As an engineering student, I often wonder about the design details of random things I encounter in my daily life.

Recently I found myself wondering how the spring in my shower caddy was chosen. I started analyzing the shower caddy in my head using my knowledge of physics, free body diagrams, and so on, and I thought it would be a good topic to discuss for my next article review. The caddy I have is a tension-pole design that sits between a corner of the tub and the corner of the ceiling. A very similar product offered by Target is pictured in Figure 1. The design of the caddy is such that a pole with shelves is wedged between two flat surfacesin this case a flat corner of a tub and a flat corner of a ceilingand held in place by a spring. The caddy has four shelves that are shaped like quarter-circles. The design is such that the spring applies a force to the ceiling. The ceiling, as per Newtons third law, then supplies an equal and opposite normal force. There is also a friction force at the point of contact, which is the force that actually keeps the caddy in place. This is because the combined weight of the shelves (and their contents) creates a moment that would cause the caddy to tip over were it not for the friction force supplying a countering moment. The friction force, in turn, is created as a result the normal force that counteracts the tension force from the spring, and therefore we can say that the spring itself is the reason the shower caddy is able to function as designed. Thus, we can apply a simple analysis and do a few simple calculations to determine the spring stiffness necessary to keep the shower caddy in place under reasonable conditions. Figure 1: shower caddy[1]

As with many physical systems we analyze, it is helpful to begin with a free body diagram, as in Figure 2. The diagram plainly illustrates all the forces at work on the caddy, and we can see that it is wedged between two rigid surfaces at the top and bottom. Under certain circumstances it would be helpful to use equilibrium equations to solve for certain unknown forces, however we are mainly concerned with two forces: weight of a shelf and its contents) and (the combined

(the friction force between the

rubber foot at the top of the pole and the ceiling). Because the lines of action of all the other forces pass through the point where the bottom of the pole connects to the tub, they do no create moments about that point. and , however, do create moment with respect to this point because

their lines of action do not pass through it. We can see that the combined effects of the four shelves is to create a moment that rotates the pole clockwise about this point, while the friction force creates a moment that rotates the pole counterclockwise. Since the pole is static, we can use a moment equilibrium equation to find the relationship between these forces: ( Which gives us: (2) Recalling that frictional force is defined by: (3) )( ) ( )( ) (1)

where

is the coefficient of static friction (which we use in this case because there is no is the normal force. We can see from Figure 2 and Newtons third law

motion) and that:

(4) Since is the force created by the spring, we also know that: (5) where is the stiffness of the spring and is the springs displacement from its

equilibrium position. Thus, by substituting Equation 5 into Equation 4, we get: (6) Now we substitute Equation 6 into Equation 3: (7) Now substitute Equation 7 into Equation 2: (8) Finally, solving Equation 8 for gives us our final equation: (9) Now, to find the stiffness necessary for the spring, we simply solve Equation 9. Before we do that, however, we need to do additional analysis to determine the remaining unknowns. From Figure 2, is the distance from the pole to the centroids of the shelves .

(which are all the same), and thus is the moment arm for the moment created by

The centroid of a quarter-circle is illustrated by Figure 3:

Figure 3: Centroid of a quarter circle[3] using the Pythagorean theorem, and the values for and as

We can find the value of defined by:

( I hand measured to be

) , which is a reasonable value. acts at this point. A reasonable : for the weight of the shelf to be and (which is the

, which gives us

This value is important because we can assume that maximum value for and would be, in my estimation,

for the contents of the shelf. I hand measured

difference between the poles equilibrium length and its compressed length ) to be . Finally, I was able to find a value for the coefficient of friction between rubber and a painted hard surface of us the spring constant : ( ( This is a small value for )( )( )( ) ) ), which is not particularly
[4]

. Substituting these values into Equation 9 will give

(equivalent to

surprising. The moment created by the shelves is small due to the short moment arm, and because the coefficient of static friction between the rubber foot and the painted ceiling is

high, then the spring constant can be low (because

is in the denominator). Therefore,

we can see that the spring required to make the caddy work is not a very stiff spring. This is in line with my experience, because I made a point of pressing on the spring to get a hands-on impression of its stiffness and I thought that it was a fairly weak spring.

References: 1. Figure 1 accessed at web address: http://target.scene7.com/is/image//Target/13285958?wid=410&hei=410 2. Figure 2 created using the diagram tool at https://www.draw.io 3. Figure 3 and formulas for and accessed at web address: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Quarter_circle_centroid.sv g 4. Access at web address: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/friction-coefficientsd_778.html