ON THE EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS AND IMPROVED DESIGN OF A RUBBER V-BELT CVT

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study on the power- loss mechanisms and efficiency of a rubber V-belt continuously variabl e transmission (CVT). Since the V-belt drive and CVT possessed similar motion characteristics, the power-loss mechanisms of the former were employed to explore those of the latter. Meanwhile, the distinction be tween them, namely speed-ratio change, was especially investigated. Th e power loss was divided into two parts: torque and speed losses. The effects of the design and operating parameters on loss mechanisms were analysed experimentally as the CVT operated at both steady-state and transient conditions. The experiment not only verified the results of the theoretical analysis but also revealed the trend of efficiency aff ected by the parameters.