×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Analytical Methods for Springs

Analytical Methods for Springs

Analytical Methods for Springs

(OP)
Howdie.
Would anyone happen to know of a good book that explains the dynamics (and statics) of springs?

This is all for a visual I need to build; it's not for building an actual spring, although I will be building it in ProE, nonetheless. That is, once I can get a fairly accurate plan view of the spring windings, by building a VB program to generate it.  I'll then save out as a DWG to import into ProE for a trajectory, along which the spring will follow.

Here's the problem:
Visualize a flat spiral spring of, say 20 turns.  It has an axle, ofcourse, perpendicular to the direction of the spring's turns.  Put one end of the spring axle in a hole in a tabltop so that the axle is sticking straight up out of the tabletop.  The plane of the spring turns is now parallel to the tabletop.  Now, push on the spring itself, pushing parallel to the tabletop, using your finger.  The windings compress on that side of the spring, and expand on the other.  That is the shape I am trying to model.

Although it is easy to find general equations for springs, it seems to me that any deformations that
are forced on the spring requires an analytical approach.  That is the kind of info I can’t seem to locate.
 
Thanks in advance,
treddie

RE: Analytical Methods for Springs

This is pretty "Primitive Pete" but I'll bet that the deflection at the end of the sprial is close to being the same as if you treat ther length of the spring wire as a straight cantilever beam.

RE: Analytical Methods for Springs

(OP)
That makes sense to me, but doesn't that modelling grow more and more inaccurate as you look at the areas approaching 90 degrees to the applied force (where the spiral arms begin to wrap around to the other side of the spring)?  In other words, if I take a thin metal, circular loop (or a hollow cylinder for that matter), lay it on a table and compress it from above, the top and bottom seem to act as reverse cantilever beams, but the sides act as their own cantilever beams as well.  But the sides are decreasing their average radius of curvature while the top and bottom are increasing their average radius of curvature.  To make that model more accurate I could break the spring up into a zillion cantilever beams, but my experience with numerical integration falls way short of my differential calculus.  I really want to learn this, but just can't seem to find the articles that solve this type of problem.
treddie

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources