Failure behavior of FRP composites is a quiet complex phenomenon and fundamentally different from conventional isotropic materials. The tailor design capabilities of composite materials provide a large scope for replacing metallic materials for weight reduction applications. The realization of mechanical properties of composite materials from theoretical estimations is a very difficult task, as mechanical properties of composite laminates are influenced by various manufacturing techniques, i.e. the manufacturing critical parameters such as pressure involved in compacting the laminate, resin (matrix curing characteristics), curing environment, wettability, and post curing operations. One such application has been identified in this work, to propose a better design of a low weight, high strength leaf spring. The leaf spring design is done with help of stiffness calculations. The laminate properties used in this design are derived from laminate design software made by the authors. The design has been analyzed by implementing FEM software to carbon-epoxy composite. This work provides an approach to improve the design of the component which is subjected to cyclic loading (forced vibrations) and response has been considered as an important design parameter. The harmonic responses to forced vibrations are analyzed by implementing ANSYS 10.0 to the present problem. In this work it has been observed that the modulus of the material, geometrical shape (thickness of the laminate which influences the moment of inertia) and volume fraction of the components in the composite are influencing the resonance frequency. In view of exploring the significant factor to be considered for design optimization process, statistical tools have been used. This explicit paper publishes the comprehensive discussion and test results of harmonic analysis of various designs that are considered in this work of both carbon-epoxy and glass-epoxy as the carbon-epoxy material is not within the scope of the laboratory the glass-epoxy composite laminate is prepared for analytical testing.
glass fiber reinforced plastic, hand lay up, stacking the lamina manually, harmonic response
