Machine Design Dr.

Nabeel Alshabatat

Chapter 10: Mechanical Springs

Introduction
A spring is defined as an elastic body, whose function is to distort when loaded and to
recover its original shape when the load is removed. The various important applications of
springs are as follows:
1. To cushion, absorb or control energy due to either shock or vibration as in car springs, railway
buffers, air-craft landing gears, shock absorbers and vibration dampers.
2. To apply forces, as in brakes, clutches and spring loaded valves.
3. To control motion by maintaining contact between two elements as in cams and followers.
4. To measure forces, as in spring balances and engine indicators.
5. To store energy, as in watches, toys, etc.

Types of Springs
In general, springs may be classified as wire springs, flat springs, or special-shaped springs,
and there are variations within these divisions. The following are some important types of
springs:
1. Helical springs. The helical spring is made up of a wire coiled in the form of a helix and is
primarily intended for compressive or tensile loads. The cross-section of the wire from which the
spring is made may be circular, square or rectangular. The two forms of helical springs are
compression helical spring and tension helical spring as shown below.

The helical springs are said to be closely coiled when the spring wire is coiled so close that
the plane containing each turn is nearly at right angles to the axis of the helix and the wire is
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

subjected to torsion. In other words, in a closely coiled helical spring, the helix angle is very
small, it is usually less than 10°. The major stresses produced in helical springs are shear stresses
due to twisting. The load applied is parallel to or along the axis of the spring. In open coiled
helical springs, the spring wire is coiled in such a way that there is a gap between the two
consecutive turns, as a result of which the helix angle is large. Since the application of open
coiled helical springs are limited, therefore our discussion shall confine to closely coiled helical
springs only.
The helical springs have the following advantages:
(a) These are easy to manufacture.
(b) These are available in wide range.
(c) These are reliable.
(d) These have constant spring rate.
(e) Their performance can be predicted more accurately.
(f) Their characteristics can be varied by changing dimensions.

2. Conical and volute springs. The conical and volute springs, as shown below, are used in
special applications where a telescoping spring or a spring with a spring rate that increases with
the load is desired. The conical spring is wound with a uniform pitch whereas the volute springs
are wound in the form of paraboloid with constant pitch and lead angles. The springs may be
made either partially or completely telescoping. In either case, the number of active coils
gradually decreases. The decreasing number of coils results in an increasing spring rate. This
characteristic is sometimes utilized in vibration problems where springs are used to support a
body that has a varying mass.
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

3. Torsion springs. These springs may be of helical or spiral type as shown below. The helical
type may be used only in applications where the load tends to wind up the spring and are used in
various electrical mechanisms. The spiral type is also used where the load tends to increase the
number of coils and when made of flat strip are used in watches and clocks. The major stresses
produced in torsion springs are tensile and compressive due to bending.

4. Laminated or leaf springs. The laminated or leaf spring (also known as flat spring or carriage
spring) consists of a number of flat plates (known as leaves) of varying lengths held together by
means of clamps and bolts, as shown below. These are mostly used in automobiles. The major
stresses produced in leaf springs are tensile and compressive stresses.

5. Special purpose springs. These springs are air or liquid springs, rubber springs, ring springs
etc. The fluids (air or liquid) can behave as a compression spring. These springs are used for
special types of application only.

Stresses in Helical Springs of Circular Wire

The figure below shows a round-wire helical compression spring loaded by the axial force
F. We designate D as the mean coil diameter and d as the wire diameter. Now imagine that the
spring is cut at some point and a portion of it is removed. Then, as shown in the figure, from
equilibrium the cut portion would contain a direct shear force F and a torsion T = FD/2. The
torsional shear stress is given by
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

Define the spring index C,

The shear equation can be rearranged and modified to include the curvature effect to become

where

Deflection of Helical Springs of Circular Wire

The deflection-force relation of the spring can be given by

where is the number of active coilts. It depends on the type of spring’s end (see Fig. 10-2).
The spring rate or the stiffness of the spring can be given by

Compression Springs
The following terms are used in helical compression springs:
1. Solid length. When the compression spring is compressed until the coils come in contact with
each other, then the spring is said to be solid. The solid length of a spring is the product of total
number of coils and the diameter of the wire.
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

2. Free length. The free length of a compression spring is the length of the spring in the free or
unloaded condition. It is equal to the solid length plus the maximum deflection or compression of
the spring and the clearance between the adjacent coils (when fully compressed).

3. Pitch. The pitch of the coil is defined as the axial distance between adjacent coils in
uncompressed state.
4. End Conditions. The end connections for compression helical springs are suitably formed in
order to apply the load. Various forms of end connections are shown below. Table 10–1 shows
how the type of end used affects the number of coils and the spring length.
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

Buckling of Compression Springs

It has been found experimentally that when the free length of the spring is more than four
times the mean diameter, then the spring behaves like a column and may fail by buckling at a
comparatively low load as shown below. The condition for absolute stability is given by

where α is the end condition constant and is given in Table 10-2

Spring Materials
Springs are manufactured either by hot- or cold-working processes, depending upon the
size of the material, the spring index, and the properties desired. A great variety of spring
materials are available to the designer, including plain carbon steels, alloy steels, and corrosion-
resisting steels, as well as nonferrous materials such as phosphor bronze, spring brass, beryllium
copper, and various nickel alloys. Descriptions of the most commonly used steels will be found
in Table 10–3. Spring materials may be compared by an examination of their tensile strengths;
these vary so much with wire size that they cannot be specified until the wire size is known. The
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

material and its processing also, of course, have an effect on tensile strength. The tensile strength
can be given by

The values of constants A and m are given in Table 10-4.

For example, for a music wire, A = 2211 MPa.mm and m = 0.145. Although the torsional yield
strength is needed to design the spring and to analyze the performance, spring materials
customarily are tested only for tensile strength — perhaps because it is such an easy and
economical test to make. A very rough estimate of the torsional yield strength can be obtained by
assuming that the tensile yield strength is between 60 and 90 percent of the tensile strength.
Material ⁄
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

Helical Compression Spring Design for Static Service

In addition to the relationships and material properties for springs, we have some
recommended design conditions to follow, namely:

where ns is the factor of safety at closure (solid height) and ξ is the fractional overrun to closure.
It relates allowable force (Fmax) and the spring closure force (Fs).
( )
When considering designing a spring for high volume production, the figure of merit (fom) can
be the cost of the wire from which the spring is wound. The fom would be proportional to the
relative material cost, weight density, and volume:

( )

where is the specific weight of spring material. The can be found in

Table 10-4.
Design Strategy
Make the a priori decisions, with hard-drawn steel wire the first choice (relative material cost is
1.0). Choose a wire size d. With all decisions made, generate a column of parameters: d, D, C,
OD or ID, Na , Ls , L0, (L0)cr, ns , and fom. By incrementing wire sizes available, we can scan the
table of parameters and apply the design recommendations by inspection. After wire sizes are
eliminated, choose the spring design with the highest figure of merit. The column vector of
information can be generated by using the flowchart displayed in Fig. 10–3.
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat

Solve example 10-2

H.W 10-5, 10-6, 10-15, 10-20
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat
Machine Design Dr. Nabeel Alshabatat