Calculating Stiffness Value Over Unit Area

[AndrewL87]

I'm using springs to add stiffness to a model I am calculating or elastic supports as they are called in Solidworks Simulation.

I have the value of stiffness calculated as 285 lbf/in but the program will not let me enter this value on a curved face. It wants me to enter the units as a distributed value (lbf/in)/in2.

Does anyone have experience with this? How would I even get to this value? Yes I could divide by the calculated blue area shown in the picture but don't you think the program would know how to do this?

Here is the solidworks definition for the distributed value: "Distributed. The value of the stiffness per unit area. The equivalent total stiffness equals the common area of projection multiplied by the distributed stiffness."

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

 

[gravityandinertia]

KD = F is the typical equation for a spring. If you make F = 1 you can get your spring displacement to be 1/D. If you do the equivalent of this but rather than applying a uniform load, apply a uniform pressure, you should then get what you are looking for.