Creep and Relaxation of Springs

In this chapter, we study the time-dependent behavior of spring elements under constant and oscillating loading. The common creep laws are implemented to describe the material. The models for stress relaxation under constant strain and for creep under continuous load are established. For simple spring elements, closed-form solutions for the creep and relaxation models are found. The introduction of the “scaled” time variable simplifies the presentation. The experimental procedure for the experimental acquisition of creep models is presented. This chapter concludes the second part, which deals with the manufacturing of springs. The highly undesirable creep can occur during the life cycle of mechanical springs, but proper manufacturing reduces or eliminates such phenomena.