How Disc Springs Improve Reliability in Heat Battery Systems

The Role of Disc Springs in Heat Battery Applications

During the operation of a heat battery system, components such as containers, heat exchangers, and supporting structures experience continuous temperature changes. These temperature variations cause thermal expansion and contraction, which can generate additional mechanical loads and fatigue stress.

Heat battery applications often involve elevated operating temperatures and long service periods. Therefore, spring components must maintain their mechanical properties throughout repeated heating and cooling cycles.

Disc springs are installed as flexible load compensation elements and designed to provide: 

• Absorb thermal expansion and contraction movements
• Maintain stable contact forces between components
• Reduce fatigue loads caused by repeated thermal deformation
• Protect critical components from excessive mechanical stress

Supporting Long Service Life Through Fatigue Design

In heat battery systems, disc springs are subjected to repeated compression and release movements caused by temperature fluctuations. This makes fatigue performance a key design consideration.

By carefully analyzing the working range, preload condition, temperature influence, and maximum operating loads, disc spring stacks can be optimized to achieve the required service life.

A properly designed disc spring system helps ensure: 

• Consistent force performance over millions of load cycles
• Reduced risk of component fatigue failure
• Increased reliability of the entire thermal system

 

The image on the left highlights a heat battery project by OPTIMUM Disc Spring. For this application, OPTIMUM supplied a set of high-temperature 1.4923 X22CrMoV12 1 disc springs. The spring stack consisted of 12 pcs disc springs and achieved a fatigue life of over 500,000 cycles under 350 °C operating conditions.

 

Need expert advice? Contact our engineer today for customize solutions at jc@optimum-spring.com !