17th International Fiber and Polymer Research Symposium

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Developing of Steel-GFRP Hybrid Leaf Spring for Commercial Vehicles

Authors :

Mehmet Deniz GUNES¹ Gediz KULAC² Goksel TOKGONUL³ Taygun UZUNLAR⁴ Sercan DAGLI⁵ Hakan Salih ERDOGAN⁶

1- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş. 2- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş. 3- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş. 4- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş. 5- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş. 6- Olgun Çelik San. ve Tic. A.Ş.

Keywords :

steel-glass fiber reinforced polymer(GFRP) hybrid،leaf spring،spring rate،stress distrubition

Abstract :

Leaf springs are crucial suspension parts that absorb road irregularities for light-weight and middle weigth commercial vehicles. Convensional steel leaf springs have been commonly used for years due to their advantages like easy to design and processing. On the other hand, automotive industry has shown great attention for light-weigth structures in recent years for both fuel save and recent regulations for reducing carbon emmission. Due to all those facts, automotive OEM’s have increasingly demanded on conversion of steel parts to composite parts. Leaf sprins are great nominee for that conversion due to their light-weigth structures and superior mechanical behavior. In this reseach; conversion of multi-leaf steel leaf spring to steel composite leaf spring was investigated. Design, prototyping and characterization of equivalent hybrid leaf spring was studied. 35% weight reduction with no performance lose was gained as conclusion. Project goals: Design of steel-glass fiber reinforced polymer(GFRP) hybrid leaf spring wiht respect to equivalent steel leaf spring’s spring rate and stress distrubition 100.000 cycles of fatigue life 35% weight reduction in comparison with equivalent steel leaf spring