Design and analysis of radially tapered disc springs with parabolically varying thickness

Abstract

A theoretical analysis on Belleville spring with parabolically varying thickness is presented in this study. The analysis aims at modifying the thickness profile of radially tapered Belleville spring in order to increase the span of null slope zone in its stiffness curve, which is beneficial in some regulation processes. The expression for linearly varying thickness used by Rosa et al. is modified to incorporate a curvature factor and the corresponding load as well as stress equations are derived using the hypothesis of Almen-Laszlo. On the basis of this analysis, it is found that a spring with convex parabolic thickness profile serves better than an equally tapered spring with linear profile in regulation processes.