• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.246-255
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• 1997

The wave washer springs are expected to behave non-linearly between forces and displace¬ments due to contractions of the height and due to expansions in radial direction. To find out the non -linearity of wave washer springs, the three dimensional plate analysis theory using the finite element method is adopted in this paper. The wave washer springs are considered to be three dimensional plate structures rather than frame structures, because their thickness is normally much smaller than their width. The displacements of nodal points due to small increment of force are calculated by the finite element method and the calculated nodal displacements are added to X - Y Z coordinates of nodal points. The new stiffness matrix of the system using the new coordinates of nodal points is adopted to calculate the another nodal displacements, that is, the step by step method is used in this paper. The relations between the increments of forces and displacements in each step are recorded and plotted in chart. The experimental results are compared with the calculated chart and it is shown that there are good coincidences between measured values and calculated ones.