Mechanical Springs

Configurations of Springs.
Stresses in Helical Springs.
Helical Compression Spring Design for Static Service.
Critical Frequency of Helical Springs.
Fatigue Loading of Helical Compression Springs.

Springs Parts made in particular configurations to provide a range of

force over a significant deflection and/or to store potential energy. Springs
designed to provide a push, a pull, or a twist force (torque), or to primarily
store energy.

 Torsion Bar Springs

The basic stress, angular deflection and spring rate equations are:
T r

TL

JG

JG
L

For a solid round rod of diameter d, these become:

16T
3
d

32TL
4
d G

d 4G
32 L

E
2(1 )

 Configurations of Springs
Springs can be categorized in different ways: based on load types or by the
springs physical configuration.

Figures below (a i) show selection of spring configurations

(a) Helical compression springs, Push-wide load & deflection range-round or

rectangular wire. Standard has constant coil diameter, pitch, and rate. Barrel, hourglass,
and variable-pitch springs are used to minimize resonant surging and vibration. Conical
springs can be made with minimum solid height and with constant or increasing rate.

(b) Helical extension springs.

Pull-wide load and deflection
range-round or rectangular
wire, constant rate.

(c) Drawbar springs. Pull-uses

compression
spring
and
drawbars to provide extension
pull with fail-safe, positive
stop.

(d) Torsion springs. Twistround or rectangular wireconstant rate.

 Configurations of Springs

(e) Spring washers. Push-Belleville has high loads and low deflectionschoice of rates
(constant, increasing, or decreasing). Wave has light loads, low deflection, uses limited
radial space. Slotted has higher deflections than Belleville. Finger is used for axial
loading of bearings. Curved is used to absorb axial end play.

(f) Volute spring. Pushmay have an inherently

high friction damping.

(g) Beam springs. Push or Pull-wide

load but low deflection rangerectangular or shaped cantilever or
simply supported.

 Configurations of Springs

(h) Power or motor springs. Twistexerts torque over many turns. Shown
in and removed from retainer.

(i) Constant Force. Pull-long deflection

at low or zero rate.

 Configurations of Springs

 Helical Compression Spring (HCS)

Sample springs and dimensional parameters for a standard helical compression
spring are shown,
d = the wire diameter.
D = the mean coil diameter.
i = the inside diameter of the coil.
o = the outside diameter of the coil.
Lf = the free length of the spring the
overall length under unloaded condition.
P = the coil pitch.
Nt = the number of coils.

o Spring Lengths
Compression springs have several lengths and deflections as shown in the next Figure:

o Spring Lengths

o Active Coils

Various Lengths of a Helical Compression Spring in Use.

The total number of coils Nt may or may not contribute actively to the springs deflection,
depending on the end treatment. The number of active coils Na is needed for calculation
purposes. Four Styles of End-Coil Treatments for Helical Compression Springs are:

o Active Coils
a. The four types of ends generally used for compression springs are also
illustrated in the Figure,

b. Table 101 shows how the type of end used affects the number of coils and the
spring length.

o Stability of HCSs End Condition & Buckling of Compression Springs

As with solid columns, the end constraints of the spring affect its tendency to
buckle.
the condition for absolute stability is:

the end-condition constant depends upon

how the ends of the spring are supported.

Nonparallel ends.

Parallel ends.

o Spring Materials
Ideal spring material: high ultimate strength, high yield point, low E (to
provide maximum energy storage).
For dynamically loaded springs, the fatigue strength properties of material
are important.
High strength and yield points: Carbon alloys & steels.
Spring wire: round wire is the most common spring material.
Descriptions of the most commonly used steels will be found in Table 103.
Spring materials may be compared by examination of their tensile strength.
Wire size, materials and its processing have an effect on tensile strength.
Tensile strength vs. wire diameter almost straight line when plotted on loglog papers.
A: intercept and m: slope can be found from Table 10-4.

Torsional yield strength: 0.35Sut Ssy 0.52Sut .

o Spring Materials

o Spring Materials

o Spring Index
The spring index C is the ratio of coil diameter D to wire diameter d,
4 12

C < 4, the spring is difficult to manufacture,

at C > 12 prone to buckling and tangles easily when handled in bulk.

o Spring Deflection

A simplified model of this loading, neglecting the

curvature of the wire, is a torsion bar

A HCS is a torsion bar wrapped into a helical form. The

deflection (y) of a round-wire HCS is:
Forces & Torques on
the Coils of a HCS.

G: shear modulus of the material.

o Spring Rates
It is the slope of force-deflection curve of the spring. If the slop is constant, it is a
linear spring and can be defined as =/.
The equation for spring rate (K) is found by rearranging the deflection equation:

The first & last few percent of its deflection have a

nonlinear rate. The spring rate K should be defined
between about 15% and 85% of its total deflection and
its working deflection range La Lm kept in that region.
La (assembly) & Lm (minimum working).
when multiple springs are combined, the resulting spring rate depends on whether they
are combined in series or parallel.

o Spring Rates
1. Series combinations

2. Parallel combinations

have the same force passing

through all springs and each
contributes a part of the total
deflection.

all springs have the same

deflection and the total force splits
among the individual springs.

 Stresses in Helical Compression Spring Coils

The F.B.D. below shows two components of stress on any cross section of a coil: a
torsional shear stress from the torque T and a direct shear stress due to the force F.
These two shear stresses have the distributions across the
section as shown:

We can substitute the expression for spring index C:

where Ks is a shear-stress correction factor

 Stresses in Helical Compression Spring Coils The Curvature Effect

o The previous equations are based on the wire being straight. The curvature
of the wire increases the stress of the inside of the spring.
Torsional stress in straight vs. curved torsional bars (note
the increased stress on the inside surface of the curved
bar.)
Wahl determined the stress-concentration factor for round
wire and defined a factor Kw (Wahl Factor) which includes
both direct shear effects & stress concentration due to
curvature (valid for round wire with C 1.2).

The combined stresses direct shear effects & stress concentration

 Stresses in Helical Compression Spring Coils The Curvature Effect

The Wahl Factor (Kw ):
or
The Bergstrsser Factor (KB):

They differ by less than 1%.

The curvature correction factor can now be obtained by:

 Helical Compression Spring Design for Static Service

Preferred range of spring index is 4 C 12, with the lower indexes
being more difficult to form (because of the danger of surface
cracking a donut) and springs with higher indexes tending to tangle
often enough to require individual packing.
The recommended range of active turns is 3 Na 15.
Maximum operating force should be limited to [Fmax 7/8 Fs].
Defining the fractional overrun to closure as (robust linearity),
where:

it is recommended (design condition) that 0.15.

Also, ns is the factor of safety at closure (solid height), ns 1.2.

Spring design is an open-ended process. There are many decisions to

be made, and many possible solution paths as well as solutions.

 Helical Compression Spring Design for Static Service

Design Strategy

 Helical Compression Spring Design for Static Service

Design Strategy

o Example 10.2

A music wire helical compression spring is needed to support an 89 N load

after being compressed 50.8 mm. Because of assembly considerations the
solid height cannot exceed 25.4 mm and the free length cannot be more than
101.6 mm. Design the spring.
o Solution: The a priori decisions are
1. Music wire, A228; from Table 104, A = 2211 MPa-mmm; m = 0.145;
from Table 105, E = 196.5 MPa, G = 81 GPa (expecting d > 1.61 mm).
2. Ends squared and ground.
3. Function: Fmax = 89 N, ymax = 50.8 mm.
4. Safety: use design factor at solid height of (ns)d = 1.2.
5. Robust linearity: = 0.15.
6. Use as-wound spring (cheaper), Ssy = 0.45S ut from Table 106.
7. Decision variable: d = 2.03 mm, music wire gage #30, Table A28.

 Critical Frequency of Helical Springs

Designer must be certain that the physical dimensions of the spring are not
such as to create a natural vibratory frequency close to the frequency of the
applied force; otherwise, resonance may result in damaging stresses.
The governing equation for the translational vibration of a spring is the wave
equation,
k = spring rate.
g = acceleration due to gravity.
l = length of spring.
W = weight of spring.
x = coordinate along length of spring.
u = motion of any particle at distance x.

The harmonic, natural, frequencies for a spring placed between two flat and
parallel plates, in radians per second, are:
= 2f

where the fundamental frequency is found for m = 1, the second harmonic for
m = 2 and so on.

 Critical Frequency of Helical Springs

The frequency in cycles per second; since = 2f,

assuming the spring ends are always in contact with the plates.

when one end is free, the frequency is

The weight of the active part of a helical spring is:

where is the specific weight

The fundamental critical frequency should be greater than 15 to 20 times the

frequency of the force in order to avoid resonance with the harmonics.

 Fatigue Loading of Helical Compression Springs

o Zimmerli discovered that size, material & tensile strength have no effect on
the endurance limits (infinite life only) of spring steels in sizes under 10 mm.
o The corresponding endurance strength components for infinite life were
found to be

Unpeened:
Peened:
Peening: is a procedure used by manufacturers to increase the operating
capabilities of metals used in components. Shot peening is accomplished by
blasting metal surfaces with small particles that increase the materials
strength and ability to withstand different types of damage.
o in constructing certain failure criteria on the designers torsional fatigue
diagram, the torsional modulus of rupture Ssu is:
o (Sut) see Table 1004.
F. P. Zimmerli, Human Failures in Spring Applications, The Mainspring, no. 17, Associated Spring Corporation,
Bristol, Conn., AugustSeptember 1957.

 Fatigue Loading of Helical Compression Springs

In shafts, fatigue loading in the form of fully reversed stresses.
But, helical springs are never used as both compression and extension
springs. In fact, they are usually assembled with a preload so that the
working load is additional.
The stress-time diagram (sinusoidal fluctuating stress) expresses the usual
condition for helical springs.

o Example 10.4
o Example 10.5

o Problem 1:
An as-wound HCS is made of music wire, has a wire size of d = 2 mm, an outside coil
diameter of D0 = 15 mm, a free length of L0 = 115 mm, number of active coil Na = 21
and both ends are squared & ground. The spring is unpeened. This spring is to be
assembled with a preload of 20 N and will operate with maximum load of 100 N.
i. Estimate the safety factor guarding against fatigue failure using a torsioanl Goodman
with Zimmerli data.
ii. Check the spring stability.

o Problem 2:

A helical coil spring with D = 50 mm and d = 5.5 mm is wound with a pitch

(distance between corresponding points of adjacent coils) of 10 mm. The
material is ASTM A227 cold-drawn carbon steel and Strength Criterion is
ferrouswithout presetting. If the spring is compressed solid, would you
expect it to return to its original free length when the force is removed? Two
important assumptions must be made, briefly mention them. Considering
the curvature (stress concentration) factor for the inner surface KW, would
this spring return to its original length?

8FD
8F

CK w
w
3
2
d
d

8FD
8F

CK s
s
3
2
d
d

Values of Kw , Ks , KwC, KsC are plotted:

Stress correction factors for helical springs.

 Stress and Strength Analysis for HCS: Static Loading

 Beam Springs (Including Leaf Springs)

6FL
2
bh

6FL
Ebh3

6FL
2
bh

6FL3

Ebh3

6FL
2
bh

12FL3

Ebh3

 Beam Springs (Including Leaf Springs)

 Beam Springs (Including Leaf Springs)