AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY ON TRANSMISSION EFFICIENCY OF A RUBBER V-BELT CVT

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the speed and tor que loss components of the power loss of a rubber V-belt continuously variable transmission (CVT) as operating conditions (parameters) chang e. These conditions include the speed ratio, belt tension, rotational speed, external load, diameters of the pulley, etc. A dynamometer is c onstructed to measure the speeds and torques of the driving and driven pulleys so as to identify the losses and efficiency of the experiment al CVT. The power loss of the CVT is investigated not only at constant running speeds but during acceleration when the speed ratio changed c ontinuously. An uncertainty analysis is then performed for the estimat ion of the accuracy of experimental data. In addition, the repeatabili ty of the experiment was studied to guarantee that reliable results we re obtained. Experimental results demonstrated that the power loss as well as transmission efficiency of the CVT differed from those of the V-belt drives. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.