Determination of modulus of rigidity and stiffness of spring

Batch B3: Shiv Kumar, Shivangi Sharma, Shubham Maurya, Sudheendra R

Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum
(Dated: August 12, 2014)
(Experiment No. 2)
The objective of the Spring test is to determine the stiffness of spring and its modulus of rigidity.
This experiment is done by a spring testing arrangement. The stiffness of any rigid body is the
measure of resistance to deformation. The spring is clamped to bench vice and the displacement
of the movable end of the spring results in deformation and development of stress in spring. The
stress is a linear function of displacement till a particular range and its plot gives stiffness and hence
modulus of rigidity

I.

INTRODUCTION

A spring is an elastic object that stores mechanical

energy by virtue of elongation or compression. Every
spring has a particular length under no load which is
called natural length. When a load is applied, it deforms
such that restoring forces always act opposite to direction
of load to restore initial state of spring. Springs consist of
wire wound in a helix which are quite often called helical
springs. Helical springs are classified into three categories
based on the nature of load
1. Tension spring (close coil)
2. Compression spring (open coil)

FIG. 1. Torsional effect of W on spring

Considering the cross-section of spring as shown in

(Fig.1) and applying torsional formula

3. Torsion spring
In this test, we only make use of a tension spring and a
compression spring. The spring is clamped to an immovable bench vice, and the bench vice is operated appropriately to create tension or compression in their respective
springs. The force sensor, one end of which is clamped
to the movable part of bench vice, and the other end is
clamped to the spring, helps measure the internal force
generated in the spring, while the dial gauge is used to
measure the displacement.
II.

For a spring in the elastic region, force is directly proportional to magnitude of displacement from equilibrium.

where,
F - Load applied
k - spring constant
x - displacement
For determining the modulus of rigidity (G) we consider only the torsional effects and assume that
1. Bending and shearing effects are negligible
2. Helix angle is so small such that it can be neglected

IG
Ll

I=

.d4
32

T =

Wd
2

2x
D

and substituting

THEORY

F = kx

T =

l = .D.x
We obtain G as
G=

64R3 nW
xd4

where,
R - Mean radius
D - Mean diameter
n - number of turns in spring
W - Load
x - Displacement
d - Diameter of wire of spring

2
III.
III.1.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

3. Loading is continued till sufficient number of readings are taken.

Apparatus and Materials

The following are the apparatus used in this experiment Dial gauge for measuring displacement of spring,
Springs (both open and closed coil) Bench vice for clamping and moving the spring, Force sensor and Vernier calliper.

4. The different dimensions of the spring like inner diameter, outer diameter, mean radius, length, number of turns, etc are noted.
5. Load deflection graph is plotted and the results are
calculated.

IV.
IV.1.

FIG. 2. Schematic top view showing dial gauge, bench vice,

clamped spring and force sensor

Procedure

1. The bench vice is fixed to a rigid support (for e.g.

a table).
2. One end of the spring is clamped to another rigid
support in case of open coil, or placed perpendicular to the jaws of the bench vice in case of closed
coil. The other end is clamped to one end of the
sensor.

Dimensions of close coil spring

No. of turns in spring, n = 15

Inner diameter of coil, D1 = 11.2 mm
Outer diameter of coil, D2 = 17.1 mm
Mean radius of coil, R = 7.08 mm
Diameter of wire of spring, d = 3 mm

IV.2.
III.2.

OBSERVATIONS

Dimensions of open coil spring

No. of turns in spring, n = 7

Inner diameter, D1 = 12.6 mm
Outer diameter, D2 = 15.1 mm
Mean radius of coil, R = 6.93 mm
Diameter of wire of spring, d = 1 mm
The data points for force vs. axial deformation in
both springs are obtained in the following tables (refer
TABLE I and TABLE II).

3. The movable part of the bench vice is adjusted such that the spring is slightly under tension/compression.
4. The dial gauge is placed in such a manner that it is
able to correctly detect and measure the horizontal
movements in the movable arm of bench vice.
5. The initial reading of the dial gauge is set to zero,
and the force sensor is tared. Thus, our experimental set-up is ready.

III.3.

Experiment

1. With the spring placed in the test arrangement, the

handle of the bench vice is turned appropriately in
order to produce tension/compression in the spring.
2. The displacement shown on dial gauge is noted for
every small increment of force shown in the sensor,
starting from zero.

FIG. 3. Plot of Force vs. Elongation for close coil spring

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S.No. Elongation(X103 m) Force (X 9.8 N)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

0
0.5
0.7
1.1
1.2
1.38
1.42
1.67
1.89
2.16
2.39
2.59
2.66
2.9
3.09
3.38
3.6
3.75
3.95
4.03
4.23
4.32
4.48
4.61
4.82
4.97

0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

TABLE I. Force vs. Deformation for close coil spring

S.No. Compression(X103 m) Force (X 9.8 N)
1
2
3
4
5
6

0
2.05
4.07
6.06
7.67
10.07

0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5

TABLE II. Force vs. Deformation for open coil spring

V.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1. For close coil spring

Slope of Force vs. elongation graph (Fig.3) gives

stiffness of spring, k = 4577 N/m

Modulus of rigidity, G = 19.2 GPa
Modulus of elasticity of material of spring, E =
2G(1+) = 50 GPa
2. For open coil spring
Slope of Force vs. compression graph (Fig.4) gives
stiffness of spring, k = 492 N/m
Modulus of rigidity, G = 73.1 GPa

FIG. 4. Plot of Force vs. Elongation for open coil spring

Modulus of elasticity of material of spring, E =

2G(1+) = 190 GPa
3. Errors can arise due to misalignment of dial gauge
and spring.
4. The loads must be axial.

VI.

REFERENCES

1. Irving H. Shames, James M. Pitaressi (2000) Introduction to Solid Mechanics Energy Methods
(pp.687)
2. E.P Popov (1976)Mechanics of Materials