Introduction

Leaf Springs are widely used in the automobile and railway industries for suspension
applications. The simplest variation is the single beam spring. The more normal application is the
laminated multiple leaf spring which provides a more efficient stress distribution.
Leaf Springs have the following characteristics.

They are suitable for low and medium load forces

They have reasonably linear working characteristics
They have relatively low spring constant
They are long items with relatively low cross section
They are relatively low cost items

Design of Leaf Spring

Failures in Leaf Springs

Leaf Springs and common causes of failure.
Ever have a leaf spring crack, become fatigued or break and wonder what the cause is? We will
take a look at a few common reasons why leaf springs fail.
Loose U-Bolts
The image below shows center bolt failure due to a truck spring not having tight enough ubolts. U-bolts, especially on newly installed truck springs should be checked periodically to
verify they are tight. Even if you have a professional installer install springs on your truck, you
should stop by after 500 miles and have your u-bolts inspected to make sure they didn't come
loose.

Corrosion and Fatigue

Corrosion and fatigue are typically caused by a combination of time and the elements. Numerous
variables will weigh on how long your leaf spring will last before it suffers from corrosion or
fatigue. How much weight you haul, what part of the country you live in, etc. will play a role in
the life of your springs. Making sure salt and other corrosive materials are washed off and not
overloading your truck will help prevent corrosion and early spring fatigue.

Overloading Your Truck Springs

Everyone says they never do it , but we see it all the time. Overloading is pretty self-explanatory.
You have more weight in the back of your truck or you are towing a load heavier than what your
truck is rated at. We all love to do it, but the negative effect on your truck springs is unavoidable.
On the left image below you can see the radial shear marks from an overloaded spring. The
image on the right shows distortion of the spring eye from overloading.

How do you prevent overloading your truck springs? Obviously you could carry less weight or
purchase a truck with a higher weight rating. If buying a new truck or hauling less weight is not
an option, you could add an overload kit like a Firestone Air Spring kit, Hellwig Helper springs
or a Air Lift Air Spring kit. Overload kits are designed to take some of the weight off the leaf
springs and place it onto the overload kit.

Another option that is more popular with commercial vehicles it to add another piece of steel to
the spring pack. This may cause the ride to be stiffer, but if you are always hauling heavier loads
in a commercial setting this may be your best bet.
We do not recommend adding a new piece of steel to leaf springs that already suffer from
fatigue. You are better off replacing both of your truck springs with new ones with a higher
weight rating. It's very common that we will have someone only want to replace one busted leaf
in a spring pack and a few months later a different leaf breaks. If one has cracked, the others are
probably in the same condition and will not last much longer.
Weld Splatter
Weld splatter is more common in commercial trucks and vans that come from the factory without
a bed or on motorhome leaf springs . This is caused by welding a body or accessories to your
truck in the same area as your leaf springs. Just a small amount of weld spatter can be disastrous
to the life of your spring. About the only way to prevent this is to inspect your springs after and
make sure no one was careless with the welder.

Above are a few common reasons why leaf springs fail. There are other manufacturing reasons
such as quench cracks, tight eyes, notches, incorrect temperatures, etc. that can cause failure.
With today's modern, high-tech manufacturing processes and quality control, they are not nearly
as commons as they were in the past.
Leaf Spring Failure Analysis
Factors influencing fatigue life:
Overloading

The higher the loads or deflections seen by a spring, the lower its fatigue life.

Shock Absorbers

A properly functioning shock absorber will tend to reduce the spring deflection as the
vehicle hits a bump. Lower spring deflections mean lower operating stresses on the
spring which in turn gives longer fatigue life. This is especially true for full taper springs
which do not have the high interleaf friction to help dampen spring deflections. Worn or
missing shock absorbers must be replaced to maximize spring life.

Brake Adjustments

Improperly adjusted brakes can also reduce spring life. Under braking, springs are
expected to absorb some of the braking forces. If the brakes on an axle are unevenly

adjusted one spring will have to absorb more than its share of braking force which can
reduce its fatigue life.
Protective Coatings

Corrosion is one of the major factors in reducing spring life. Proper paints and care
during handling and installation can help to slow the spread of spring corrosion. On full
taper springs the only acceptable coating is the individual painting of each leaf with zincrich paint. This paint may be recognized by its characteristic gray color.

Surface Condition

The condition of the spring surface also has an effect on fatigue life. Generally, a fatigue
crack will start at some sort of surface defect on the spring leaf. Therefore, care needs to
be used when manufacturing and installing springs to reduce these defects to a minimum.

Shot Peening

Extensive testing indicates that shot peening can increase the life of springs by a factor of
three or more. It is not enough, however, to simply shot peen the first one or two leaves in
an assembly-all leaves must be shot peened. All major vehicle manufacturers specify
that their OEM springs have each leaf shot peened.

Decarburization and Steel Quality

Improper manufacturing methods can also reduce fatigue life. For example, poorly
controlled heat-treat furnaces can excessively decarburize the leaf surface.
Decarburization is the loss of carbon from the steel surface which will result in a soft leaf
surface once heat-treating is complete. This soft layer will not be able to handle the
spring stresses and will lead to early failure. Poor steel quality can also influence spring
life. If the steel has excessive impurities in it, the fatigue life will be reduced.

Maintenance

Finally, improper maintenance will affect spring life.

Spring eyes and other suspension components should be regularly greased to prevent
binding.

U-bolts should never be reused.

Axle seats, top plates and other components should be periodically inspected and
replaced as required.

Spring failures may be categorized into three types :

Early Life Failures

These type of failures occur generally due to a spring defect, installation problem or
overload. This may be due to the material used, the manufacturing processes or improper
installation techniques. This type of failure may also be caused by a short-term overload
condition.

Midlife Failures

Once the spring has passed the time in service which would expose early life failures, a
very low failure rate should be observed, assuming the spring is subjected to normal
service.

Late Life Failures

At this point, the frequency of spring failures will tend to increase rapidly as the useful
life of the spring has been reached. By this time the spring steel has been fatigued and
corroded to a point where its useful life is over.

Failures occurring in early and midlife of the spring are usually most economically handled by
repairing the broken leaf rather than replacing the spring. Failures in older springs occur at a
point when all leaves have reached their fatigue life the spring should now be replaced. The
difficulty, of course, is determining what type of failure the spring has experienced. Basically, the
condition of the spring, as well as its service history, will indicate if the spring should be repaired
or replaced.
When To Repair

If the spring has not been repaired or repaired only once. Stamping a 1 in the clip for the
first repair and a 2 for a second repair will help identify the number of previous repairs.

If the spring mileage is less than half of normal life.

If the repair cost is less than 1/2 the cost of a new spring.

If no more than two or three leaves are broken.

If the failure is not of a fatigue type. For example, a leaf broken through the center hole is
caused by improper spring clamping brought on by loose U-bolts or worn axle seats, not
fatigue. This spring should be repaired, if possible, and the cause of failure corrected.

Even when it appears to make sense to repair, the following should be kept in mind :

Repair leaves are usually not shot peened and must often be heavily hand-fit to match the
old spring. Therefore, the repair leaf will not be as durable as a leaf in a new spring
would be.

Since the remaining leaves have lost some of their strength, the replaced leaves will be
carrying more of the load than they were originally designed for.

When the leaves first broke the remaining leaves in the spring had to carry more load and
were probably overstressed.

Replacing the broken leaves does nothing to restore the fatigue life of the reused leaves.
These leaves will continue to fail since their fatigue life is essentially over.

When To Replace

The spring has already been repaired once or, at most, twice.

The spring service mileage has exceeded 1/2 its normal life.

The repair cost exceeds 1/2 the cost of a new spring.

More than two or three leaves are broken.

If small fatigue cracks can be seen running across the leaf width near the U-bolts on the
unbroken leaves.

If the leaf tips have separated away from the leaf above.

Never attempt to repair a full taper spring.

Mechanical Failure of Materials

The usual causes of mechanical failure in the component or system are:
Misuse or abuse
Assembly errors
Manufacturing defects
Improper or inadequate maintenance
Design errors or design deficiencies
Improper material or poor selection of materials
Improper heat treatments
Unforeseen operating conditions
Inadequate quality assurance
Inadequate environmental protection/control
Casting discontinuities.

The general types of mechanical failure include:

Failure by fracture due to static overload, the fracture being either brittle or ductile.
Buckling in columns due to compressive overloading.

 Yield under static loading which then leads to misalignment or overloading.

Failure due to impact loading or thermal shock.
Failure by fatigue fracture.
Creep failure due to low strain rate at high temperature.
Failure due to the combined effects of stress and corrosion.
Failure due to excessive wear.

Failure Due to Fracture

Fracture is described in various ways depending on the behavior of material under stress upon
the mechanism of fracture or even its appearance.
Ductile Fracture
Ductile fracture is characterized by tearing of metal and significant plastic deformation. The
ductile fracture may have a gray, fibrous appearance. Ductile fractures are associated with
overload of the structure or large discontinuities. This type of fracture occurs due to error in
design, incorrect selection of materials, improper manufacturing technique and/or handling.
Brittle Fracture
Brittle fracture is characterized by rapid crack propagation with low energy release and without
significant plastic deformation. Brittle metals experience little or no plastic deformation prior to
fracture. The fracture may have a bright granular appearance. The fractures are generally of the
flat type and chevron patterns may be present. Materials imperfection, sharp corner or notches in
the component, fatigue crack etc.
Ductile-to-Brittle Transition
The temperature at which the component works is one of the most important factors that
influence the nature of the fracture.

Factors Affecting the Fracture of a Material

The main factors those affect the fracture of a material are:
Stress concentration
Speed of loading
Temperature
Thermal shock.

Stress Concentration
In order to break a small piece of material, one way is to make a small notch in the surface of the
material and then apply a force. The presence of a notch, or any sudden change in section of a
piece of material, can vary significantly change the stress at which fracture occurs. The notch or
sudden change in section produces what are called stress concentrations.
A crack in a brittle material will have quite a pointed tip and hence a small radius. Such a crack
thus produces a large increase in stress at its tip. One way of arresting the progress of such a
crack is to drill a hole at the end of the crack to increase its radius and so reduce the stress
concentration.
A crack in a ductile material is less likely to lead to failure than in a brittle material because a
high stress concentration at the end of a notch leads to plastic flow and so an increase in the
radius of the tip of the notch. The result is then a decrease in the stress concentration.
Speed of Loading
Another factor which can affect the fracture of a material is the speed of loading. A sudden blow
to the material may lead to fracture where the same stress applied more slowly would not. With a
very high rate of application of stress there may be insufficient time for plastic deformation of a
material to occur under normal conditions, a ductile material will behave in a brittle manner.
Temperature
The temperature of a material can affect its behavior when subject to stress. Many metals which
are ductile at high temperatures are brittle at low temperatures. For example, steel may behave as
a ductile material above, say, 0 _C but below that temperature it becomes brittle. The ductile
brittle transition temperature is thus of importance in determining how a material will behave in
service.
Failure Due to Fatigue
Metal fatigue is caused by repeated cycling of the load. It is a progressive localized damage due
to fluctuating stresses and strains on the material. Metal fatigue cracks initiate and propagate in
regions where the strain is most severe. SN curve for the fatigue strength of a metal.
The process of fatigue consists of three stages:
Initial crack formation
Progressive crack growth across the part
Final but sudden fracture of the remaining cross section.
Prevention of Fatigue Failure
The most effective method of improving fatigue performance is improvements in design. The
following design guideline is effective in controlling or preventing fatigue failure
Eliminate or reduce stress raisers by streamlining the part or component.
Avoid sharp surface tears resulting from punching, stamping, shearing, or other processes.
Prevent the development of surface discontinuities during processing.
Reduce or eliminate tensile residual stresses caused by manufacturing.
Improve the details of fabrication and fastening procedures.

Failure Due to Corrosion

Corrosion of metallic materials occurs in a number of forms which differ in appearance. Failure
due to corrosion is a major safety and economic concern.
Several types of corrosion are
General corrosion, galvanic corrosion, crevice corrosion, pitting, intergranular, stress corrosion
etc. This can be controlled using galvanic protection, corrosion inhibitors, materials selection,
protective coating and observing some design rules.
Corrosion is chemically induced damage to a material that results in deterioration of the material
and its properties. This may result in failure of the component.
Several factors should be considered during a failure analysis to determine the effect of corrosion
in a failure. Examples are listed below:
Type of corrosion
Corrosion rate
The extent of the corrosion
Interaction between corrosion and other failure mechanisms.
Material of Leaf Spring