A New Method for the Calculation of Characteristics of Disc Springs with Trapezoidal Cross-Sections and Rounded Edges

Area of Science:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• European standards mandate edge rounding in disc spring manufacturing.
• Existing calculation methods often assume a rectangular cross-section, causing discrepancies with real-world performance.
• This divergence between computed and tested characteristics for springs with rounded edges remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel analytical method for calculating disc spring characteristics that incorporates edge rounding and non-rectangular cross-sections.
• To bridge the geometric gap between manufacturing standards and analytical computation methods for disc springs.
• To provide a new parameter space and computation method for optimizing disc spring designs.

Main Methods:

• Parameterization of idealized disc spring geometry, including four edge radii and two face angles.
• Development of equations for initial cone angle and lever arm computation.
• Formulation of an algorithm to adapt existing calculation methods (Almen-Laszlo, Curti-Orlando, Zheng, Kobelev) for non-rectangular cross-sections.
• Verification using Finite Element (FE) simulations of disc springs with rounded edges.

Main Results:

• The new method successfully adapts existing characteristic computation formulas to account for rounded edges and non-rectangular cross-sections.
• Adjusted characteristics show improved alignment with FE simulation results for investigated cross-section variations.
• The method provides a more accurate analytical model for disc spring behavior.

Conclusions:

• The introduced method effectively closes the geometric gap between manufacturing guidelines and analytical computation.
• It enables a more accurate force computation for disc springs with varied cross-sections.
• This work defines a new design parameter space and optimization approach for disc springs.