A novel analytical model for the thermal behavior of a fiber-reinforced plastic pulley in a front-end accessory drive

Abstract

This research proposes an innovative model for calculating the temperature distribution of a composite pulley inside a belt drive. The main advantage of the proposed model is a significant reduction in the costs of calculation resources and time. This model adopts two classical theories to determine the heat generation flux and subsequent thermal flow into the pulley. Then, ordinary differential equations are developed in this model according to the irregular geometric structures of a pulley to describe the thermal flow inside this component. Afterward, analytical solutions of the ordinary differential equations are derived to provide final temperature distributions of the pulleys. Moreover, measurements of thermal properties are conducted to reduce the influence of errors. To improve the reliability of the results, experimental temperature measurements were performed on a composite pulley of a designed belt drive system in an engine dynamometer system to validate this analytical model under various operating conditions. The temperature data measured at multiple locations indicate good agreement with the corresponding analytical results. Therefore, the temperature distribution provided by this model can be utilized for the development of high-thermal resistance composite. It can also be used for thermal fatigue simulations of composites under numerous load cases.