacek et al [20] published a review on the design of composite leaf springs for railway vehicles; their focus was to design and optimize the railway leaf springs done first by numerical simulation then followed by an experimental test. The materials investigated were the glass fibre reinforcement with epoxy resin for composite materials.…”

“…Fig.3. The geometric parameters of the optimization of the leaf spring that was used[20].Four years before the work published by Sedlacek et al, Venkatesan and Devaraj[21] conduct a similar study with more specified elements. The study focused on the materials in contrast to Sedlacek et al study, which focused on geometry instead.…”

Influence of Composite Lay-Up and Cyclic Load Parameters on the Fatigue Behaviour of Flexible Composite Elements

“…From a maintenance point of view, the test structure must remain fully useable for a defined number of cycles (greater than 2 × 10 6 ), which is dependent on the stress coefficient L C , which declines with the increasing number of cycles. The stress coefficient is defined as the ratio of the upper boundary of the loading force F U to the lower boundary of the loading force F D , and the value is always higher than 1 [1,[7][8][9].…”

“…Sedláček et al [9] conducted a study investigating the design and optimisation of leaf springs for railway cars. Optimisation was achieved through a numerical simulation based on a conventional solution for steel springs.…”

“…A 2D model of the spring was created out of CQUAD4 elements. Subsequently, the number of layers and their physical, mechanical and geometrical parameters were defined for various zones within the 2D model [9].…”