Dynamic optimization design of a cylindrical helical spring

In this paper, a numerical method to model the dynamic behavior of an isotropic helical spring is coupled with optimization algorithms to construct a dynamic optimization method based not only on mechanical and geometrical objective functions and constraints; but also on dynamic ones. In the proposed dynamic optimization problem, four geometric parameters are chosen as design variables (wire diameter, middle helix diameter, active coils numbers and spring pitch). In addition of mechanical and geometrical constraints, dynamic ones related to natural frequencies of the helical spring are added. Two objective functions are chosen to be optimized: the spring mass and its natural frequencies. This method is then applied to the case of circular cross section helical spring, and then optimization results are presented and discussed.