On the influence of friction in the calculation of conical disk springs

An analytical solution is proposed by the authors in order to take into acc ount the effects of friction in the calculation of conical disk springs. Th e new formulation allows a more accurate estimate of the load corresponding to a given displacement, but it implies the knowledge of the friction coef ficient f between the spring and the supporting surfaces. The reported nume rical examples show that, disregarding friction effects, the maximum error committed in the evaluation of the load is in the range 2-5%, with f = 0.14 (average friction coefficient value determined experimentally on commercia l conical disk springs with different geometry). Comparison with both exper imental and finite element calculations show a very good agreement of the a nalytical prediction.