Analytical wear model and its application for the wear simulation in automotive bush chain drive systems

Abstract

The wear of automotive chain drive systems after high mileages is numerically calculated based on Fleischer’s energetic wear equation. This equation is embedded in a FE-model, consisting of one single chain link only. Their time-variant positions and acting forces are taken from a multi-body simulation. A focus is on ensuring the quality of the FE-model and the contact between pin and bush, where here a penalty approach has provided a stable solution schema. The parameters of the wear model are derived from measurements. After each time increment the wear results in a changed surface geometry, which is used for the simulation of the next time increment. The enormous computation time is reduced by the development of a convenient extrapolation factor. The complex simulation approach is applied to the chain drive of a test vehicle after a mileage of about 50000 km. The comparison of the simulated and measured data demonstrates an agreeing correlation.