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Procedia
Engineering
Procedia Engineering
Procedia 00 (2011)
Engineering 000–000
15 (2011) 5290 – 5293
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Advanced in Control Engineering and Information Science

The calculation of the Classical V-Belt life with different

reliability
Chuanqiong Sun ∗ , Aihua Ren, Guoxing Sun,Yongde Liu
"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei Automotive Industries institute , ShiYan,Hubei Province 442002,P.R.China"

Abstract

The methods from the GB / T 11355 and GB / T 13575 can not calculate precisely the driving capability of the V-belt
which had requirement of reliability. A new formula which can figure out the life of the V-belt with different
reliability is presented, and a calculating example by the new method has been provided.

© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of [CEIS 2011]
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
"Keywords: V-belt; Reliability;Life; Power rating"

1. Introduction

With the development of science and technology, the reliability has become a key indicator to evaluate
the quality of the machinery product. The V-belt drive is one of the widely used mechanical
transmissions, and obviously it should be designed according to different requirements of reliability to
ensure the V-belt drive can meet the expected reliability requirements under normal work condition. But
GB/T11355 (equate to ISO 5292:1995) or GB/T13575 does not define the reliability exactly, so the actual
reliability can be regarded as 50%.
According to [1], there is a new way that can determine the carrying capability of V-belt with different
reliability requirements. The coefficient of reliability of D-section V-belt on different reliabilities is
derived out from life test data and the practical examples to determine the power rating of a belt with the

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.:+8613886847385
E-mail address: chuanqiongsun@163.com

1877-7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.08.980
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same D-section when the life span is 5000h ( t h =5000h) and reliability is 50% or 90% are given. The life
of the same cross section V-belt should be calculated with the different initial conditions: an equivalent
power rating of a single V-belt but different reliability requirements by the new method.

2. A formula of the new method

The formula for calculating the power rating of V-belt:

[ P ] = 10 −3 [ K R K i K L K v K h C a − Cb / d1 − C c v 2 ]K α v kW (1)

Where: K R —reliability factor

K i —transmission factor, K i = m 2 {1 + [1 − rb (1 − 1 i )]m }
K L —length factor, K L = m L L0
K v —velocity factor, K v = m 10 v
K h —the expected life factor, K h = m t h 0 t h
Kα —wrap angle factor, Kα = 1.25(1 − 1 e 0.5123α1 )
Ca , Cb , Cc —const
d1 —pitch diameter of smaller pulley, mm
d 2 —pitch diameter of larger pulley, mm
a —centre distance, mm
v —periphery velocity, m/s
α1 —the wrap angle on the smaller pulley, radian
i = d 2 d1 —the transmission ratio
L —the pitch length of belt, mm
L0 —the basic pitch length of belt, mm
th 0 —the expected life of V-belt, h
t h —the special life of V-belt, h
rb = Cb ( K L K v K hCa d1 )
m is exponent: classical V-belt m≈11.1, th 0 =5000h ,narrow V-belt m≈12.6, th 0 =15000h and other
factors and const can be gotten from [1].

Table 1. The reliability factor K R

R (%) 50 60 70 80 90 95 99
KR 1 0.991 0.981 0.969 0.953 0.939 0.914
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Engineering 15 000–000
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3. The calculation of the classical V-Belt life with different reliability

The formula (2) is derived from (1):

K R K h = [1000 [ P] ( Kα v) + Cb d1 + Cc v 2 ] /( Ki K L K vCa ) (2)

For the same V-belt drive system, the belt length L, pitch diameter d1 and d2, center distance a , wrap
angle α1 of smaller pulley are all constant. If the periphery velocity v , power rating [P] remain
unchanged and an appropriate preloading F0 is exerted, the reliability factor K R will change as the
expected reliability requirement changes. And the parameters on the right side of formula (2) remain
unchanged except K i changes into the function of K h due to rb . Actually K i changes little as only K h
changes, and this change can be neglected. At first trial, K h can be set 1 ， and then K i can also be
regarded as unchanged .So the product of K h and K R on the left side of formula (2) can also be regarded
as constant，that is K R K h = C
Formula (2) can be transformed:

C = [1000 [ P] ( K α v ) + Cb d1 + Cc v 2 ] /( K i K L K v C a ) (3)

Set K h = m t h 0 t h , R in the above formulae, so the expected life of V-belt on different reliabilities
t h , R can be obtained
t h , R = t h 0 ⋅ (K R C )
m
(4)

4. An example

For a D-section classical V-belt drive system, the material carcass of the belt is cotton cord fabric, the
pitch length of belt L=3150mm, the basic pitch length of belt L0=6300mm, the pitch diameter of V-belt
pulley d1=355mm, d2=710mm, the centre distance a ≈1300mm, the wrap angle of smaller pulley
α1 = 164.4° , periphery velocity v = 18.22 m/s, power rating of the belt [ P] = 11.1 kW.
Calculating: 1) the expected life of V-belt t h , 0.5 when R = 50% ;
2) the expected life of V-belt th , 0.9 when R = 90% .

Table 2. The results of the example

Project R KR Ca Cb Cc Kα KL Kv rb Ki C t h ,R ( h)
(1) 50% 1 1885 350000 0.496 0.963 0.939 0.947 0.588 1.062 1 5000
Results
(2) 90% 0.953 1885 350000 0.496 0.963 0.939 0.947 0.588 1.062 1 2930

The result shows when the reliability increases from 50% to 90% , the service life drops from
t h , 0.5 = 5000 h to t h, 0.9 = 2930 h respectively with the reduce ratio 41.4% .
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Engineering (2011) 5290
(2011) – 5293
000–000 5293

5. Conclusions

(1)The new method from [1] can calculate the expected life of V-belt with different requirements
reliability.
(2) The practical example shows the increase in the reliability leads to the decrease in service life.
When the reliability increases from 50% to 90%, the service life drops from t h , 0.5 = 5000 h to t h, 0.9 = 2930 h
with the reduce ratio 41.4%.

6. References

[1] Liu Yongde. New Method for Calculating Rated Tr (2): 103—107. ansmission Power of V-belt. CHINA RUBBER
INDUSTRY 1994, 41
[2] Liu Yongde.The calculation of nominal power of D-section classical V-belt with different reliability.THE FIFTH BELT
TRANSMISSION COMMITTEE OF CHINESE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SOCIETY, 2002.