Finite Element Study of Dynamic Response of Serpentine Belt-Drives with Isolator Clutches

An explicit time integration finite element code is used to study the effect of introducing isolator clutches on the dynamic response of an automotive serpentine front-end accessory belt-drive. Introducing isolator clutches at high-load driven accessories or between the engine and the crank pulley, helps in alleviating the detrimental effects of the engine start/stop events, transmission shifts, and periodic excitation due to the engine combustion events on the belt-drive. In this paper, the effect of introducing an isolator clutch at the alternator of a typical automotive belt-drive during an engine start event is studied. Time-histories of the tensioner motion, belt-spans tensions/transverse deflections, pulleys hub-loads, and pulleys-belt slip percentages are generated with and without an isolator clutch.