Application of Grey Relational Analysis to the Influential Factors on Natural Frequencies of Helical Springs

This paper is aimed at the utilization of grey relational analysis model to investigate the influential factors, i.e., the helical angle, coil diameter, wire diameter, and the number of active coils, on the dynamic properties on the dynamic properties of a helical spring during manufacturing. The natural frequencies are selected as the quality targets in the present research. With a view to bypassing the tedious laboratory task in measuring the natural frequencies related to these 81 combinations of those influential factors, a finite-element model with the aid of ANSYS package is established for the computer simulation instead. Of the four significant variables under investigation, the helical angle is found to be the most influential one for the first four natural frequencies, two for longitudinal modes, and two for bending modes, respectively. The method propounded in this paper may serve the purpose of providing the researchers with an alternative approach to some other related applications.