SolidWorks 2012 Exercise 2

Compressive Spring Stiffness

Exercise 2: In this exercise, we will use SolidWorks Simulation to determine the

Compressive compressive stiffness of a coil spring.

rib T
Spring Stiffness This exercise reinforces the following skills:

e
I New Study on page 31.

F
I Fixtures on page 34.

ut
I External Loads on page 38.

di RA
I Meshing on page 43.
I Result Plots on page 47.
Procedure The stiffness of the helical spring can be determined as follows:
1 Open a part file.
Open spring from Lesson01\Exercises folder.

or D
Note For convenient application of fixtures and external loads, disks have

st
been added to both ends of the spring. The distance between the disks
corresponds to the active length of the un-compressed spring.

E 2 Set SolidWorks Simulation options.

Set the system of Units to SI (MKS) and the units of Length and
Stress to mm and N/m2 (Pa).
op AS
3 Create study.
Create a Static study named spring stiffness.
4 Review material properties.
The material properties (Alloy Steel) are transferred from SolidWorks.
t c LE

5 Apply Fixed restraint.

Apply a Fixed Geometry fixture to the end face of one disk (item 1).
y
no RE
-
Do E
PR

81
 Exercise 2 SolidWorks 2012
Compressive Spring Stiffness

6 Apply radial restraint.

Use an advanced fixture to apply a restraint in

rib T
the radial direction to the cylindrical face of the
other disk (item 2).

e
F
This restraint only allows the spring to be
compressed (or expanded) in its axial direction

ut
and to rotate about the longitudinal axis.

di RA
2

or D
1

st
E
op AS
t c LE

7 Apply compressive force.

Apply a 0.1 N compressive force to the end face of the disk with the
cylindrical face constrained in the radial direction.
y
8 Mesh the model and run the analysis.
Select Curvature based mesh under Mesh Parameters.
no RE

Use High quality elements with the default Maximum element size
and Minimum element size of 2.787 mm and 0.557 mm, respectively.
-
Do E
PR

82
 SolidWorks 2012 Exercise 2
Compressive Spring Stiffness

9 Plot z displacements.
Displacement results indicate an axial displacement of 0.426 mm. The

rib T
axial displacement is in the z direction.

e
F
ut
di RA
or D
st
E
op AS
Coil Spring Axial The axial stiffness of the spring can be calculated as 234.7 N/m.
Stiffness (k = f/x).
We use this result to define the spring connector in later lessons using
t c LE

the equation f= kx, where k=234.7 N/m.

Alternately, we could use an approximate formula for the stiffness of a
helical spring (Mechanical Vibrations by S. S. Rao, 1995).
y
4
Gd
K Axial = --------------
no RE

3
8nD

where:
I G is the material shear modulus
I d is the diameter of the wire
-

I D is the mean coil diameter

I n is the number of active turns
Do E

Substituting our values (n = 8.75, d = 1 mm, D = 17 mm, and G =

7.9e10 Pa) into the above formula gives an axial stiffness of
PR

approximately 230 N/m. This result is very close to our actual result of
234.7 N/m.

10 Save and Close the file.

83