Spring work

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The elastic spring work W is the energy that is stored in a spring as potential energy when an external force acts. It is given by the area below the spring characteristic . It is calculated for a general spring

, where s denotes the distance covered (the deflection) and F the spring force .

With spiral and torsion bar springs the potential energy is

with deflection angle and torsional moment (torque) of the spring (instead of the spring force).

In general, the spring force F or is dependent on the path already covered when the spring is deflected. In many cases the force is proportional to the deflection and can be described with a spring constant using Hooke's law .