Modeling of serpentine belt accessory drive system coupled vibrations and utilizing nonlinear tensioner to enhance performances

Abstract

Serpentine belt accessory drive system (SBADS) is a complex hybrid discrete-continuous system and is a typical coupled vibration system with rigid body vibrations and belt vibrations, which consists of rotational vibrations of pulleys and tensioner arm and transverse vibrations of continuum belt spans. Taking an engine front end accessory drive system as an example, the coupling vibration model of belt, pulleys and tensioner arm is established. In the model, hysteretic behavior of tensioner is considered, and a calculation method for estimating the output torque versus the imposed angle of tensioner arm is proposed. In solving the coupled motion equations of the SBADS, transverse displacement of a belt span is discretized as the product of time function and space function by using Galerkin method, the steady-state deflections of belt spans are calculated by singular perturbation method, and the nonlinear dynamic responses of a SBADS are solved by numerical method. The nonlinear dynamic responses of the SBADS are calculated by the established method and validated by the experiment results. Benefits of nonlinear hysteretic behavior of a tensioner on the dynamic responses of a SBADS are studied, and the method for how to utilize nonlinear characteristics of tensioner to enhance the performances of a SBADS is proposed in the end of this paper.