• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.4 no.6
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• pp.229-235
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• 1996

The tapered leaf spring is regarded as the adequate tool to improve ride quality and to reduce vehicle weight of commercial vehicles. These effects are due to minimizing the contact area of each leaf by reducing the number of leaves and by optimizing the thickness profile of each leaf. But in adapting the tapered leaf spring to improve ride quality, we often have some problems of bad pitching and bouncing motion. This paper shows the basic properties of tapered leaf spring by rig tests and how to improve ride quality of a vehicle with tapered leaf springs, compared with multi-leaf spring. From the results of vehicle tests and rig tests it is concluded that the ride quality was effected by the dynamic spring rate and the friction of the tapered leaf spring.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.157-164
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• 2001

This paper performs static and dynamic tests of a multi-leaf spring and a tapered leaf spring to investigate their hysteretic characteristics. In the static test, trapezoidal input load is applied with 0.1Hz excitation frequency and with zero initial loading conditions. In the dynamic test, sinusoidal input load is applied with five excitation amplitudes and three excitation frequencies. In these tests, static and dynamic hysteretic characteristics of the multi-leaf spring and the tapered leaf spring are compared, and, the effects of excitation amplitudes and frequencies on dynamic spring rate are also shown. In this paper, actual vehicle tests are performed to study the effects of hysteretic characteristics of the large-sized truck's handling performance. The multi-leaf spring or the tapered leaf spring is used in the front suspension. The actual vehicle test is performed in a double lane change track with three velocities. Lateral acceleration, yaw rate and roll angle are measured using a gyro-meter located at the mass center of the cab. The test results showed that a large-sized truck with a tapered leaf spring needs to have an additional apparatus such as roll stabilizer bar to increase the roll stabilizer due to hysteretic characteristics.

• Journal of the korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.42-57
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• 1979

The behavior of the tepered leaf spring which nowadays is used on the automobile parts is studied to obtain the optimum design values by the stress analysis based on the tapered leaf spring model and the experiments to find the static stress, fatigue stress, and also car running stress. This study shows the clear conclusion of the stress distribution of spring assembly and dynamic behavior of the tapered leaf spring under the condition of the running rest at some conditioned roads.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.29 no.2 s.233
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• pp.270-276
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• 2005

This paper develops the flexible computational model of a heavy truck by interfacing the frame modeled as a flexible body to the heavy truck's computational model composed of rigid bodies. The frame is modeled by the finite element method. Three torsional modes and three bending modes of the frame are considered for the interface of the heavy truck's computational model. The actual vehicle test is conducted off road with a velocity of 20km/h. The vertical accelerations at the cab and front axle are measured in the test. For the verification of the developed computational model, the measured vertical acceleration profiles are compared with the simulation results of the heavy truck's flexible computational model. E grade irregular road profile of ISO is used as an excitation input in the simulation. The verified flexible computational model is used to compare the vibration characteristics of a front suspension system having a multi-leaf spring and that having a tapered leaf spring. The comparison results show that the front suspension having a tapered leaf spring has a higher vertical acceleration at the front axle but a lower vertical acceleration at the cab than the suspension system having a multi-leaf spring.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.8
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• pp.1276-1290
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• 1997

The previous elastic stiffness formulas of leaf type holddown spring assemblies(HDSs) have been corrected and extended to be able to consider the point of taper runout for the TT-HDS and all the strain energies for both the TT-HDS and the TW-HDS based on Euler beam theory and Castigliano'stheorem. The elastic stiffness sensitivity of the leaf type holddown spring assemblies was analyzed using the derived elastic stiffness formulas and their gradient vectors obtained from the mid-point formula. As a result of the sensitivity analysis, the elastic stiffness sensitivity at each design variable is quantified and design variables having remarkable sensitivity are identified. Among the design variables, leaf thickness is identified as that of having the most remarkable sensitivity of the elastic stiffness. In addition, it was found that the sensitivity of the leaf type HDS's elastic stiffness is exponentially correlated to the leaf thickness.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.583-593
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• 1996

An elastic stiffness formula of a leaf type holddown spring(HDS) assembly with a uniformly tapered width from $w_0$ to $w_14$ over the length, has been analytically derived based on Euler beam theory and Castigliano's theorem. Elastic stiffnesses of the tapered-width leaf type HDSs(TW-HDSs) designed in the same dimensional design spaces as the KOFA HDSs have been evaluated from the derived formula, in addition, a parametric study on the elastic stiffness of the TW-HDSs has been carried out. Analysis results show that, as the effects of axial and shear force on the elastic stiffness of He TW-HDSs have been 0.15~0.21% of the elastic stiffness, most of the elastic stiffness is attributed to the bending moment, and that elastic stiffnesses of the TW-HDSs have been about 32~33% higher than those of the KOFA HDSs. It is found that the number of leaves composing a HDS assembly could be lessened by one under the conditions that the TW-HDSs have been adopted in KOFA.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.2048-2055
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• 2001

This paper develops a computational model for estimating the ride quality of a cabover type large-sized truck in a double wheel bumpy ride test. The computational model is developed using ADAMS. To verify the developed model, an actual vehicle double wheel bumpy ride test is performed. In the test, the vehicle maintains a straight course with a constant velocity such that the front two wheels are passed the bump at the same time. The bump has the height of 60mm, and the width of 550mm. In the test, four velocities are used. They are 10kph, 20kph, 30kph and 40kph. Since the large-sized truck's center of gravity location is high, and its weight is heavy, it is a quite severe test condition to perform the test with more than 30kph velocity. In the test, vertical accelerations on the floor of the cab are measured. The measured accelerations are compared to the simulation results. From the comparison, it is shown that the developed model can predict not only the measured acceleration's tendency but also peak accelerations quite well. In this paper, the validated model is utilized to compare the ride quality between a vehicle with a multi-leaf spring and a vehicle with a tapered leaf spring in the front suspension system in a double bumpy ride test.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.180-187
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• 1997

A formula for estimating the elastic stiffness of TW-HDS with a uniformly tapered width from w$_{0}$ to w$_{1}$ over the length, has been analytically derived based on Euler beam theory and Castigliano's theorem. Elastic stiffnesses of the TW-HDSs designed in the same dimensional design spaces as the KOFA HDSs have been estimated from the derived formula, in addition, a sensitivity study on the elastic stiffness of the TW-HDSs has been carried out. Analysis results show that elastic stiffnesses of the TW-HDSs have been by far higher than those of the KOFA HDSs, and that, as the effects of axial and shear force on the elastic stiffness have been 0.15-0.21%, most of the elastic stiffness is attributed to the bending moment. As a result of sensitivity analysis, the elastic stiffness sensitivity at each design variable is quantified and design variables having remarkable sensitivity are identified. Among the design variables, leaf thickness is identified as that of having the most remarkable sensitivity of the elastic stiffness.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1996.11b
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• pp.487-493
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• 1996

판(leaf)의 너비가 일정하고 두께가 균일하게 감소하는 두께감소 홀다운스프링집합체(Tapered-Thickness Holddown spring Assembly ; TT-HDS)에서 단순 보 이론과 Castigliano의 정리를 이용하여 TT-HDS의 탄성강성도를 해석적으로 구할 수 있도록 종래에 유도되었던 탄성강성도 평가식을 수정하고 확장하였으며 TT-HDS의 기하학적 설계자료를 이용하여 탄성강성도를 평가하였다. 아울러 ANSYS code 의 접촉요소를 이용하여 TT-HDS을 유한요소 모델링하여 탄성강성도를 수치적으로 평가하였다. 평가 결과 전단력 및 축력이 TT-HDS의 탄성강성도에 미치는 영향은 약 0.09∼0.16%정도로서 TT-HDS의 탄성강성도는 주로 굽힘모우멘트에 의해 지배되고 있음이 확인되었다. 또한 접촉요소로 유한요소 모델링하여 평가한 결과는 확장된 평가식으로 평가한 탄성강성도와 매우 잘 일치하고 있음을 발견하였다.