Failure Analysis on Leaf Spring of Dump Truck Using Experimental and Finite Element Methods

A failure in leaf spring usually causes a critical accident because of its importance in transport vehicles such as Dump Trucks. Therefore, this research aims to determine the cause of failure in the leaf spring of the Dump Truck suspension system using experimental and finite element methods. The experimental tests included visual observation of the fracture surface to determine the possibility of fracture or material failure based on the condition of the spring and an SEM test to observe the fracture surface condition of fractography. A hardness test was also carried out to adjust the properties of the spring material according to its standards, chemical composition test to determine the properties of steel, as well as microstructure test, which shows the structure contained in leaf springs. The stress and strain analyses were carried out by modeling components using Autodesk Inventor software. The finite element method analysis used FEMAP 2021.2 software on the maximum stress and strain received by the leaf spring. This was followed by calculating the stress intensity factor (KI) at several points at each end of the fracture. The average KI value obtained from the finite element method analysis was 101.3220059 MPa.m1/2, while the KIC value was 22 MPam1/2. This value met the requirements for fracture mechanics, namely KI ≥ KIC.