Serpentine Belt Span Vibrations caused by Dynamic Pulley and Crankshaft Oscillations

In practical operation, serpentine belts are subjected to parametric excitation caused by tension and translation speed fluctuations from pulley rotations and crankshaft speed oscillations. Each of these excitation sources has spectral content at multiple frequencies and arbitrary phases. Stability boundaries for primary, secondary, and simultaneous primary/secondary parametric instabilities are determined analytically. The classical result that primary instability occurs when one of the excitation frequencies is close to twice a natural frequency changes as a result of multiple excitation frequencies. Unusual interactions occur for the practically important case of simultaneous primary and secondary instabilities.