• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.1127-1132
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• 2003

Suspension system of vehicle have enough endurance during its life time to protect passenger. Spring is one of major part of vehicle. Thus, a fatigue strength evaluation for leaf spring based on road load response was carried out. At first, strain of leaf spring is measured on the city condition and proving ground condition. And next, the damage analysis of road load response data was carried out. And fatigue test of leaf spring were also carried out. Based on -N life relation, fatigue life of leaf spring was evaluated at belgian mode, city mode and drawing test specification. After that, it is compared the design life of leaf spring and evaluated fatigue life by belgian mode, city mode and drawing test specification. From the above, the maximum load-fatigue life relation of leaf spring was defined by test. and new test target of belgian mode and city mode was proposed to accept design specification of leaf spring. It is expect that proposed test target can verify leaf spring fatigue endurance at specific road condition.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.413-419
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• 2000

An efficient method for calculating the nonlinear stiffness of the Progressive Multi-Leaf Spring is developed and evaluated. It utilizes the interaction between the main and help spring that induces the nonlinearity. The main and the help springs are modeled as multi-leaf cantilever beams, and, then, they are integrated as one by connecting the two models for each side of the Progressive Multi-Leaf Spring at the center-bolt. The results from the developed model are evaluated by use of the commercial FEA program, ABAQUS. The nonlinear spring coefficients calculated by FEM analysis yield the numbers very close to the numbers calculated for the spring coefficients by used of the developed method. From the comparative evaluations, the developed method is accurate enough and very efficient in calculation time for evaluating the nonlinear spring property of the Progressive Multi-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 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.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.563-573
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• 1996

Macroinvertebrate contribution to the leaf litter breakdown of Carpinus cordata was estimated at headwater streams at Mt. Jumbong (38°03'N, 128°25'E) during spring and winter spring by using two types of litter bag. Coarse-mesh bags with 10 g of leaf letter were placed in a 1st-order stream in April (the spring experiment) and December 1995 (the winter-spring experiment). Fine-mesh bags with 5 g of leaf letter were placed in a nearby 3ed-order steam. The breakdown of Carpinus in coarse-mesh bags was rapid, and, in terms of season, leaf litter processed rapidly during spring. daily mass loss rates of leaf litter (-k±1 SE) were highest for coarse-mesh bags in the spring experiment (-0.0429±0.0048), followed by coarse-mesh bags in the winter-spring (-0.0146±0.0014), fine-mesh bags in the spring (-0.0078±0.0004), fine-mesh bags in the winter-spring experiment (-0.0054±0.0005). Macroinvertebrate contribution to the litter breakdown was estimated by the difference of % leaf letter remaining between coarse -mesh bage and fine-mesh bags. Although shredders were more abundant during the winter-spring, their contribution was greater during the spring (50%) than the winter-spring (22∼33%). This result appeared to be due to the change in the chemical composition of leaf letter during processing, and to the seasonal growth patterns of major shredder taxa.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.620-623
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• 2000

The leaf spring is generally used effectively in load supporting because it has tension-diffused function in comparison with other springs. Nowadays the leaf spring is used widely in the suspensions of automobile and trains. The stiffness and the damping characteristics of the leaf spring being essential for the performance of vehicles, the exact evaluation is required. Various approximate formula are normally used for the leaf spring design. however, accuracy and trust are decreased because the contact and frictional characteristics between leaf plates are generally neglected. In this paper, nonlinear stiffness matrix of the leaf spring is solved by contact-element applying FEM for considering the contact and frictional characteristics between leaf plates. The results of proposed FE model are compared with test data.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2000

This paper describes that the leaf spring damper (LSD) developed by authors can be controled by side clearance between side covers and leaf springs. The test rig and two prototype dampers with different side clearance were manufactured. Experiments were performed to investigate the effects of side clearance on the damping of the leaf spring damper. The stiffness and damping coefficients are obtained from the displacements and the reaction forces generated by rotating the eccentric shaft. All dynamic coefficients are plotted with the excitation frequency which is adjusted by rotating speed of the shaft.

• 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.