Modelo de un muelle de ballestas considerando la fricción entre hojas.

A finite element model of a real laminated spring under bending should include the phenomena of contact and friction between leaves, in order to obtain values of displacements, stresses, gap, etc. close to reality. Considering contact and friction leads to a non-linear problem, which must be solved using numerical methods (Newton-Raphson), resulting in a classic optimization problem with constraints. The success of solution depends strongly on boundary conditions and initial values. A strategy for determining penalty values in the case of a multi leaf bending problem is presented, allowing a good correspondence with real displacements. The non-linear behavior of the leaf spring suspension referred to spring rate is shown. The modal analysis also gave firsts natural frequencies in the usual span for trucks and semi-trailers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]