Full Sliding Adhesive-Like Contact of V-Belts

Analysis of power transmission in a belt drive consisting of, e.g., two pulleys might be treated as a boundary value problem. Tight side tension $FT,$ slack side tension $FS$ and the wrap angle α are the three natural boundary conditions. In the literature, theories are developed where seating and unseating as well as the power transmitting part of the contact are considered. The solutions presented so far don’t fulfill the boundary conditions properly, since a certain tension ratio $FT/FS$ is associated with a certain contact angle and not an a priori specified one. It appears that a new type of full sliding solution must be introduced to handle the boundary condition problem. During part of the contact there is almost no tension variation in spite of the full sliding conditions. The designation adhesive-like solution is here introduced for that part. Conditions and character of the adhesive-like solution are outlined in the paper.