A New Approach for Life Prediction of Serpentine Accessory Belt Drive System Using Actual Measured Data

Automotive front-end accessory belt drive systems employ multi-ribbed serpentine belt and are subjected to crankshaft torque fluctuation, component loading and dynamic environments, which will affect the fatigue life of the belt. The stress-life approach was employed to create the belt life equation where the serpentine belt rib stresses are used as the damage parameter. The fatigue index and fatigue strength coefficient are estimated empirically for the serpentine belt and the validity of the belt fatigue model was confirmed via additional experimental results obtained from a variety of different accessory drive configuration using different loading profiles. Finally actual measured data is used to predict the belt life using the belt fatigue model.