Typical applications

Spring elements are used to model actual physical springs as well as idealizations of axial or torsional components. They can also model restraints to prevent rigid body motion.

They are also used to represent structural dampers by specifying structural damping factors to form the imaginary part of the spring stiffness.

Choosing an appropriate element

SPRING1 and SPRING2 elements are available only in Abaqus/Standard. SPRING1 is between a node and ground, acting in a fixed direction. SPRING2 is between two nodes, acting in a fixed direction.

The SPRINGA element is available in both Abaqus/Standard and

Abaqus/Explicit. SPRINGA acts between two nodes, with its line of action being the line joining the two nodes, so that this line of action can rotate in large-displacement analysis.

The spring behavior can be linear or nonlinear in any of the spring elements in Abaqus.

Element types SPRING1 and SPRING2 can be associated with displacement or rotational degrees of freedom (in the latter case, as torsional springs). However, the use of torsional springs in large-displacement analysis requires careful consideration of the definition of total rotation at a node; therefore, connector elements () are usually a better approach to providing torsional springs for large-displacement cases. Input File Usage: U se the following option to

specify a spring element between

a node and ground, acting in a

fixed direction:

, TYPE=SPRING1

Use the following option to

specify a spring element between

two nodes, acting in a fixed

direction:

, TYPE=SPRING2