Front End Accessory Drive Vibration Control Solutions for Engines with Cylinder Deactivation

Recent internal combustion engine developments for passenger car and truck applications are incorporating cylinder deactivation in order to reduce fuel consumption. This strategy prevents combustion in half of the engine cylinders when power requirements are relatively low. The resulting irregularities from the reduced firing frequency adversely affect the front end accessory drive and require damping and/or tuning devices to lessen their severity. The scope of this paper is to investigate and recommend the best solution for vibration control, based on the increase of torsional energy in the drive. A “Design-of-Analysis” was created to methodically analyze different FEADs, with cylinder deactivation. Several tools were used to control the increased vibration including tensioner devices, multi-rib belt constructions, and alternator pulley devices. The possible solutions will be predicted through the simulation tool SIMDRIVE 3D™, developed by Contecs, and then correlated with test data measured on the actual FEAD system.