Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Flexicoil Helical Spring Stress

Abstract

Suspension system of a rail vehicle is one of key member of railway vehilce. As time passed and technology evolved, people's expactation increased also in area of railway transportation like anything in life. Those expactation caused improvements also in suspension systems of railway vehicles such as using flexi - coil type of helical spring suspension. The flexi-coil type of helical spring allows deformation both in vertical and lateral direction. Due to this property of flexi - coil springs, their stress state and calculation of stresses differ from ordinary springs. In this thesis, change in stiffness and stresses under combined loading are investigated using finite element programme Solidworks. Results obtained from Solidworks are compared with experimentally evaluated stresses.