Stress analysis and wear life prediction of metal sheet of CVT under high speed condition

Abstract

In order to improve the stress state of the metal sheet of the continuously variable transmission (CVT) under high-speed conditions and prolong its wear life, it is proposed to replace the bearing steel material of the metal sheet in the CVT with magnesium alloy material. Based on the wear depth of side surface on the metal sheet, the improved wear life prediction model of the metal sheet is derived, so that the service life of the metal sheet can be more clearly represented by the total mileage of the electric vehicle. The three-dimensional finite element model (FEM) of the CVT is established and validated through experiments. The results obtained from simulation and experiment analysis show that: The deformation of the pulley obtained by simulation are in good agreement with the experimental data. After the magnesium alloy material is applied to the metal sheet, the stress state of metal sheet can be effectively improved under high-speed condition, especially at low speed ratio, and the peak stress of magnesium alloy metal sheet is significantly lower than that of existing bearing steel metal sheet. In addition, the deviation between the total mileage of electric vehicles equipped with magnesium alloy metal sheet and that of electric vehicles equipped with bearing steel metal sheet is only 5.65%. The research results can provides a certain reference for the application of magnesium alloy material on CVT metal belt.