Numerical case study of the influence of dimensional variation of a semi-elliptic spring on the passive energy dissipation

In this work the parametric evaluation of the influence of the dimensional variation of the arc height of a leaf spring on the energy dissipation and deformation energy is presented. With the use of the finite element package Abaqus, the cyclic force-displacement curve of the leaf spring under a compression test was numerically obtained through a discrete model for four cases, by varying the arc height of the spring, subsequently the energy dissipation and the potential energy was calculated. The discrete model was experimentally validated by performing compression tests on a commercial spring. The obtained results show that varying the arc height influences the amount of energy dissipation and potential energy. It was observed that by decreasing the arc height by 33%, the energy dissipation increased by 50% and the potential energy by 3%, resulting in an increment in the specific damping capacity of 47% with respect to the original model. From the discrete model, it is concluded that the contact pressure, contact area, and slip zones are more uniformly distributed when the arc height is reduced by 33%, besides of a decrease in the mass of the spring, results which may be useful for car suspension designers.