Fatigue Failure Mechanism of CVT Rubber Belts
The fatigue failure mechanism was investigated for the rubber CVT (continuously variable transmission) belts. There are three major crack initiation modes in the rubber CVT belts, namely the adhesive rubber crack, the backing rubber crack and the bottomland crack. Especially, the mode of the adhesive rubber crack is important to strengthen the rubber CVT belts, because the crack is the most difficult to find out during the driving. In this study, the failure morphology of the damaged belts was observed using an optical microscope and a X-ray CT scan after some fatigue tests. Moreover, the failure mechanism of the adhesive rubber crack was discussed basing on the FEM and simplified mechanical analyses. The fatigue damage was accumulated along the interface between the cog rubber and the adhesive rubber. The interface was de-bonded by the shearing strain, which was induced by the dishing deformation of the belt within the pulley groove.