Analysis of composite leaf springs

The aim of this study is to investigate bearing strength, failure mode, failure load of glassfiber-epoxy composite leaf spring with four circular holes which are subjected to tensileforce are investigated experimentally and numerically.Finite element analysis was used to study the behavior of joints and predict the failure loadand failure mode. The FE analyses were carried out using the FE system LUSAS 13.6version. The problem is defined materially linear and geometrically nonlinear. Hashinfailure criteria is used in the failure analysis. The analyses were performed as nonlinearload increment. The bi-directional glass fiber-epoxy composite leaf springs were producedand standard tests were performed to obtain mechanical properties. In order to find failureload and failure mode, a series of experiment were performed. The effects of bolt locationand fiber direction were studied by varying the width to diameter and edge distance todiameter ratios.