IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 3, Issue 03, 2015 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613 All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 717 Design Optimization of Leaf Spring Using Excel Solver Tool Harsh B Patel 1 Jayesh R koisha 2 Ramesh G Jivani 3 1,2,3 Department of Mechanical 1,2,3 B.V.M., New V.V.Nagar, Anand, Gujarat, India Abstract— Leaf springs are widely used in automobile suspension systems.The main aim of present work is to develop software for design of leaf spring. Leaf Spring is a critical load bearing element that connects wheel to the chassis in an automobile application. The Suspension leaf spring of one of the potential items for weight reduction in automobiles in order to achieve increased fuel efficiency and improved ride characteristics.Programming the computer to handle a design work involves the development of program in line with the design procedures, coding the instruction set with a high level programming language.Developed software was able to design leaf spring while varying so many loading conditions such as static load condition, bending load condition, various dimensions of spring steel bar. They found the optimized dimensions to withstand the loadings and right combination of width and thickness to spring length of various leaves to prevent excessive deflection. Keywords: Excel, Leaf Spring, weight reduction, design parameter I. INTRODUCTION In order to conserve natural resources and economize energy, weight reduction has been the main focus of automobile manufacturers in the present scenario. Weight reduction can be achieved primarily by the introduction of better material, design optimization and better manufacturing processes. The suspension leaf spring is one of the potential items for weight reduction in automobiles as it accounts for 10% - 20% of the unsprung weight. This achieves the vehicle with more fuel efficiency and improved riding qualities. II. LITERATURE SURVEY Rajendran, Vijayarangan [1] optimized a composite leaf spring using genetic algorithm & they found a weight saving of 23.4%. A seven-leaf spring was reduced to a mono-teat from 9.28 to 2.26 kg. MahmoodShokrieh, DavoodRezaei[2] analysed the composite leaf spring stresses, deflections and verified the existing analytical solutions. Composite leaf spring was designed and analysed using ANSYS. They suggested the design and thickness varying linearly from middle to the end. Sachin G. Wagle, Satish S. Oesai, S. B. Wadkar [3]design the parabolic leaf spring considering breaking, cornering and bump loads in addition to the vertical load. Microsoft Excel is used for design of parabolic leaf spring which directly gives the parameter for design. They suggestedthat there is not much difference in the values obtained by the design procedure and the SAE(Society of Automotive Engineer) procedure. M.L. Aggarwal [4] calculated fatigue strength of shot peened leaf springs from laboratory samples. The axial fatigue strength of EN45A spring steel specimen is evaluated experimentally as a function of shot peening in the conditions used for full-scale leaf springs testing in industries.They developed computer program for estimating weight reduction at various shot peening intensity. Ghodake A. P, Patil K.N [5] researched new material for leaf spring. Leaf spring was designed and analysed using ANSYS.They analysed the steel & composite leaf spring stresses, deflection and strain energy. They found that the composite leaf spring is lighter and more economical, more elastic strain energy storage capacity and high strength-to-weight ratio than the conventional steel spring. U. S. Ramakanth& K. Sowjanya [6] analysed of multi leaf springs of three different combinations by FEA static Analysis and also done fatique analysis of steel leaf spring. They found that cost of hybrid leaf spring is less compare to other leaf spring. Dipendra Kumar Roy and KashiNathSaha [7] analysed on large deformation of leaf spring systems, considering the effect of nonlinear material property variations.They found that concentrated loading produces maximum deflection followed by combined and uniform loading for all types of variation in material properties. MATLAB computational simulation is used for the final solution of the large displacement geometric nonlinear problem. FGM leaf springs are more economical than conventional leaf springs. Sean D’Silva, Sumit Jain [8] proposed the design of new type of leaf spring which has an integrated damper system. The new design is done using the Autodesk Inventor software and ANSYS software used for analysis. They found that the stress deformation is uniform and hence will have a longer life and more reliable. Leaf spring with the integrated dampers is more beneficial when it comes to reliability and performance. RiteshMistry, Vipul Dave &Nitesh[9] analysed the Mahindra Commander 650 DI Leaf spring of jeep. They found that when Jeep Takes Right turn Load Will Steady state between 0 to 50 sec. Loadwill decrease between 50 to 80 sec. Load will increase Between 80 to 100sec. When Jeep Takes Reverse Direction Load Will Steady State Between 0 to 30 sec. Load will be Decrease 30 to 60sec. Load will increase at 70 sec. Load Will decrease Between 80 to 100 sec. T.N.V.Ashok Kumar et al [10] design the leaf spring. They analysed the displacement, frequencies, deflections and