Defining Springs

You can apply a spring connection to join two supports using a spring with a specified linear axial stiffness. If you do not select a second support, the spring joins the first support to ground.

See Also
About Springs
  1. From the Connections section of the action bar, click Spring .
  2. Optional: Enter a descriptive Name.
  3. Choose an engineering connection method and connection.
    OptionDescription
    Default Automatically creates a free engineering connection or selects an existing engineering connection if only one exists.
    Select existing Enables you to select an existing engineering connection from a list.

    Note: If you select an existing connection, you can choose supports only from the part instances used when the engineering connection was created.

  4. Optional: Change the supports.

    The following supports are valid for spring connections:

    • Support 1: one or more faces or edges, or a single point; or mesh groups containing faces or edges, or a node
    • Support 2: one or more faces or edges, or a single point; or mesh groups containing faces or edges, or a node. Leave the Support 2 field empty if you are defining a spring to ground.

    Tip: You can right-click a support field and select Create Support to create a new point or to create a proximity, spatial, or manual mesh group containing the support objects.

    You can use the context menu in the Connection Manager to reuse supports from an existing connection. However, you can reuse supports only if they meet the requirements of the current connection type.

  5. From the Spring type options, select Linear Axial.
  6. Select an axis system and an axis.
    OptionDescription
    Global Aligns the local feature triad with the global coordinate system.
    Local Aligns the local feature triad with a selected axis system in the model.
    Specify Allows you to orient the local feature triad directly. Right-click the feature triad glyph on the model to orient the local feature triad.
  7. From the Coupling type options, select one of the following:
    OptionDescription
    Kinematic Directly couples edge or face supports to the motion of a reference point.
    Continuum distributing Couples the displacement and rotation of the fastening points to the average displacement of the nodes.
    Structural distributing Couples the displacement and rotation of the fastening points to the average displacement and rotation of the nodes.
  8. On the Elasticity tab, enter the spring constant (force per relative displacement) for Stiffness 1.
  9. On the Ref. Length tab, enter the Length associated with Tx, which is the axial distance between supports for which the spring force is zero.

    Reference lengths define the constitutive response for spring elements generated by this feature. You can define the translational position at which constitutive forces are zero by specifying the reference length. The app calculates the default value for the reference length automatically from the initial geometry.

  10. Optional: Click Update Mesh to see the mesh created for the spring.
  11. Click OK.