Transverse vibration instabilities in multiribbed belt transmission subjected to multi-frequency excitations: modelling and experiments

Abstract

This paper experimentally investigates the parametric instability of an industrial axially moving belt subjected to multifrequency excitation. Based on the equations of motion, an analytical perturbation analysis is achieved to identify instabilities. The second part deals with an experimental set-up that subjects a moving belt to multi-frequency parametric excitation. A data acquisition technique using optical encoders and based on the angular sampling method is used with success for the first time on a non-synchronous belt transmission. Transmission error between pulleys, pulley/belt slip and tension fluctuation are deduced from pulley rotation angle measurements. Experimental results validate the theoretical analysis. Of particular note is that the instability regions are shifted to lower frequencies than the classical ones due to the multi-frequency excitation.