Learning Forum

[Noura Mansour]

[peteroznewman]

I see you have a barrel spring with a 20 mm wire diameter and about a 4 mm gap between the coils in the undeformed spring.

What do you mean by "overcoming" the gap?

Fix one end of the spring, compress the other end of the spring and Solve the Static Structural Model (with Large Deflection turned on). The gap will close and the coils will push against each other. That is one way to overcome the gap.

[Noura Mansour]

Sorry but I don’t know if the gap is normal or not ? 

Is it can cause unconvergence solution 

 

[peteroznewman]

You inserted a Contact Tool under the Connections folder. When you generate Initial Contact Status, you get results such as the gaps present in the contact pair.  You could also open the geometry in the CAD system and measure a similar value  on that same geometry.

It is normal to have a gap between coils in an open wound spring.  If you stretch the spring, the contact will remain open, the size of the gap will get larger and there will be little chance of the solution failing to converge.  If you compress the spring, the contact should close as the coils press against each other and the gap will reduce to zero. Depending on how much compression you apply, you may run into difficulties with convergence.