Dynamic modeling of serpentine belt drive systems and the tranverse vibration control of the belt

Serpentine belt with multi-ribbed driven system are wiedly used in the automotive industry to drive engine front end accessories,such as the alternator,air conditioner,power steering pump,and so on.An important component in a serpentine belt driven system is a tensioner that can automatically compensate for tension changes in the belt.In this paper,a serpentine belt system model incorporating bending stiffness of the belt is established using Hamilton equation.The influences of design variables of a tensioner on the equilibrium deflections are investigated using the model.An optimization method to reduce the maximum transverse deflections of the belt span and increase the tensioner effectiveness is presented.The calculated results show that with the optimized tensioner,the maximum transverse deflection of the system is suppressed effectively,and the coupling between the pulley vibration and the span vibration is also reduced.The dynamic modeling method for the serpentine belt driven systems and the belt transverse vibration control method presented in this paper can be used for the optimization design of the belt driven system.And also it is useful to estimate the design parameters of a tensioner.