Investigation of dynamic heat generation and transfer behavior and energy dissipation for nonlinear synchronous belt transmission

Abstract Study on energy dissipation and temperature distribution of synchronous belt transmission is of great importance in industrial engineering field, which is highly related to transmission efficiency estimation, thermal fatigue life prediction, and product design. However, the complex behaviors of viscoelastic hysteresis and meshing friction make it much more difficult to investigate heat generation and transfer mechanism of synchronous belt than other products. To accurately predict temperature and energy dissipation, a thermo-mechanical coupling model was developed through combining experiment and finite element analysis method, in which material nonlinearity of rubber hyper-viscoelasticity, and contact nonlinearity of meshing interference were comprehensively considered. Meanwhile, the friction heat flux partition coefficient and convective heat transfer coefficient were theoretically computed and corrected. As a result, the temperature distribution, hysteresis and friction energy dissipation of synchronous belt could be computed accurately, the transmission efficiency was estimated as well. The simulation temperatures of various operating conditions were confirmed by testing results. The presented methodology can completely predict energy dissipation and temperature distribution of synchronous belt transmission, which has far-reaching consequences in the engineering application filed.