The Influence of Pulley Deformations on the Shifting Mechanism of Metal Belt CVT

This paper is concerned with the shifting behavior of a metal belt CVT. The calculations are performed for the chain belt case by using a one-dimensional model of the belt: the radial thickness of the belt is neglected. The friction forces are modeled on the basis of the Coulomb friction hypothesis. The deformation of the belt, i.e., the variation of its transversal width, is shown to be negligible with respect to the variation of the local groove width caused by the elastic deformation of the pulleys and by the clearance in the bearings. The particular shape of the deformed pulley is described on the basis of Sattler model (1999) who showed that the variation of the groove angle and that one of the local groove width of the pulley can be easily described by simple trigonometric formulas. The paper shows that the characteristic behavior of the transmission during slow shifting maneuvers, referred to as “creep mode,” is caused by the bending of the pulleys, that is to say for rigid pulleys no “creep mode” can be observed. Moreover, the model shows that increasing the rate of change of speed ratio a transition from the “creep-mode” to the so called “slip-mode” behavior of the variator takes place, as experimentally observed.