• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.215-222
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• 1993

A general method is proposed for stiffness analysis of the leaf springs only using the geometric data and Young's modulus of the leaf springs. In this method, an engineering beam theory and Castigliano's theory are applied for the derivation of the stiffness of the leaf springs. To show realiability and effectiveness of this method, the stiffness from the proposed method is compared with the results for various types of leaf springs. From these comparisons the proposed method has been proved to be effective and reliable to estimate the stiffness of the leaf springs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.88-97
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• 1995

The leaf spring is used in the suspension of most buses and trucks due to its compactness, which reduces the shock-force and the vibration from the road, and increases passenger comfortability and carlife. Of the various kinds of leaf springs, the leaf spring without eyes can be found easily in the heavy duty truck, and has different characteristics to the leaf spring with eyes in the case of large free camber. Because of radius change, the leaf without eyes slips on the supports, which makes the deflection. The difference is due to this deflection. In this paper, we show the general method of characteristic analysis, for example, Pandan method, can be no more applicable to these springs. Thus considering the geometry deflection by slip, we have developed the equation of the characteristic of the leaf spring without eyes and prove the effectiveness of this equation by experiment. From the result, at large camber the slip deflection is large and as camber smaller, this is smaller. At the camber behind some value, the effect of slip no longer influence to the characteristic of leaf springs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.82-91
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• 1995

Many kind of springs are used in the suspension of automotive vehicles and among these the leaf spring and the air spring are included. These two springs have not been generally used together in one suspension, but recently the automotive models which use these two springs together increase. This reason is due to the merit of the combination of two type springs. The merits are two. One is the character of air spring, that is, the natural frequen- cy of system is constant in spite of variable weight. The other is the character of leaf spring, that is, the suspension mechanism is simple. The combination spring is used in medium size and special purpose bus. In this paper, we formulate the condition which the leaf spring must satisfy to be optimal design in the combination spring. And experiment is performed to prove the theory. The results are that the combination spring is better than leaf spring in the ride, and that the purposed theory is good for the combination spring design.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.760-766
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• 1995

A general method is proposed for elastic stiffness analysis of the leaf type holddown springs using only the geometric data and Young's modulus of the springs. In this method, an engineering beam theory and Castigliano's theory are applied to elastic stiff analysis of the leaf type holddown springs. To show reliability and effectiveness of this method, the elastic stiffness from the proposed method is compared with test result and from the comparison, the unposed method has been proven to be effective for estimating the elastic stiffness of the leaf springs.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2008

Multi-leaf springs are widely used for a major suspension component in many commercial vehicles. The modeling technique of multi-leaf springs is one of the most difficult problems in suspension modeling as the elements have complicated nonlinear characteristics such as a hysteresis behavior due to the friction. In this paper, hysteretic characteristics with the static and dynamic test are modeled and are simulated with three links and joints in MSC.ADAMS. Simulation results showed good agreements with test results. Using this methodology, it is expected that dynamic characteristics of suspension system with multi-leaf spring can be more accurately evaluated in vehicle dynamics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.842-846
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• 1996

Leaf springs are widely used as a major suspension component in many commercial vehicles, such as buses, trucks, etc. They have a complex dynamic behavior due to the geometric nonlinear and the contact mechanism between the leaves. The interface conditions between the leaves play a significant role in the global behavior of the comfort and ride of the vehicle system. The paper concentrates on modeling leaf springs and contact frictions between the leaves using a nonlinear finite element approach. A nonlinear load-displacement hysteresis curve for the leaf spring is simulated and its results are compared with test results.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.389-392
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• 2006

In this letter, a laterally-driven bistable electromagnetic microrelay is designed, fabricated, and tested. The proposed microrelay consists of a pair of arch-shaped leaf springs, a shuttle, and a contact bar made from silicon, low temperature oxide (LTO), and gold composite materials. Silicon-on-insulator wafers are used for electrical isolation and releasing of the moving microstructures. The high-aspect-ratio microstructures are fabricated using a deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process. The tandem-typed leaf springs with a silicon/gold composite layer enhance the mechanical performances while reducing the electrical resistance. A permanent magnet is attached at the bottom of the silicon substrate, resulting in the generation of an external magnetic field in the direction vertical to the surface of the silicon substrate. The leaf springs show bistable characteristics. The resistance of the pair of leaf springs was $7.5\;{\Omega}$, and the contact resistance was $7.7\;{\Omega}$. The relay was operated at ${\pm}0.12\;V$.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.19
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• pp.31-42
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• 1999

This paper presents a method for evaluating the performance of a leaf spring suspension and an air spring suspension systems for trucks in terms of ride and handling. Leaf springs, which generally have non-linear progressive force-deflection characteristics, are modeled using beam and contact elements. The leaf spring analysis model shows good correlation with experimental results. Each component of an air spring suspension system, which is a single leaf, air spring, height control valve, compressor and linkages, is modeled appropriately. Non-linear characteristics of air spring are accounted for using the measured data, and pressure and volume relations for height control system is also considered. The wheel rate of the air suspension is taken lower but roll stiffness is taken higher than those of leaf springs to improve ride and handling performance, which is verified through driving simulations.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.636-642
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• 2000

A method for reducing the contact noise of the Progressive Multi-Leaf Spring was investigated. It was found that the contact noise between the main and the help springs is the main source of the noise through our experiments. The conclusions from our experiments were compared with those from our numerical analysis by use of ABAQUS. The main parameters for the unexpected noise in the leaf spring were investigated through structural analysis to make describing noise generation. The contact process between the two leaves is examined by numerical calculations by ABAQUS. The noise produced by the leaf spring could be dramatically reduced by changing the shape of help spring so as to remove a translational jump of the contact point between the main and the help springs. Even with the help spring of the new proposed shape the stiffness of the whole spring did not change much.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.147-153
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• 2004

This paper presents an analytical modeling technique fer representing a hysteretic behavior of a multi-leaf spring used for a large truck. It divides a nonlinear hysteretic curve of the multi-leaf spring into four parts; loading part, unloading part and two transition parts. It provides conditions fur branching to a part of the curve corresponding to a current multi-leaf spring status. This paper also presents a computational modeling technique of the multi-leaf spring. It models the multi-leaf spring with three links and a shackle. It assumes those components as rigid bodies. The links are connected by rotational joints, and have rotational springs at the joints. The spring constants of the rotational springs are computed with a force from the analytical model of the hysteretic curve of the multi-leaf spring. Static and dynamic tests are performed to verify the reliability of the presented techniques. The tests are performed with various amplitudes and excitation frequencies. The hysteretic curves from the tests are compared with those from the simulations. Since th e presented techniques reproduce the hysteretic characteristic of the multi -leaf spring faithfully, they contribute on improving the reliability of the computational model of a large truck.