Springs

Principles of Mechanical
Engineering Design
Tutorial

Assist. Prof. D. Ganchev

 SPRINGS
Springs are elastic elements that are used mainly to create constantly acting
forces, accumulation of elastic deformation energy, vibroisolation, closing
kinematical loops and so many others. The most frequently encountered spring in
the machinery is helical thrust spring.

Helical compression spring (close coiled helical compression spring)

d ,  mm   spring wire diameter;

D,  mm   main diameter of the spring;
p,  mm   spring (helix) pitch;
l0 ,  mm   unloaded spring height;
f ,  mm   spring deformation;
n1 ,  working spring coils;
n2  1.5  2 ,  additional spring coils;
n  n1  n2 ,  total number of coils;
 Springs - Terminology
• k – spring rate
• C – spring index = Dm/Dw
• N – number of coils
• Na – number of active coils (careful Na may be
different from N – depends on end condition)
• p – pitch
• λ – pitch angle
• cc – coils clearance
• K – Wahl factor
• f – linear deflection
• G – shear modulus
•  – torsional shear stress
• o – stress under operation
• s – stress at solid length
• d – design stress
Springs - Ends
The ratio between the applied force to the spring and resulted spring deformation is:
F N
c  ,    spring rate
f m

Dimensionless parameter called index of the spring. This parameter

representing the ratio of the spring main diameter and spring wire diameter:

D
i ,  spring index
d
Low indices create difficulties in spring manufacturing process and in stress
concentrations induced by curvature. Springs in the index range 5    10
are preferred, while indices less than 3 are generally unrealizable. Table for
manufacturing preferable indexes is shown below.
d,
(mm) 1÷3 3÷6 7 ÷ 16
Spring index w/s spring wire diameter
i 12 ÷ 5 10 ÷ 4 8÷4
Problem: Design a helical thrust spring, loaded with static force F2 = 1 kN
at deformation f2 = 20 mm. The outside diameter should be smaller than
45 mm. Material all = 1650 MPa

d,
(mm) 1÷3 3÷6 7 ÷ 16
Spring index w/s spring wire diameter
i 12 ÷ 5 10 ÷ 4 8÷4

We assume spring index i = D/d = 6

8.k1.Fi .i
d d  5,873.10 3 m
 . all 
We select d=6,3mm
k1  1  1,45 / i  1  1,45 / 6  1,242
Check for outside diameter D1
Fi  1,15  1,25.F2  1,2.1000  1,2kN
 all   0,4. all  660MPa D1  d i  1  44,1mm < 45mm

Standard wire diameters:

d, (mm) 3,15 3,55 4,00 4,50 5,00 5,60 6,30 7,10 8,00 9,00
Number of working coils: Pitch of the spring:

f .G.d t  d  1,2. f max / n  0,5  6,3  1,2.20 / 6  0,5

n 2
8.k 2 .F2 .i 3 t  10,8mm
G  8.1010 Pa We assume t=11mm
k 2  1  3 16.i 2   0,995

The total length of the spring:

n  ?5,86
l0  n  1,5.t
We assume n=6
l0  82,5mm

Results: d=6,3mm
D=44,1mm
n=6
t=11mm
l0=82,5mm