A method for calculating belt transverse vibration in serpentine belt drive systems

A Prototypical Serpentine Belt Drive System(PSBDS),which includes driving pulley,driven pulleys,one tensioner and belt,is taken as a research example for calculating transverse vibration of a belt in serpentine belt drive systems.A model for estimating the transverse vibration of the belt in a PSBDS is proposed.In the model,the belt is simplified as a moving Bernoulli-Euler beam,and the pulley and the tensioner arm is regarded as rotational rigid body.The transverse vibration of belts in PSBDS in steady state is obtained using Boundary Value Problem solving technology.The transverse displacements of belts are continuous function with time and belt location variables.To use conventional methods for solving discrete system equations,the vibration equations of belts are discreted using Garlerkin method.An experiment is carried out for getting the vibration of belts and pulleys,and the test results are compared with calculations.It is shown that the experiment and calculation data for belt transverse vibrations and rotational response of pulleys agrees well,which validate the calculation methods proposed in this paper.The method presented in this paper is useful for designing complex serpentine belt drive system,such as engine front end accessory drive systems.