In pursuit of offering the best driving comfort, heavy/ light commercial vehicle producers usually need to make serious optimizations on the design of leaf springs and natural frequency calculations in order to decrease the vibration and noise that have negative effects on the human body - especially severe on long road trips.
Leaf spring design parameters and natural frequency calculations provide a different approach to minimizing such negative effects on the driver.
In this study, design of the leaf spring, boundary conditions of which depend on vehicle, is examined virtually within the triangle of driving comfort by natural frequency, durability and stiffness. Besides the driving comfort, optimization work aimed at decreasing the vibration and noise factors are also determined through finite element methods.
Prototypes of leaf springs are produced and their natural frequency measurements, stress levels under maximum load through strain gauges as well as life tests are completed. Correlation of virtual values and experimental outputs are compared and reported. Furthermore, the positive effect of a damper piece located on the leaf spring at the natural-frequency related vibration is proven through both finite element methods and physical tests.