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A known factor which limits the life cycle performance of automotive front-end accessory serpentine belt drive is cracking of the elastomer located in the rib tip. In this paper, fracture mechanics was used to study crack growth in belt rib. Tearing energy and J-integral were employed to characterize the fracture behavior of rubber compound. A global-local strategy was adopted to predict the crack initiation in V-ribbed belt rib. The global finite element model of the belt was created with relatively coarse mesh. The local model with fine mesh around the crack tip region was used to evaluate the J-integral. The J-integral computed using finite element analysis was compared with the threshold value found by experiments to predict the onset of crack initiation in belt rib.

This paper investigates the effect of ambient temperature on the performance characteristics of an automotive poly-rib belt operating in an under-the-hood temperature environment. A three-dimensional dynamic finite element model consisting of a driver pulley, a driven pulley, and a complete V-ribbed belt was constructed. Belt tension and rotational speed were controlled by means of loading and boundary inputs. Belt construction accounts for three different elastomeric compounds and a single layer of helical wound reinforcing cord. Rubber was considered as hyperelastic material. Cord is linear elastic. The material model was implemented in ABAQUS/Explicit for the simulation. Analysis was focused on rib flank and tip since stress concentrations in these regions are known to contribute to crack initiation and fatigue failure.

A three-dimensional dynamic finite element model was built to study the stress distribution in V-ribbed belts. Commercial finite element code ABAQUS was used for the simulation. The model consists of a pulley and a segment of V-ribbed belt in contact with the pulley. Different belt pulley tracking configurations can be obtained by varying the pulley diameter and the belt wrap angle. Belt tension and pulley rotating speed can be controlled by the load and boundary conditions. Both driving and driven pulley can be modeled by applying different sets of load and boundary conditions. Rubber is modeled as hyperelastic material. Reinforcing cord and fabric are modeled as rebar defined in ABAQUS. Emphasis was put on the belt rib tip stress because it causes belt wear and belt rib fatigue cracking. The stress at the belt rib tips depends on tension in the belt, pulley contact friction coefficients, rib rubber properties, pulley diameter and belt wrap angle.