Mechanics and Sliding Friction in Belt Drives With Pulley Grooves

The steady mechanics of a two-pulley belt drive system are examined where the pulley grooves, belt extension and wedging in the grooves, and the associated friction are considered. The belt is modeled as an axially moving string with the tangential and normal accelerations incorporated. The pulley grooves generate two-dimensional radial and tangential friction forces whose undetermined direction depends on the relative speed between belt and pulley along the contact arc. Different from single-pulley analyses, the entry and exit points between the belt spans and pulleys must be determined in the analysis due to the belt radial penetration into the pulley grooves and the coupling of the driver and driven pulley solutions. A new computational technique is developed to find the steady mechanics of a V-belt drive. This allows system analysis, such as speed/torque loss and maximum tension ratio. The governing boundary value problem (BVP) with undetermined boundaries is converted to a fixed boundary form solvable by a general-purpose BVP solver. Compared to flat belt drives or models that neglect radial friction, significant differences in the steady belt-pulley mechanics arise in terms of belt radial penetration, free span contact points, tension, friction, and speed variations.