Leaf spring is a suspension system for vehicles that were used in the old days. Originally, they were called carriage or laminated springs. This system was successful and genuine, used primarily on almost all vehicles until the 1970s and still on trucks and vans that carry heavy loads.
The spring leaf consists of an arched, slender piece of steel that is arranged in the same material in smaller sizes and combined together to form a reinforced arc-like element. It is then attached to the rear axle, and the chassis provides an additional weight that is added to the vehicle, preventing the axle from buckling and braking from a very high mass that was not originally designed to carry.
The general purpose of the leaf spring is to …show more content…
The second leaf spring from the top is found to be broken. The subject vehicle is used by a car spare parts dealer for the transportation of spare parts from his ware house to the show room which is around 6 km from each other. The leaf spring has been found to be broken within the usual routine of the vehicle. From the owner, we also got to know that the subject vehicle is used only for this purpose. So, we assumed that the failure of the leaf spring took place somewhere within its usual route. When examining the external factors, we found that the vehicle crosses a railway crossing on its path. And also, it’s found that the shock absorber of the broken side of the vehicle is also worn out. And during the time of failing the vehicle was carrying a weight of three Toyota 2L-TE engines, 3 average radiators, one diesel pump and a power steering pump. The approximate load was found to be around …show more content…
Figure 2
2.1 Reason of failure.
The function of the leaf spring is to create a spring effect between the vehicle and the axle. During the springing oscillation, the total load will be applied on the leaf spring. Since the weight of the cargo is over the limit given by the manufacturer and the life time of the leaf spring is quite a long, it was assumed that the failure was occur due to overload weight.
3 Analysis procedure
3.1 Visual Observation
The disassembled leaf spring was carefully observed with the naked eye to determine any failure problems. Prior to testing, it was found that pre-fracture was considered important, so a visual test was performed. During visual observation, both the fracture surface and the angle were taken into account.
Figure