See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/283509729

Prestressing of Compression Springs Part 1: theoretical study

Article · January 2009

CITATION READS

1 2,948

2 authors, including:

Manuel Paredes
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse
75 PUBLICATIONS   428 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Robust and reliability based optimization of elastic linkage systems View project

Engineering Graphics Teaching and learning View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Manuel Paredes on 06 November 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Prestressing of Compression Springs
Part 1: theoretical study
Alexander Jones 1, Manuel Paredes 2

(1) : Master Student (2) : Associate professor

University of Nottingham
School of Mechanical, Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering
E-mail : eayzagj@nottingham.ac.uk
Université de Toulouse; INSA, UPS; LGMT
(Laboratoire de Génie Mécanique de Toulouse);
135, avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse, France
Phone +33 561 55 99 56
Fax +33 561 55 97 00
E-mail : manuel.paredes@insa-toulouse.fr

Key words: prestressing, compression spring, experiments, theoretical study.

1. Summary
During compression spring manufacture, it is often necessary to perform prestressing
operations. Prestressing involves compressing a spring beyond its elastic limit a certain
number of times to induce residual stresses inside it. It is therefore necessary to know the
initial dimensions to manufacture to so that the required dimensions for use are given after the
plastic deformation in prestressing. This aim of this work was to explore ways in which
mathematical models can be used to predict the behaviour of compression springs during
prestressing. Several models of increasing complexity proposed by Wahl appear to be the
most interesting for being used in an industrial context. Methods are developed to inverse the
models so that final dimensions could be used to predict initial dimensions to be
manufactured.

2. Nomenclature
α = Ratio of the gradients of the stress-strain curve before and after the yield point
A = Material constant used to calculate α
β = Ratio of the strain at the outer fibre of the wire to the strain at which yielding
begins
B = Material constant used to calculate α
C = Material constant used to calculate α
C1 = Load multiplication factor
C1 ’ = Estimated load multiplication factor
c = Spring index (c = D/d)
D = Mean spring diameter (mm)
d = Wire diameter (mm)
d1 = Diameter of plastic region during prestressing (mm)
F = Theoretical linear force to compress to solid (N)
G = Shear modulus (N/mm2)
k = Shear stress multiplication factor
L0 = Free length before prestressing (mm)

1
L0’ = Free length after prestressing (mm)
Lo,exp’ = Experimental free length after prestressing (mm)
Lo,cal’ = Calculated free length after prestressing (mm)
Lc = Spring length at solid (mm)
n = Number of active coils
nt = Total number of coils
ni = Defines end coils
nm = Dead coils expect end coils
P = Load associated with stress distribution at solid (N)
ρ = Horizontal distance from centre to a point on a spring cross-section (mm)
R = Spring stiffness (N/mm)
r = Mean spring radius (mm)
SUT = Ultimate tensile strength (N/mm2)
τn = Torsional shear stress induced in a spring subject to an axial load F (N/mm2)
τy = Shear yield point (N/mm2)
z = Vertical distance from centre to a point on a spring cross-section (mm)

3. Introduction
After a spring has been coiled, several operations are performed to improve its mechanical
properties. The spring undergoes a heat treatment process to reduce the internal stresses
brought about by the plastic deformation of the coiling process. Next the spring is shot peened
to increase its resistance to fatigue before it receives an anti-corrosion treatment. In certain
cases, the spring undergoes a prestressing process as well.

Prestressing a spring is a process where the spring is compressed to a point beyond its elastic
limit so that plastic deformation occurs. This process induces residual stresses in the spring in
the opposite direction to the compression, subsequently increasing the elastic limit of the
spring in compression. Prestressing is often repeated a certain number of times until the
change in the strength of the spring is negligible. An individual compression of a spring to
solid as part of the prestressing process is often referred to as a scrag.

Normally when producing a batch of springs a machine operator has to produce a large
number of springs to check the sizes for manufacture that will produce the required
dimensions after prestressing, which means the coiling machine is idle for a period of time.
However an accurate method would allow the prediction of dimensions for manufacture to be
performed at the design stage rather than by the machine operator. This would reduce the
number of test springs to just one or two, increasing the efficiency of the manufacturing
process. Therefore the focus of this work was to find out what ways the initial dimensions
could be predicted that would be necessary for manufacture.

The reports detailing the mathematical theory of compression springs offered some simple
equations to calculate the stresses induced in a spring by a certain axial force and also the
maximum allowable stress before failure.
For example one such equation to calculate the ultimate tensile strength of a spring is (from
Wahl [1]):
A
SUT = m where A and m are material constants. (1)
d

2
The ultimate tensile strength can be related to the ultimate shear strength using the following
relationship:
0.35SUT ≤ τ y ≤ 0.52 SUT with the exact value depending (2)
upon the material.
The torsional shear stress induced in a spring subject to an axial load, F is given by:
8 DFk
τn = (3)
πd 3
This equation for the torsional shear stress holds within the elastic limit, however once the
limit is passed the theory becomes more complicated. In order to better understand this it was
necessary to undertake research on elastic-plastic torsion.

To calculate the behaviour of a spring when it is taken beyond the elastic limit, assumptions
must be made to simplify the models used. One such assumption is to say that the spring
index is large so that the spring may be considered essentially a straight bar in torsion. This is
the case as the principal stresses induced in a spring during compression are torsional stresses.

For elastic-plastic torsion analysis there are some hardening laws that can be used. Wu and
Van der Giessen [2] produced a report detailing how isotropic and kinematic hardening laws
can be used to describe the behaviour of linear hardening and power law hardening materials.
Their results state that at small torsion angles the two laws give virtually identical predictions,
it is only for large torsion angles that considerable differences arise.

Wahl [1] suggested three ways of predicting hardening behaviour and applied them directly to
prestressing of helical springs. The first method was to say that there would be no strain
hardening, the second uses linear strain hardening and the third uses a general stress-strain
relation. The third model is the most complicated as it takes into account the effects of
curvature and direct shear, although it uses the assumption that the material is perfectly
plastic.

It is often difficult to evaluate the equations obtained by elastic-plastic torsion methods

algebraically and as was suggested by Wu et al. [3] numerical methods such as dedicated
finite element models need to be used. Finite element models allow a spring to be modelled
completely, or if a more simple solution is required then the spring can be modelled as a
straight bar in torsion using the aforementioned assumptions. The packages used allow results
to be presented in the form of two and three-dimensional graphs of stress distributions.

However there are problems with the inaccuracies inherent in finite element models. The
complex geometry of a spring makes it difficult to create a model to include the effects of
shear, torsion and tension in three dimensions. As found by Park and Yang [4] care must be
given to selection of boundary conditions and experimental results should be used to verify
the accuracy of the predictions.

4. Description of theoretical models

After the initial research, it was necessary to analyse the three models proposed by Wahl to
see how they could best be exploited to predict spring behaviour. All three models proposed
utilise the results of plastic theory to predict what will happen to the spring when it is
compressed beyond its elastic limit. The first two models work under the assumption that the

3
spring index is large so the spring may be considered essentially as a straight bar in torsion.
The third model, however, is more applicable to springs with small or medium indexes.

The first and most simple model uses the assumption that the material yields at a constant
yield stress, τy, in torsion. The first variable that needs to be introduced is β, the ratio of the
strain at the outer fibre to the strain at which yielding begins. It can be calculated by assuming
that the plastic region has penetrated to a diameter d1, therefore:
d τn
β= = (4)
d1 τ y
The second model is slightly more complex and uses the assumption of linear strain
hardening. This assumes that after the yield point has been passed, the increase in strain is
directly proportional to the increase in stress. A second variable needs to be introduced at this
point. This variable, α, is material dependant and describes the linear strain hardening
behaviour of the material. Referring to Figure 1, α is the ratio of the gradients of the stress-
strain curves before and after the yield point. Hence:
slope of curve oa
α =
slope of curve ab
Stress, σ

o Strain, ε

Figure 1. Example of linear strain hardening

Using the variables α and β, the equations for a straight bar in torsion may again be used.

In order to make use of these models to enable the length of the spring after prestressing to be
calculated, it was necessary to use the equations obtained from the mathematical spring theory
research to work out different characteristics of each spring. The length of the spring after
prestressing can be calculated as follows:
P
L0 ' = Lc + (5)
R
πd 3τ y
Where P= C1
8D
4 1  1  1 β 1 
C1 = 1 − 1 − 3  + 3 + 1 − 4  (for model 2) (6)
3  α  β  β α β 
or
4 1 
C1 = 1 −  (for model 1)

3 4 β 3 
τn
β=
τy

4
 8 DFk
τn =
πd 3
c + 0 .5
k= (corrected stress)
c − 0.75
or
k =1 (uncorrected stress)
D
c= c is the spring index
d
F = R ( L0 − Lc ) F is the theoretical linear load at solid
Gd 4
R= R is the spring rate
8nD 3
Lc = d ( n + n m + ni )
Lc is the solid length
n = nt − nm − 2 n is the number of active coils
τy is known from the material properties (Eq.1 and Eq.2)

It can be seen that when α is infinite, i.e. there is no strain hardening; the C1 equation for
model 2 reduces to the C1 equation for model 1. Moreover, the stress correction factor is
proposed to be introduced in order to consider the effect of wire curvature.

Whilst the first two models are fairly similar, the third model is different and more complex.
This model is more suited to springs of small or medium indexes, where it is also necessary to
include the effects of curvature and direct shear. In order to develop this model it is assumed
that the material is perfectly plastic with constant yield stress τy and also that the pitch angle is
zero.

Figure 2. Plastic flow in a small-index spring.

Figure 2 shows a cross section of spring wire on axes of ρ for horizontal and z for vertical. As
the material is assumed to be perfectly plastic, it can be said that at a point, A on the cross-
section with coordinates (ρ,z) there is a shear stress, τy acting at an angle ψ. The angle β (not
related to the ratio β in the other two models) is the angle made between the point A and the
ρ-axis, such that:
d
z = sin β
2
d
and ρ = r + cos β
2

5
Using these points it is possible to show that for complete yielding over the cross section of
the wire:
4 (sin β )d 
1
 2 4 2
P = ∫∫ τ z dρdz = τ y ∫∫ 1 − (c + cos β ) dρdz
 16 ρ 4 
when the integral is taken over the entire cross section.

It is clear that this model is a lot more difficult to analyse than the other two models and due
to the complexity of the integration it was necessary to use a numerical method to attempt to
exploit it. A spreadsheet package was decided upon where the values at individual points
could be calculated and summated to give an estimate of the integral over the entire cross
section. For this third, complex model, problems were encountered in implementing
techniques via a spreadsheet package as for certain spring geometries the value given was the
root of a negative number and therefore the summation was impossible.

5 Reversing the models

To this point the work had all been focused on finding a method to predict the final length of a
spring with a given initial length. In reality a manufacturer needs to know the initial length to
manufacture to in order to give a specified final length after prestressing. Consequently it is
necessary to reverse the theoretical models.

Model 1 can easily be reversed by using the following equation:

Fy
L0i = Lc + β1 (7)
R
Where
π d 3τ y
Fc = R (L0 '− Lc )
1
β1 = Fy =
F 8Dk
3
4−3 c
Fy

It was slightly more difficult to reverse model 2. This was possible to a certain extent as an
equation for C1 in terms of L0’ was found but it wasn’t possible to reverse the next step. The
initial equation for C1 (Eq. 6), could not be rearranged, as a quartic equation is obtained for
which the roots, β, could not be found. As such a different, algorithmic approach was
employed (see figure 3).

6
 Step1: Find a first approximate value of the free length L0i

Step2: Calculate L0i’ related to L0i using Eq. 5

Is L0i’ close enough from L0’ ?

No Yes

Step3: Find a new End: propose L0i as a result

approximate value of
Loop the free length L0i

Figure 3. Iterative process to reverse model 2

Step1: Model 1 can be reversed by using Eq 7 to find a first approximate value of the free
length before prestressing called L0i
Step 2: Eq 5 can then be exploited to find the associated L0i’ value according to L0i.
Step 3: A new approximate of L0 can be obtained by considering a linear rule:
L0 '− Lc
L0i = Lc + (L0i − Lc ) (8)
L0i '− Lc
Step 2 and Step 3 are looped until a satisfactory precision is obtained.

Here performing three iterations usually enables the initial length to be predicted to a good
level of accuracy.

The third model has proved to be difficult to exploit thus no reverse model is proposed.

6. Conclusions
Three models presented by Wahl have been detailed. Two models have been reversed to
predict initial lengths for manufacture. The equations for reversing the first one (basic) are
explained. An algorithm is presented to numerically reverse the second model.
For the more complex model (the third one) proposed by Wahl to be used a more powerful
software package would be required that could perform double integrations numerically.
It would be of interest to exploit experimental data to find the parameters related to the
material behaviour and analyse the accuracy of the models.

7. References
[1] WAHL A. Mechanical Springs. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, Subsequent
printings, Spring Manufacturers Institute, Oak Brook, IL. (1963)

7
 [2] WU P, VAN DER GIESSEN E. Analysis of Elastic-Plastic Torsion of Circular Bars at
Large Strains. Archive of Applied Mechanics 61. Springer-Verlag (1991)

[3] WU P, VAN DER GIESSEN E, NEALE K. On the Effect of Plastic Spin on Large
Strain Elastic-Plastic Torsion of Solid Bars. International Journal of Plasticity.
Pergamon Press Ltd. (1992)

[4] PARK Y, YANG D. Analysis of Torsional Deformation by Rigid Plastic Finite

Element Method Using Recurrent Boundary Conditions. Journal of Materials
Processing Technology. Elsevier (2006)

View publication stats