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Leaf springs Design, calculation and testing

requirements
Conference Paper January 2014

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Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

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Leaf springs Design, calculation and testing requirements

S. Karditsas, G. Savaidis, A. Mihailidis
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, Greece
A. Savaidis
School of Pedagogical and Technological Education
Athens, Greece
R. Fragoudakis
Tufts University
Medford, MA, USA

ABSTRACT
For the design of serial leaf-springs, specific requirements regarding the dimensions of the
vehicle configuration and the allowable developed stresses that occur under specific
operating loading conditions are taken into account. The allowable stresses are obtained
from Whler curves determined experimentally and providing the fatigue behaviour of the
end product. In the present paper a parabolic 2-leaf-spring for front axles of heavy duty
vehicles was used as an example for the design process using the Finite Element Methods
simulating the on-vehicle operating conditions. A Whler curve was determined after the
conduction of 6 cyclic 4-point bending tests and the developed strains were measured
during the tests. Finally a Finite Element simulation of the experimental configuration was
performed and the calculated stress distribution along the specimens was compared with the
stresses developed during the tests.

KEYWORDS
Automotive, leaf springs, design, finite element method, fatigue

INTRODUCTION
For the suspension of carry-load vehicles many types of arrangements may be used
depending on the type of the vehicle and the occurring operating loads. One advantageous
type of suspension systems is the leaf-springs system, which needs less additional
components than other suspension systems, thereby leading to lighter and lower-cost
structures. Additionally, the leaf-springs performance determines both the suspension and
the guidance of the vehicle due to the fact that the leaf-spring is connected with both the
axle and the steering system.
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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

For the design of serial leaf-springs, specific requirements regarding the dimensions of the
vehicle configuration and the allowable developed stresses that occur under specific
operating loading conditions are taken into account. In particular, the vehicle manufacturer
sets the requirement of the fatigue life of the leaf-springs under specific operating loading
conditions referring to the corresponding vehicle. On the other hand, the leaf-spring
manufacturer having experimentally assessed the fatigue behaviour of its end product under
uniaxial or biaxial cyclic bending determines the S-N Whler curve that gives the
maximum stresses the products can withstand. Thus, the engineer, having given the vehicle
configurations dimensions, aims to design a leaf-spring able to endure the maximum
permissible stresses, which according to the vehicle manufacturers S-N Whler curves
correspond to the desired fatigue life.
The present paper focuses on the design of serial parabolic 2-leaf-spring for front axles of
heavy duty vehicles with nominal load of 9.2 tons on the axle using the Finite Element
Methods as introduced and experimentally verified by Savaidis et al. [1] for the simulation
of mono- and multi-leaf springs. For the FE analysis the necessary components of the onvehicle arrangement were modelled in order to take the real operating conditions into
account. Additionally, a Sa-N Whler curve has been experimentally determined. More
specifically, 6 leaves were tested on a uniaxial 4-point bending test rig designed for that
purpose. The stresses were measured during the tests and compared to the stresses
calculated by the FE simulation of the experimental set-up.

LOADING CONDITIONS
The work of Grubisic and Fischer [2], Grubisic [3], Rupp and Grubisic [4] Savaidis et al.
[5], Lange et al. [6] and Decker and Savaidis [7] regarding the driving of trucks on test
tracks and public European roads proved that the loading conditions that have the most
significant influence on the integrity of the front axles leaf-springs are the following:
- pure vertical loading that occurs from straight ahead driving
- vertical and longitudinal loading that occur simultaneously from braking.

Fig. 1: Loads occurring from straight ahead driving and braking

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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

The braking causes the so-called wind-up of the springs that tends to bend the springs in
an S shape and thus may lead to extreme deformations and consequently to extreme
stresses having values close to the yield strength of the material. Pure vertical loading leads
to stresses lower than braking. The directions of the two loading conditions are shown in
Fig. 1.
The maximum values of the above two loading conditions are expressed in relation to the
vehicles half-payload (Fn), see equations (1), (2) and (3). Although they do not correspond
to the most detrimental conditions, regarding the fatigue damage, they are taken into
account for the accurate design and durability of the end product.
Maximum vertical load (Fv,max) during straight-ahead driving:

Fv ,max = a Fn

(1)

Maximum vertical and longitudinal forces (Fv,max and Fbr,max) at full braking:

Fv,max = b Fn

(2)

Fbr ,max = c Fn

(3)

The factors a, b and c are different for each geographical region of operation. In the case of
West Europe they have the following values: a = 2.5, b = 2, and c = 1.6 . These maximum
values are derived either from measurements conducted by the vehicle manufacturers or
from standardized fatigue spectra like the ones addressed in the work of Grubisic and
Fischer [2] and Grubisic [3].

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

The FE modeling of the 2-leaf-spring was performed according to the experimentally
verified methodology introduced by Savaidis et al. [1] for leaf-springs and has the
following main points:
- Solid hexahedra elements of first order
- Minimum of six elements over the thickness of each leaf
- Average element length of approximately 5mm
- Linear elastic material behavior accurately representing the behavior of the high
strength spring steels
For the simulation of the real operating conditions the accurate dimensions of the onvehicle configuration were taken into account. Additional components were modeled and
used. Figure 2 gives a schematic overview of the on-vehicle configuration. Figure 3 shows
the complete FE model of the 2-leaf model investigated.

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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

Fig. 2: Parabolic mono-leaf spring for rear axles with on-vehicle configuration

Fig. 3: Finite Element model of the parabolic 2-leaf-spring and the additional components
The shackle at the rear eye and the bushings in the two eyes were modeled using rigid bars.
All the components in the center clamped area were modeled. In contrast to Figure 2, in the
case of the 2-leaf-spring in question only the elastomeric buffer, the so-called S-buffer, is
used on the vehicle, positioned at distance 325mm measured from the center of the clamped
area. Therefore only that one buffer was modeled using a non-linear spring element, whose
force-deflection characteristic was provided by the vehicle manufacturer. The silencers
prevent the friction contact between the two leaves. Their material behavior was simulated
using the corresponding stress-strain curve provided by the vehicle manufacturer. The
operating loads were applied on the middle node of leaf 1. The commercial software
packages ANSA, ABAQUS and ETA were used for the pre-process, the solution and the
post-process, respectively.

RESULTS
The aim of the FE analysis is the design of a leaf-spring, where the developed stresses
under the two aforementioned loading conditions (a) are uniformly distributed along the
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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

two leaves (stress plateau) and (b) they are lower than or equal to the maximum allowable
stresses specified from the corresponding Smax-N Whler curves of the leaf-spring
manufacturer. For the achievement of these goals, various design parameters each of
different influence on the behavior of the leaf-spring must be combined properly as
presented by Karditsas et al. [8]. Both the stresses due to the maximum vertical load and
due to braking are taken into account for the design. As mentioned above, the allowable
stresses caused by maximum vertical loading are lower than the stresses that occur from
braking because of the fact that during braking very extreme deformations may occur. In
the present study the ratio of the maximum allowable stress of braking br to the maximum
allowable stress of maximum vertical loading v,max is 1.214.
Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show typical stress distributions along the tension surface of leaf 1
and leaf 2, respectively, for three loading conditions. The stress values are normalized by
the maximum allowable stress that occurs at maximum vertical loading.

(a)
(b)
Fig. 4: Stress distribution along (a) leaf 1 and (b) leaf 2 resulted for three loading conditions
In case of maximum vertical load, the developed stresses are equal to the allowable stress
for both leaves and appear on the front arms. In the case of braking, the maximum
developed stresses are lower than the allowable ones on the rear arm of the second leaf and
much lower on the rear arm of the first leaf. A uniform stress distribution has been achieved
in the case of maximum vertical loading on the front arms of both leaves. In the case of
braking, a quasi-uniform stress distribution appears on the rear arm of the second leaf
whereas on the rear arm of the first leaf the distribution is slightly uniform presenting some
irregularities due to the functioning of the S-buffer. However, this distribution can also be
considered as uniform. The steep peak arises on the front arm of the first leaf at the area of
750 mm is due to the presence of the step shape of the leaf.
Figure 5 shows the forms and positions of the leaf-spring that occur under vertical halfpayload, maximum vertical load and full braking in comparison to the unloaded condition.
In case of full braking a slight wind-up phenomenon is obvious and the resulted S form
of the leaf-spring which is represented from the black dashed line.
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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 5: Forms and positions of the leaf-spring at (a) half-payload, (b) maximum vertical
load and (c) full braking

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
Specimens
For the present study six cyclic 4-point bending tests were executed for the assessment of
the fatigue behaviour of a specific end product of a leaf-spring manufacturer and the
determination of the corresponding Sa-N Whler curve. Six specimens of the end product
were used, made of high-grade spring steel 56SiCr7. Their chemical composition is given
in Table 1 according to EN 10089:2003-04.
Table 1: Chemical composition of 56SiCr7 steel (weight %) acc. to EN 10089:2003-04
C
0.52-0.60

Si

Mn

Cr

1.60-2.00

0.70-1.00

< 0.025

< 0.025

0.25-0.45

Fig. 6: Shape and dimensions of the specimens

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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

Figure 6 shows the specimen geometry. The specimens have profile of type C according to
the European Standard EN 10092-1:2003 that denotes a rectangular profile with semirounded edges. Their length is 1200 mm, their width 90 mm wide and their thickness is
constant 12 mm.
All samples were subjected to the same development process that includes heat and surface
treatment. In order to achieve maximum hardness, the samples were first heated up to
850oC and then immersed into an oil bath decreasing their temperature to approximately
50oC. Then, the springs were tempered by heating to 500 oC for 30 minutes and then
cooling slowly in air. After the heat treatment process, stress peening was applied on the
springs, thereby improving their fatigue strength by inducing compression residual stresses
onto a thin layer of material beneath the tension surface. The two described technologies
improve effectively the fatigue life of the leaf-springs as presented by Fragoudakis et al. [9]
and Savaidis [10].
Test rig
For the execution of the 4-point cyclic bending tests, the test-rig shown in Figure 7 was
designed. The load is introduced by a servohydraulic actuator and applied on the specimen
at two points via two loading-cylinders positioned at distances 250 mm from the center of
the specimen. Each loading-cylinder is mounted on two metal plates welded on a hollow
rectangular bar which is connected with the load cell in front of the actuator. The specimen
is supported by two cylinders of 50 mm diameter positioned at distances 500 mm from the
longitudinal axis of the actuator.

Fig. 7: 4-point bending test-rig

Stress distribution
In order to determine the stress distribution along the specimens, strain gages were used for
the measurement of the occurring strains. The corresponding stresses were calculated
taking into account the standardized Youngs modulus for steel E=2.1 GPa. The strain
gages were positioned on the side of the specimens subjected under tension at various
positions along the area between the loading-cylinders (250 mm from the center of the
specimen), because under the 4-points bending conditions the maximum stresses are
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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

developed on that region. The stresses developed during the tests were compared with the
stresses obtained from the FE analysis performed, simulating the test-rig configuration for
two levels of developed stresses. As shown in Figure 8 the agreement between calculated
and measured stresses is satisfactory. The stress values are normalized by the maximum
stress developed under the maximum applied force.

Fig. 8: Stress distribution obtained from tests and FE analysis for two load levels

Fatigue results
All specimens were subjected to cyclic loading with an approximately constant force ratio
R=0. The tests ran at two force/stress levels. Figure 9 shows the determined Sa-N Whler
curves. The solid line is the Whler curve for probability of survival 50% produced by
regression. The dashed lines stand for the Whler curves with probability of survival of
10% and 90%. The slope of k=5.35 is typical for shot peened unnotched specimens. The
stress values are normalized by the stress that corresponds to the upper level.

Fig. 9: Determined Sa-N Whler curve

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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The present study dealt with the design process of leaf-springs taking into consideration
specifications regarding the dimensions of the vehicle arrangement and the fatigue life
requirement from the vehicle manufacturer for specific operating loads. A serial parabolic
2-leaf-spring for front axles of heavy duty vehicles was designed using the FE method.
Vertical loads from straight ahead driving and biaxial loads from full braking of the vehicle
are considered as design criteria. The stress limitations were exceeded and approximately
uniform stress distribution was achieved along the length of the two leaves. Additionally, a
Sa-N Whler curve was experimentally created by means of six 4-points fatigue bending
tests at two load levels.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The General Secretariat for Research and Technology of Greece and the European Union
are gratefully acknowledged for the financial support of the investigations within the
framework of ESPA 2007-2013, Support of New, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The company BETA CAE Systems S.A. is gratefully acknowledged for provision of the
pre- and post-processing software suite ANSA/ETA.

REFERENCES
[1]

Savaidis, G.; Malikoutsakis, M.; Savaidis, A.:

FE simulation of vehicle leaf spring behavior under driving manoeuvres
International Journal of Structural Integrity (2013), Vol. 4, pp.23-32

[2]

Grubisic, V.; Fischer, G.:

Automotive wheels, method and procedure for optimal design and testing
SAE Technical Paper Series 830135 (1983), Michigan, USA

[3]

Grubisic, V.:
Determination of load spectra for design and testing
International Journal of Vehicle Design (1994), Vol. 15, pp. 8-26

[4]

Rupp, A.; Grubisic, V.:

Reliable determination of multiaxial road loads and tyre deformations on busses
and heavy trucks for the design and proof out
SAE Paper 973189 (1997)

[5]

Savaidis, G.; Riebeck, L.; Feitzelmayer, K.:

Fatigue life improvement of parabolic leaf springs in the process of simultaneous
engineering
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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece

Materials Testing (1999), Vol. 41, pp.234-40

[6]

Lange, P.; Denzin, R.; Savaidis, G.:

LKW-Parabelfedern Last-Beanspruchungsermittlung und Betriebsfestigkeitserprobung
Materials Testing (2003), Vol. 45, pp. 70-7

[7]

Decker, M.; Savaidis, G.:

Measurements and analysis of wheel loads for design and fatigue evaluation of
chassis components
Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures (2002), Vol. 25, pp.
1103-19

[8]

Karditsas, S.; Savaidis, G.; Malikoutsakis, M.:

Design of heavy duty parabolic front leaf-springs with respect to kinematics and
stress behavior
Proceedings 3rd International Conference on Engineering Against Failure (2013),
Kos, Greece

[9]

Fragoudakis, R.; Saigal, A.; Savaidis, G; Bazios, I; Malikoutsakis, M.; Pappas, G.;
Karditsas, G.; Savaidis, A.:
Fatigue assessment and failure analysis of shot-peened leaf springs
Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures (2013), Vol. 36, pp.
92-101

[ 10 ]

Savaidis, A.:
Surface properties and fatigue life of stress peened leaves
Materials Testing (2013), Vol. 54, pp. 529-34

Corresponding author: s.karditsas@gmail.com

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35 Int. Symposium on Mechanics and Materials, June 5 - 11, 2014, Greece