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The dependence of the spring constant in the linear range on spring

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Article  in  Physics Education · September 2011

DOI: 10.1088/0031-9120/46/5/004

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FEATURES
www.iop.org/journals/physed

The dependence of the spring

constant in the linear range on
spring parameters
Siti Nurul Khotimah1 , Sparisoma Viridi, Widayani and
Khairurrijal
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi
Bandung, Jl. Ganesha No. 10, Bandung 30132, Indonesia

E-mail: nurul@fi.itb.ac.id

Abstract
In basic physics laboratories, springs are normally used to determine both spring constants
and the Earth’s gravitational acceleration. Students generally do not notice that the spring
constant is not a universal constant, but depends on the spring parameters. This paper
shows and verifies that the spring constant in the linear range is inversely proportional to
the number of windings and to the cube of its effective spring diameter. The linear range is
taken in the region of force greater than a minimum value which is referred to as the initial
force F0 . The relationship between initial force F0 and spring constant is still unclear.
Shear modulus and Young’s modulus of the spring material can then be calculated using
the spring constant.

Introduction spring constant is related to the elastic modulus

Springs are used in many tools, such as in of the spring material and spring parameters, such
weighing scales, spring beds and writing pens. as wire diameter, outer spring diameter and the
Springs are also used in cars and motorcycles as number of windings. It is known that for a
suspension systems. In physics laboratories, it helical spring consisting of N windings with wire
is a common experiment to determine the spring diameter d and outer spring diameter D , the spring
constant and the Earth’s gravitational acceleration constant k is given by [3]
using a spring [1]. Gd 4
Hooke’s law of elasticity states that the k= . (2)
8(D − d)3 N
extension x of a spring within its elastic limit is
in direct proportion to the force applied to it. The The relation between shear modulus G , Young’s
restoring force Fs generated by the spring can be modulus E , and Poisson’s ratio σ is shown below.
expressed as E
Fs = −kx. (1) G= .
2 (1 + σ )
The proportional constant k is called the spring Therefore, equation (2) can also be written as [4]
constant. The spring constant is a measure of
the stiffness of the spring, where the higher the Ed 4
k= . (3)
value of k , the stiffer the spring [2]. We often do 16(1 + σ )(D − d)3 N
not notice that k is a function of something. The
There is also another formulation similar to
1 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.
equation (2) but with a correction factor [5].

540 PHYSICS EDUCATION 46 (5) 0031-9120/11/050540+04$33.00 © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd

 The dependence of the spring constant in the linear range on spring parameters
10
8
x (10–2 m)
6 any value of force below this minimum force could
4
2 range is taken in the region of force greater than
F0
0 region, the spring constant was then determined
0 20 40 60 80
F (10–2 N)
To a large extent, physics experiments are
concerned with the determination of physical
constants, such as elastic modulus, coefficient of
thermal conductivity, and the earth’s gravitational
acceleration. Some experiments are designed
to prove known laws, and others are to find
relationships among physical quantities [1]. This
paper concerns the determination of spring
constants, which are then used to determine the
elastic moduli. It also verifies the dependence of
the spring constant on spring diameter and number
of windings.
Material and methods
Twenty springs with four different groups of
diameters, each having five different groups of
numbers of windings, were prepared. These steel
helical springs were made of coils in contact with
one another (close-wound springs). The springs
were made from steel wire (AISI 304) with a
diameter of 8.5 × 10−4 m.
The spring constant of each spring was then
determined by varying the attached load. The
spring was hung vertically and firmly clamped on
its upper end. A pan was then attached to the lower
end of the spring. A ruler which had been placed
vertically was used to measure the length of the
spring during loading and unloading. Therefore,
the mean extension of the spring was obtained for
each corresponding load.
Results and analysis
Determination of spring constant
A preliminary experiment had been carried out
to find the correct way to determine the spring
September 2011
constant of a spring with outer diameter of 2.54 ×
10−2 m and wire diameter of 8.0 × 10−4 m
containing 40 windings. It was found that there
exists a minimum force to extend the spring where
not extend the spring. This minimum value of
force is called the initial force F0 . The linear
F0 , as can be seen in figure 1. From this linear
100 using Hooke’s law and was found to be 7.1 N m−1 .
The plot of spring extension versus applied
force for each close-wound spring used in this
experiment always has an initial force. In contrast
to this result, a linear relation between spring
extension and applied force with no initial force
was recently reported by Serna and Joshi [6] who
used a single spring to study springs in series.
Dependence of spring constant on windings
Spring constants of a variety of springs were
determined using the previous method. There were
20 springs with four different groups based on
outer diameters within the ranges (1.45–1.49) ×
10−2 m, (1.83–1.84) × 10−2 m, (2.21–2.27) ×
10−2 m and (2.51–2.57) × 10−2 m. Figure 2
shows the dependence of spring constant on the
inverse of the number of windings. For springs
with a roughly identical spring diameter, the spring
constant increases in a linear manner with the
inverse of the number of windings.
Dependence of spring constant on spring
diameter
Figure 3 shows the dependence of spring constant
on the inverse of the cube of the effective spring
diameter. There were 20 springs with five different
groups, each with numbers of windings within the
ranges 11–12, 20, 30–33, 42–44 and 51–63.
For springs with a roughly identical number of
windings, the spring constant is inversely propor-
tional to the cube of the effective spring diameter.
The initial force
According to Shigley and Mischke [3] the initial
force of a spring is created during the winding
process by twisting the wire as it is wound onto
a mandrel. When the spring is removed from the
mandrel, the initial force is locked in because the
close-wound spring cannot get any shorter. It is
of interest to investigate the relation between the
initial force and the stiffness of the spring.
PHYSICS EDUCATION 541
S N Khotimah et al
Table 1. Spring parameters ( D , d , and N ) used in this experiment. Spring constants were determined from the
experiments. Elastic moduli G and E were calculated using equations (2) and (3).
D d k G E
Spring (10−2 m) (10−4 m) N (N m−1 ) (1010 N m−2 ) (1011 N m−2 )
B2 1.45 8.5 42 45.2 7.4 1.9
C2 1.45 8.5 31 55.3 6.7 1.7
D2 1.45 8.5 20 95.6 7.5 1.9
F2 1.45 8.5 59 31.5 7.2 1.9
E2 1.49 8.5 11 161.5 7.6 1.9
F3 1.83 8.5 57 13.7 6.4 1.6
B3 1.84 8.5 42 19.0 6.6 1.7
C3 1.84 8.5 31 25.7 6.6 1.7
D3 1.84 8.5 20 50.9 8.4 2.2
E3 1.84 8.5 12 68.0 6.8 1.7
E4 2.21 8.5 11 46.7 7.6 1.9
F4 2.22 8.5 63 7.0 6.6 1.7
D4 2.23 8.5 20 22.0 6.7 1.7
B4 2.25 8.5 44 9.8 6.7 1.7
C4 2.27 8.5 30 13.8 6.6 1.7
D5 2.51 8.5 20 17.9 7.8 2.0
E5 2.56 8.5 11 32.4 8.3 2.1
B5 2.57 8.5 42 6.6 6.5 1.7
C5 2.57 8.5 33 9.2 7.2 1.9
F5 2.57 8.5 51 5.4 6.5 1.7
Mean value 7.1 1.8
Standard deviation 0.6 0.2

160 160

120 120
k (N m–1)

k (N m–1)

80 80
×
40 40
× ×
×
×× × × ×
0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50
N –1 (D – d)–3 (106 m–3)

Determination of elastic modulus

At a fixed number of windings, the initial
force appears to increase along with an increase
in the spring constant. However, for springs
with roughly the same diameters, the initial force
does not seem to correlate with the number of
windings. Since the spring constant is a function
of number of windings and spring diameter, the
relation between initial force and spring constant
is unclear, as shown in figure 4.
Table 1 gives spring parameter data ( D , d , and N )
for 20 springs. The spring constant (k) was mea-
sured for each spring using the method described
in the previous section, ‘Material and methods’.
Shear modulus (G ) was then determined from
equation (2) and the corresponding Young’s mod-
ulus ( E ) for each formula was calculated using
Poisson’s ratio for steel, σ = 0.29 [7].
From this experiment, it was found that the
shear and Young’s modulus of steel AISI 304 were

542 PHYSICS EDUCATION September 2011

 The dependence of the spring constant in the linear range on spring parameters
100
80
F0 (10–2 N)
60
40
20
0
0 50 100 150
k ( N m –1 )
Figure 4. Initial force as a function of spring
constant.
(7.1 ± 0.6) × 1010 N m−2 and (1.8 ± 0.2) ×
1011 N m−2 respectively. The reference value for
Young’s modulus of steel AISI 304 is 1.93 ×
1011 N m−2 [7]. The difference between the results
and the reference was found to be 6.7%.
Conclusions
Using the preliminary measurement (figure 1) the
linear range of the relation between force and
spring extension can be determined; the spring
constant can be determined only in this range. The
spring constant was determined using Hooke’s law
from the linear relation between the extension of
the spring and the force exerted on the spring. We
see that the linear range of all close-wound springs
begins with loads of more than 7.5 × 10−3 N.
The spring constant is a measure of the
stiffness of a spring and depends on spring
parameters. We verify that the spring constant is
inversely proportional to the number of windings
and to the cube of the effective spring diameter.
Shear modulus can also be calculated and Young’s
modulus can be obtained if the Poisson ratio of
the wire material is available. The results are
acceptable for conventional experiments since the
difference from the reference is less than 9%. This
may come from inaccuracy in reading the scales
for spring extension and weighing the load as well
as the ‘non-ideal’ spring.
Received 14 February 2011, in final form 4 April 2011
doi:10.1088/0031-9120/46/5/004
References
[1] Tyler F 1967 A Laboratory Manual of Physics
3rd edn (London: Edward Arnold) p 1,
pp 14–15
September 2011
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[2] Serway R A 1996 Physics for Scientists and
Engineers with Modern Physics 4th edn
(Philadelphia: Saunders College) p 179
[3] Shigley J E and Mischke C R 1989 Mechanical
Engineering Design 5th edn (New York:
McGraw-Hill) pp 415–6, p 418
[4] Wolfram Alpha LLC 2010 Spring constant formula
www.wolframalpha.com/entities/calculators/
spring constant formula/dc/g4/w4/ accessed 7
February 2011
200 [5] Mohazzabi P and McCrickard J P 1989 On the
spring constant of a close-coiled helical spring
Am. J. Phys. 57 639–41
[6] Serna J D and Joshi A 2011 Studying springs in
series using a single spring Phys. Educ.
46 33–40
[7] Society for Amateur Scientists 2004 Engineering
material properties arranged by material
www.sas.org/engineerByProperty.html accessed
7 February 2011
Siti Nurul Khotimah received a BSc
degree in physics from Institut Teknologi
Bandung in 1985, an MSc degree in
physics from University of Tasmania in
1992, and doctorate from Institut
Teknologi Bandung in 2005. She is
currently an associate professor of
nuclear physics and biophysics at ITB
and is involved in research on
computation fluid dynamics in porous
media.
Sparisoma Viridi received BSc and MSc
degrees in physics from Institut
Teknologi Bandung in 1998 and 2001,
respectively, and Dr. rer. nat. from
Dortmund University, Germany in 2007.
He is currently assistant professor of
physics at ITB and is involved in research
on granular, computational and statistical
physics.
Widayani received BSc and MSc degrees
in physics from Institut Teknologi
Bandung in 1984 and 1991, respectively,
and a PhD in polymer science from
UMIST, UK in 2003. She is currently an
associate professor of polymer physics at
ITB and researches on natural-fibre
polymer composite.
Khairurrijal received BSc and MSc
degrees in physics from Institut
Teknologi Bandung in 1989 and 1993,
respectively, and a DEng from Hiroshima
University, Japan in 2000. He is currently
a professor of physics of materials and
instrumentation at ITB and researches on
electronic materials and devices as well
as electronics and instrumentation.
PHYSICS EDUCATION 543