About Spring and Bushing Connections

A spring represents a force or a moment exerted by a spring on two components. A bushing represents forces or moments exerted on two components.

This page discusses:

Axial Spring

An axial spring is a connection between two points or vertices on two rigid bodies.

An axial spring exerts an equal force but opposed on each attached body, along the direction defined by the points or vertices.

The force exerted can be:

The axial spring parameters are stiffness, damping, and reference length.

By default, the value of the length is equal to the distance between the two points specified at spring creation.

Note:

A representation of the axial spring is displayed and animated when:

Playing Experience and running kinematic simulation in Mechanical Systems Design app.
Running a simulation in Mechanical Systems Experience app.

A bushing is a connection between two axis systems on two rigid bodies.

A bushing represents springs along three directions and around three axes.

The axis systems define the x, y, and z directions, and the bushing exerts forces or moments along or around these directions.

You can define stiffness or damping using a linear or a nonlinear law.

With a linear law, stiffness and damping are constant between the two points of connections.

With a nonlinear law, stiffness or damping depend on the length or the angle between the two points of connections.

Each stiffness or damping follow its own law.

A nonlinear law is defined with a value for each specific position. Values are either user-defined or imported from a Microsoft Excel document.