Mechanics of Serpentine Belt Drives with Tensioner Assemblies and Belt Bending Stiffness

Steady state analysis is conducted on a multipulley serpentine belt drive with a spring-loaded tensioner assembly. Classical creep theory is extended to incorporate belt bending stiffness as well as the belt stretching and centripetal accelerations. The belt is modeled as an axially moving Euler–Bernoulli beam with nonuniform speed due to belt extensibility and variation of belt tension. The geometry of the belt-pulley contact zones and the corresponding belt tension and friction distributions are the main factors affecting belt slip. Bending stiffness introduces nontrivial span deflections, reduces the wrap angles, and makes the belt-pulley contact points unknown a priori. The free span boundary value problems (BVP) with undetermined boundaries are transformed to a fixed boundary form. A two-loop iteration method, necessitated by the tensioner assembly, is developed to find the system steady state. The effects of system parameters on serpentine drive behavior are explored in the context of an actual automotive belt drive.