Mechanical Properties Analysis Of Diaphram Springs

Diaphragm spring is the key part of diaphragm spring clutch; its design quality can influence not only the service performance and life of clutch, but also the matching of clutch and the vehicle. So, it's very important to calculate load characteristic of diaphragm spring accurately in the design of diaphragm spring clutch. At present, the conventional design methods proposed by American J.O.Almen and Laszlo is still widely used, but in the course of diaphragm spring's design and make, it is found that, by testing for the spring, the diaphragm spring designed by A-L formula can not meet the design requirements in the loads, lifting range and so on, it demands amending the size parameters of diaphragm spring and further testing again. In the way, it not only prolongs the trail production cycle, but also increases the cost. So, it's needed to find out a more effective calculation method.In this paper, the diaphragm spring is studied, after introducing the A-L method and the basic characteristics of diaphragm spring, the simulation analysis of the diaphragm spring's mechanical performance is given in which the FEA is used. The parametric 3D model of diaphragm spring is established by using the ANSYS Parameter Design Language, which greatly simplifies the process of modeling; then, the FEA model of diaphragm spring is built by using proper mapped meshing and determining the boundary conditions. The loading process is simulated and the load characteristic curve is obtained, compared with the experimental results, it shows that the FEA model is correct.Based on the FEA analysis of diaphragm spring, mathematic regression model of load characteristic of diaphragm spring is built, then, A-L formula coefficients are amended to improve the calculation accuracy. On the base of the analysis of stress distribution and the failure feature of diaphragm spring, the dangerous region is confirmed, according to materialσ-N curve, fatigue life of diaphragm spring is predicted. At last, optimization model of diaphragm spring is established and the results are much better.