School

of
Engineering

Year 1 Laboratories

BF
Belt Friction

ENGG110
Module :
Solids and Structures 1

Coordinator : Dr GK Schleyer

Laboratory
Teaching : Oguzhan Der & Robert Williams
Assistants
Safety
Students are reminded that they are required by Law to comply with the Department’s basic rules of
laboratory safety, given to them at the start of the semester. The principle hazard in this experiment relates
to potential injury - particularly to toes and feet - caused by metal weights of up to 5kg falling. Care should
therefore be exercised at all times and particularly when attaching and removing the weights. All weights
and hangers should be removed from the apparatus before attempting to alter the lap angle. You are
advised not to stand with feet where weights could fall.

Notation
Symbol Details Units
g Acceleration due to gravity (9.81) m·s-2
G External drive torque applied to pulley N·m
m, M Mass kg
R Pulley Radius m
T Belt Tension N
β V-Belt Angle deg, rad
µ Coefficient of Static Friction between Belt and Pulley -
θ Lap Angle deg, rad

1 Aim & Objectives

The aim of this lab is to help illustrate and reinforce concepts taught in Solids and Structures relating to
static friction, forces and equilibrium. The friction in a belt and pulley system will be investigated and
quantified.

Upon successful completion of this lab, you should be better able to:

• Understand the mechanics of frictional forces between belts and pulleys;

• Appreciate the applicability and the limitations of the theory;

• Carry out laboratory experiments;

• Collect and record data;

• Estimate accuracy and assess errors;

• Understand Least-Squares data fit.

The technical objectives of this lab are to:

• Investigate how well the standard mathematical model describes belt friction;

• Determine the coefficient of static friction between a flat belt and a steel pulley;

• Compare the effectiveness of rectangular and V- section belts;

• Simulate the effect of wear or bad fit on a V-section belt.

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2 Introduction
Belts provide a convenient means of transmitting mechanical power between shafts, and are widely used in
vehicles and machinery. On automobiles, ancillary components such as the electrical generator (alternator),
the water pump, the power steering pump, the air conditioning pump are usually driven from the engine by
belts. On some commercial vehicles, additional ancillaries such as air compressors may also be belt-driven
from the engine. Friction provides the mechanism for transmission of power between a belt and pulley.

As well as providing drive and power transmission, belts in the form of the band-brake can be used to
prevent or to arrest motion: for example, passenger lift and crane winch winding mechanisms.

The maximum power transmission on a belt-drive system is limited by the amount of friction available
between the belt of the pulley, by the angle that the belt wraps around the pulley (the lap angle), and
ultimately, by the strength of the belt itself.

The cross-section of the belt may be rectangular (flat), wedge (V) shaped, or circular. V-section belts are
often employed with V-grooved pulley rims to prevent belts slipping off and to increase the performance.
Toothed belts - employed where no appreciable slip can be tolerated, such as in the case of timing-belts
driving camshafts on internal combustion engines – require a different analysis to that used here.

2.1 Theory and Equipment

The theory is explained in the context of the experiment you are about to do. The apparatus is depicted in
Fig. 1. The belt is assumed inextensible, completely flexible in bending, and of negligible mass. It passes
around the circular pulley, the contact length subtending an angle θ (called the lap angle) at the pulley’s
centre. The pulley can rotate about its centre. The theory assumes that when slippage occurs between belt
and pulley, it occurs simultaneously at all points of contact over the lap angle θ. (see Fig. 1).

The right hand end of the belt is anchored on a peg, so the belt will essentially not move during the
procedures. The portion of the belt in contact with the pulley is held stationary, in equilibrium, under the
action of the tension forces T1 and T2 and the friction and normal reaction forces exerted on it by the
pulley. In the experiment, the pulley will be driven by a clockwise torque (moment) G.

Let us assume that T1 is constant and that the torque G is increased steadily from zero; a point will
eventually be reached at which the pulley will start to slip past the stationary belt and hence to rotate.
When the belt is on the point of slipping, simple theory for a flat belt predicts that

T1
= e µθ (1)
T2

where θ is expressed in radians. µ is the dimensionless coefficient of static friction. For a well-fitted V-belt
with the cross-section shown in Fig. 2, Eqn (1) has to be slightly modified to:

(1a)
µθ
T1
= e sin β
T2

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 θ
T2
R

Anchor point

T1

mg

Mg
Fig. 2: V-Belt in Cross-Section
Fig 1. Flat Belt and Pulley

Therefore, if θ is known, if T1 is given, and if T2 can be measured or deduced at the point of slip, a value for
the coefficient of friction µ satisfying Eqn (1) can be estimated by rearranging Eqn (1). But to determine
whether the equation adequately describes the physics for (all) other values of the variables we would
need to repeat the process for different combinations of values of the variables.

Our procedure will be to fix θ and T1 and determine the T2 value at which slip occurs; then increase T1 and
find the new corresponding value for T2, all the time keeping θ constant. We then plot T1 vs T2. If the theory
were accurate, we would expect a straight line graph passing through the origin with gradient = e µθ .

How can we determine the tensions T1 and T2? Rather than directly measure them, we deduce their values
indirectly. First, we hang a known mass M on the free end of the belt, as shown in Fig.1. The belt supports
the mass by generating an internal tension: precisely the force T1 in Eqn (2) and Fig. 1.

T1 = Mg (2)

The pulley remains at rest because the right side of the belt exerts an equal and opposite moment on it. At
this point, T2 = T1. Next we apply the clockwise drive-torque to the pulley by hanging mass m on the light
string that is attached to the pulley. This will cause T2 to decrease. The drive torque G is given by Eqn (3).

G = mgR (3)

After a certain point, T2 will decrease so much that the pulley will slip. For as long as the pulley remains in
equilibrium, right up to the point of slip, the clockwise drive torque is balanced by a nett anticlockwise
torque exerted on the pulley by the belt, the forces T1 and T2 exerting anti-clockwise and clockwise torque
components respectively. The equation of rotational equilibrium at all points right up to the onset of slip
can be written

G (= mgR) = T1R − T2 R = (T1 − T2 ) R (4)

This implies that

T2 = ( M − m ) g (5)

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4 Experimental Procedure and Data Gathering
This section describes what you actually need to do during the lab session. Read it especially carefully!

4.1 Part 1 – Flat belt

a. Place the flat belt in the groove on the pulley.

b. Adjust the anchor point of the belt to give a lap angle of 60°.

c. Add mass to the hanger on the left hand side to achieve M=1kg

d. Increase the mass m on the string hanger (right hand side) until the pulley begins to rotate.

e. Record clearly in Table A.1 (see Annex 2, page 11) the value of m at the onset of rotation. DO NOT
PERFORM ANY CALCULATIONS AT THIS STAGE! Concentrate on taking careful readings and
accurately recording them! Complete the Tables in black ink!

f. Repeat steps d-e for values of M of 2kg; 3kg; 4kg; 5kg.

g. Repeat steps c-f for lap angles of 90°, 120°, 150° and 180°.

4.2 Part 2 – V-belt (new and worn)

a. Choose just one lap angle for these tests. Make a note of the lap angle in the captions under Tables
A.2 and A.3 in Annex 2.

b. Replace the flat belt with a V-belt, putting the belt in its CORRECT slot, i.e. so that the belt is NOT
TOUCHING the bottom of the channel.

c. For each value of M from 1kg – 5kg, determine the maximum m which can be supported, entering
the results into Annex 2 Table A.2.

d. Repeat (c) with the V-belt placed in the groove that makes contact with the bottom of the belt,
rather than with its two sloping sides. This simulates a worn or badly-fitted V-belt. Enter the results
into Annex 2 Table A.3.

5 Data Analysis
The analysis described in this section is all to be conducted after the experiment is finished. It will involve
calculations and graph plotting. You should use the template "Word" document provided. You may either
complete the calculations by hand/using a calculator. A partially completed Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
called "BF Spreadsheet.xls" is provided which you may wish to use. Likewise, the graphs can be produced
from within Excel. You may alternatively draw them carefully by hand, or produce them using any other
suitable software that you are familiar with, then scan or paste them into the report template. Whatever
method you use to produce them, graphs must be correctly annotated, with titles, axis labels and units
where applicable.

If you decide to use "BF Spreadsheet.xls" you will need to transfer your raw data into the appropriate
columns, then either configure the spreadsheet to perform the necessary computations (which is the
recommended way) or carry them out yourself by other means.

You will need to determine "best fit" lines. You can either do this by estimating, but more marks will be
awarded for accurate calculations, e.g. using the theory presented in Annex 1.

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Instructions for Part 1: (Flat Belt)

1. Enter raw data ('m' values) into columns C, E, G, I, K of Worksheet 1 (see Fig. 4) or your own table.

2. Use Eqn (2) to complete column B (T1).

3. Use Eqn (5) for T2 to populate columns D, F, H, J, L.

4. On the same axes, plot the five “T1 (y-axis) vs T2 (x-axis)” data sets corresponding to the five
different Lap Angles. Insert a legend (key) to identify the lines.

5. Calculate (least squares fit) or estimate the gradient of a "best fit" straight line through the origin
for each of the above lines. (Accurate calculations will be awarded more marks than estimates)

6. Enter or link these gradients (average T1/T2 values) into worksheet 2 (See Fig. 5) and compute the
Natural Logarithm of the gradients. Then plot Lap Angle in radians (x-axis) vs Natural Logarithm of
the gradient (y-axis). This should give another straight line graph whose slope = coefficient of
friction.

7. Calculate using a least square fit theory or estimate this gradient and record the coefficient of
friction.

Fig. 4: Excel Spreadsheet: WorkSheet 1: Computing Forces

Fig. 5: Excel Spreadsheet: WorkSheet 2: Flat Belt Determination of Coefficient of Friction

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Instructions for Part 2: V-Belt and Comparisons

Enter or link your data from Tables 2 and 3 and the appropriate column from Table 1 into Sheet 3 of the
Spreadsheet, and complete the columns T1, T2 and T1-T2. This last parameter gives a measure of the
effectiveness of the belt since by Eqn (4) it is proportional to the drive torque at which slip occurs. So
plotting T1 –T2 against (say) T1 allows some comparison to made between the different configurations
tested.

Fig. 6 Excel Spreadsheet: WorkSheet 3: Comparisons

5 Technical Note Instructions

You will need to download BF Technical Note Template, complete it in MS Word, then upload your
Technical Note to VITAL. The technical note contains the following sections, weighted as shown:

• Abstract 5%

• Raw Data 35%

• Results 40%

• Discussion 10%

• Conclusions 10%

Download BF Technical Note Template from the Submission folder in the BF: Belt Friction section of the
Year 1 Labs and Practicals module on VITAL. Complete the Technical Note Template. You are advised to
retain the formatting of the document. If you are having difficulty please contact the LTAs by email for help.

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Rename the document before submitting it to include the date that you were in the lab and your
name – for example “BF Technical Note 21.11.13 John Smith.docx”.

The deadline for submitting is before midnight 5 working days from the date of the lab, not including
the day of the lab. So if you did the lab on Monday the 2nd, the deadline would be at 23:59 on
Monday the 9th. Working days include all days on which the university is open, including vacations,
but not national holidays.

Bibliography
1. R.C. Hibbeler, Engineering Mechanics - Statics, 12th Ed. SI Units, Pearson, 2010
2. Charles Mischke and Joseph Shigley, Mechanical Engineering Design, 6th ed, McGraw Hill,
2001.
3. Myszka, D.H., Machines and Mechanisms – Applied Kinematic Analysis, Prentice Hall, 1999.
4. BS 3790:2006, Specification for belt drives. British Standards Publishing Limited

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Annex 1 Theory of Least Squares Fit: The analysis requires six "best fit" lines to be drawn through data.
How should such lines be selected? You can do this free-hand but the results are unlikely to be very good.
The most common approach and one which has a good scientific basis is the "Least Squares" fit. The simple
theory of this, in a form directly applicable to the analysis you have to perform here, is now presented.

Fig.3: Least Squares Fit of Y=mX to Data

Suppose we have N data pairs (xi, yi) represented by the triangles in Fig. 3 and we seek a straight-line fit
that passes through the origin. That means we seek an equation of the form

y = mx (6)

to fit the data. The least-squares criterion will result in the constant (gradient) m such that the sum of the N
squares of the differences between the actual data yi and approximant mxi is minimized. In other words, we
minimize with respect to m the cost function J, where

N
J = ∑ ( yi − mxi ) (7)
2

i =1

dJ
To find the minimizing value of m, we need to solve = 0 . Differentiating J with respect to m we have
dk

N
dJ
= −∑ 2 xi ( yi − mxi ) (8)
dm i =1

For a minimum, the derivative must be zero.

∑x (y
i =1
i i − mxi ) = 0 (9)

Rearranging, it follows that the gradient m of the Least Squares line is

∑x y i i
(10)
m= i =1
N

∑x
i =1
2
i

i.e., take each (xi, yi) pair and multiply xi by yi and sum the result over all N pairs. Divide the sum by the sum
of all N terms (xi)2. This gives the required gradient m.

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Page Intentionally Blank

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Name (block captials)……..…………………………………………. Student ID…………………….…………………

Annex 2

This Page to be completed IN BLACK INK during the laboratory, then detached, scanned and submitted as
part of the Technical Note. You must get this sheet countersigned by the LTA before you leave the
session

60° 90° 120° 150° 180°

M=1kg

M=2kg

M=3kg

M=4kg

M=5kg

Table A.1: Flat Belt Data: Enter Mass (m) Readings [kg]

M [kg] 1 2 3 4 5

m [kg]

Table A.2: V-Belt (New): Lap Angle = …………………..

M [kg] 1 2 3 4 5

m [kg]

Table A.3: V-Belt (Worn): Lap Angle = …………………..

Signature
Signed and dated to certify that this is my own work Date LTA Counter-Signature

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