Steady Motion of a Slack Belt Drive: Dynamics of a Beam in Frictional Contact With Rotating Pulleys

We seek the steady-state motion of a slack two-pulley belt drive with the belt modeled as an elastic, shear-deformable rod. Dynamic effects and gravity induce significant transverse deflections due to the low pre-tension. In analogy to the belt-creep theory, it is assumed that each contact region between the belt and one of the pulleys consists of a single sticking and a single sliding zone. Based on the governing equations of the rod theory, we for the first time derive the corresponding boundary value problem and integrate it numerically. Furthermore, a novel mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian finite element scheme is developed that iteratively seeks the steady-state solution. Finite element solutions are validated against semi-analytic results obtained by numerical integration of the boundary value problem. Parameter studies are conducted to examine solution dependence on the stiffness coefficients and the belt pre-tension.