ABSTRACT
The concept of stiffness is easily extended to a spring. See Figure 8-2. The leaf spring on the left is deflected a vertical distance by load F. The spring stiffness is the slope of the F/ diagram and is equal to F/ = 48EI/L3. See texts on mechanics of materials. An interesting comparison can be drawn between the leaf spring and a circular spring, or ring, on the right. The leaf spring is analogous to the circular spring which, from Appendix A, has a spring stiffness of F/ = 53.77EI/D3. (Sp)ring stiffness is similar in form to the leaf spring stiffness.
