Structural Analysis and Weight Optimization of Tapered Leaf Spring for Heavy Commercial Vehicles Using Taguchi Design Method
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67308/irjist.076Keywords:
Tapered Leaf Spring, Heavy Commercial Vehicle, Taguchi Method, ANOVA, Weight Optimization, EN-45 SteelAbstract
The leaf spring is a critical suspension component in heavy commercial vehicles, directly governing ride comfort, load distribution, and structural durability. Conventional multi-leaf springs are heavy, suffer from inter-leaf friction, and offer limited scope for fatigue-life optimization, motivating the transition toward parabolically tapered single-leaf configurations. This study investigates the structural performance and weight reduction potential of an EN-45 steel tapered leaf spring designed for a 7.5-ton-class commercial truck rear suspension. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed in ANSYS Workbench R23 and validated against analytical Euler–Bernoulli closed-form solutions within a deviation of 4.6 percent. The Taguchi L9 orthogonal array was employed to systematically vary four control factors camber, root thickness, leaf width, and material modulus across three levels each, with maximum von Mises stress and structural mass selected as response variables. Signal-to-noise (smaller-the-better) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) frameworks were applied to identify dominant factors and the optimum factor combination. Results demonstrate that leaf root thickness contributes 62.4 percent to the variance of maximum stress, followed by camber at 18.2 percent, leaf width at 9.7 percent, and material modulus at 3.1 percent. The optimum configuration delivers a 28.9 percent reduction in spring mass (from 19.4 kg to 13.8 kg), a 16.1 percent improvement in vertical stiffness, and a maximum von Mises stress of 421 MPa, well below the allowable limit of 588 MPa for EN-45 steel. A confirmation run yielded an S/N ratio improvement of 2.84 dB over the baseline. These findings establish the Taguchi method as a computationally efficient design framework for lightweight commercial-vehicle leaf springs, with direct implications for fuel economy and payload capacity in the Indian heavy-vehicle sector.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Harshwardhan D. Kamble, Prof. Vishal V. Chahare (Author)
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