DESIGN OF COIL SPRING

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 apply forces, as in brakes and clutches and spring loaded valves.

2. To measure forces, as in spring balances,
3. To store energy, as in watch springs, and
4. To absorb shock and vibration as in car springs and railway buffers.

The different types of springs are Helical springs, Conical and volute springs,
Torsion springs, Laminated or leaf springs and Disc or bellevile springs

PROJECT/PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

Coil springs are used in numerous practical applications. Detailed methods for

analysing and designing such mechanical components have been developed

Spotts, 1953; Shigley, Mischke and Budynas, 2004; Haug
over the years (e.g.,
and Arora,1979). The purpose of this project is to design a minimum weight of
the tension/compression spring subject to constraints on shear stress, surge
frequency and minimum deflection .

DATA AND INFORMATION COLLECTION

PARAMETERS:

To formulate the problem of designing coil springs, the following notation and
data are defined:

Gravitational constant (in s)

2
g = 386 in/ s
Weight density of spring material (lb in)
3
γ = 0.285 lb/in
Shear Modulus (lb in)

G = ( 1.15∗10 7 ) lb/in2
Mass density of material (lb s in)

γ
ρ=
g

ρ =( 7.38342∗10−4 ) lb−s 2 /in4

Allowable shear stress (lb in)
2
τ a = 80000 lb/in
Number of inactive coils

Q=2

Applied load (lb)

P = 10 lb

Minimum spring deflection (in)

Δ = 0.5 in

Lower limit on surge wave frequency (Hz)

ω 0 = 100 Hz
Limit on outer diameter of coil (in)

D0 = 1.5 in
Deflection along the axis of spring --- δ , in

Definition of design variables:

The three design variables for the problem are defined as

Mean coil diameter --- D, in

Wire diameter --- d, in

Number of active coils --- N

ENGINEERING RELATIONSHIP

For a design under tension or compression, the wire experiences twisting.

Therefore, the shear stress constrain should be imposed. We have the
following design expressions for the spring:

load deflection equation : P = K δ

Spring constant
 2
dG
K= 3
8DN
Shear stress

8k PD
τ= 3
πd
Wahl stress concentration factor
( 4 D−d ) 0 . 615 d
k= +
4 ( D−d ) D

Frequency of surge wave

ω=
d G
2 π N D2 2 ρ √
The expression for the Wahl stress concentration factor k has been
determined experimentally to account for unusually high stresses of certain
points of the spring. The expression can be used to define constraints for the
problem.

CONSTRAINTS:

Deflection constrain:

It is often requirement that deflection under a load P be at least Δ . Therefore,

the constrain is that the calculated deflection δ must be greater than or equal
to Δ . Such a constrain is common to spring design. The function of the spring
in many applications is to provide a modest restoring force as parts undergo
large displacement in carrying out kinematic functions. Mathematically, this
performance requirement (δ ≥ Δ ) is stated in an inequality form using load

deflection equation P = Kδ
P
cons 1 : ≥Δ
K
 3
0.000006956521738 D N
cons 1 : 4
≥ 0.5
d

D3 N
cons 1 : 1− 4
≤0
71785 d

Shear stress constraint:

To prevent overstressing, shear stress in the wire must be no greater than τ ,

which is expressed in mathematical form as

cons 2 : τ ≤ τ a

cons 2 :
80 ( 4 D−d 0.615 d
4 D+4d
+
D
D ) ≤ 80000
3
πd
2
4 D −D d 1
cons 2 : + −1 ≤ 0
12566 ( D d − d ) 5108 d
3 4 2

Constrain on the frequency of surge waves:

We want to avoid resonance in dynamic applications by making the frequency

of surge wave (along the spring) as great as possible. For the present problem,
we require the frequency of surge waves for the spring to be at least (Hz).
The constrain is expressed in mathematical form as

cons 3 : ω ≥ ω0

44124.02775 d
cons 3 : 2
≥ 100
πND

140.45 d
cons 3 : 1− 2
≤0
ND

Diameter constrain:
The outer diameter of the spring should not be greater than D0

cons 4 : D+d≤ D0

cons 4 : D+d ≤ 1. 5

D+d
cons 4 : ≤0
1.5

Collect all the constraints

cons = {cons 1, cons 2, cons 3, cons 4 }

Optimization criterion:- cost function

The problem is to minimize the mass of the spring (volume*mass density)

which is given as

1
f= ( N +Q ) D d2 π 2 ρ
4
Minimize

Explicit bounds on design variables:

To avoid the fabrication and other practical difficulties, we put minimum and
maximum size limits on the wire diameter, coil diameter and number of turns:

d min ≤ d≤ d max 2 ≤ d≤ 15

Dmin ≤ D≤ Dmax 0.25 ≤ D≤ 1.5

N min ≤ N≤ N max 0.05 ≤ N ≤ 2

Thus the minimum mass spring problem is to select the design variables d, D
and N to minimize the optimization criterion while satisfying the inequality
constraints.
2
π ρ
4 in the cost function has been neglected. This
Note that the constant
simply cost function value without affecting the final optimum solution.

MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION

The mathematical formulation of the objective function f ( X ) which is the

weight of the tension/compression string mainly comprised of shear stress,
surge frequency and minimum deflection is as follows

The design variables are the mean coil diameter D (= x 2 ) , the wire diameter

d (= x 3 ) and the number of active coils N (= x 1 ) The problem can be state as

.

Minimize f ( X ) = ( x 1 +2) x 2 x 23
(1)
3
x2 x1
g1 ( X )= 1− 4
≤0
Subject to 71785 x 3 (2)
2
4 x2 − x3 x2 1
g2 ( X )= + 2
−1 ≤ 0
12566 ( x 2 x 33 − x 43 ) 5108 x 3
(3)

140.45 x 3
g3 ( X )= 1 − 2
≤0
x x12
(4)
 x2 + x3
g4 ( X )= −1≤0
1. 5
(5)

Where 2 ≤ x 1≤ 15

0.25 ≤ x 2≤ 1.5

0.05 ≤ x 3 ≤ 2