569

A method to determine the dynamic load distribution in

a chain drive

I Troedsson and L Vedmar*

Department of Machine Elements, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden

Abstract: This paper presents a method to calculate the forces in a chain and, thus, the resulting load
distribution along the sprockets in a chain transmission working at a moderate or high speed. When
the chain drive is loaded, the rollers that contact the sprockets will move along the ¯ anks to diVerent
height positions. There are mainly two diVerent ways to determine the actual positions: to assume the
positions or to use force equilibrium and to calculate the positions. To ® nd the correct solution the
geometry and the force equilibrium are used which will give each roller’ s position, along the ¯ ank.
This method demands knowledge of all parts of the chain, even the slack part. Therefore it has been
necessary to model both the connecting tight and the slack spans in which power between the two
sprockets is transmitted. The gravitational force acting at the chain has been included in the complete
model so that the position of the rollers and the forces in the links at the slack span can be calculated.
The elastic deformation in the chain has also been included. The moment of inertia in the two
sprockets and in the outer geometry has been taken into account, but not the inertia forces in the
chain.

Keywords: chain drive, vibrations, dynamics, oscillations, transmission error, chain strength,
polygon action, roller chain

NOTATION Subscripts

d damping
a centre distance
g driven sprocket
C stiVness
i roller number
D damping constant
p driving sprocket
F force
sl slack span
g acceleration due to gravity
sp tight span
J moment of inertia
1 ¯ ywheel at driving side
m mass of the chain and rollers
2 ¯ ywheel at driven side
M torque
n number of rollers
Rd pitch radius
t undeformed pitch 1 INTRODUCTION
U gear ratio
x; y; z coordinates The chain drive is one of the oldest machine elements
z number of teeth but is still a very common way to transmit power. The
major advantages of using chain drives are the ¯ exibility
¬ pitch angle in selecting shaft centre, the ability to drive more than
² coordinate along the tooth ¯ ank one shaft, the high reliability and durability, the rela-
(non-dimensional) tively cheap components and the relatively high eY-
³ chain angle ciency. However, the chain drives introduce some
’ coordinate problems such as noise and vibrations. Even if the most
basic mechanics of the chain drive have been known for
a long time, research in the subject has been con-
The MS was received on 25 May 2000 and was accepted after revision centrated to the latter half of the twentieth century. In
for publication on 11 August 2000.
* Corresponding author: Department of Machine Elements, Lund most cases, this has been because of the increased
Institute of Technology, Box 118, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden. accessibility of powerful calculation tools which have
C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C
570 I TROEDSSON AND L VEDMAR
made it possible to solve some of the complex problems
associated with chain drives. Much of the research has
been concentrated on either solving the internal geo-
metric problems, such as load distribution between the
chain and sprocket, or solving the eVects of a chain drive
on a transmission.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Binder [1] and Rachner [2]
presented the ® rst step to an analysis of forces and
stresses in a chain drive, by assuming that the contact
angle relative to the symmetry line of each tooth was
constant. In the early 1980s, Naji [3] and Naji and
Marshek [4, 5] complemented Binder’ s and Rachner’ s
research by theoretical and experimental investigations
studying contact phenomena under quasi-static condi-
tions due to non-trivial geometry of the sprocket tooth.
In the 1990s, Kim and Johnson [6, 7] improved the
model employed by Naji [3] and Naji and Marshek’ s
[4, 5] model using the full ANSI standard geometry.
However, none of these workers has combined elastic
deformation with non-trivial geometry and none of
them has used a complete gear set with two sprockets
and two connecting chain spans. Furthermore they have
only solved the problem for static conditions.
The polygon eVect, which has been known almost
since the ® rst chain drive was developed, introduces
problems due to the error in gear ratio during one pitch.
For a chain drive with two sprockets and one chain, the
torque and speed on the driven sprocket will ¯ uctuate if
the driving sprocket drives with a constant speed and
torque. If the speed is high enough, this variation in gear
ratio introduces vibrations which must be treated in a
dynamic model. Binder [1] and Rachner [2] calculated
the gear ratio assuming the tight span was rigid, with the
pitch radius given by the chain pitch. They investigated
the variation in gear ratio for the chain drive for the two
cases where the length of the span is equal to an integer
number of chain pitch or an odd number of half a pitch.
An early attempt to calculate the amplitude of the
vibration was made by Turnbull and Fawcett [8] in 1975.
They carried out an approximate harmonic analysis of
the acceleration of the two sprockets, by using a Fourier
analysis of an equivalent four-bar mechanism. They
neglected the mass in the chain and assumed that the
deformation in the chain was small, the chain was
positioned along the pitch circle on the sprockets, and
the tight span was always parallel to the common tan-
gent of the two sprockets pitch circles. Turnbull et al. [9]
also conducted experimental investigations into the
dynamic behaviour.
A dynamic model which used a discrete dynamic
method was developed by Fawcett and Nicol [10] in
1979. They modelled a moving chain with a series of
links. The boundary condition for a link leaving and
entering the span was also introduced.
In 1992 a more complete model was presented by
Veikos and Freudenstein [11]. The chain was there
modelled as a series of rollers where half the link mass
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
was lumped at the centre of each roller. The rollers were
connected by springs. This model also allows transverse
movement of the chain in the tight span but neglects the
slack span.
All the above-mentioned dynamic models have
assumed that the end rollers of the tight span land on
the pitch circle of the two sprockets and all have
assumed that the eVect of the slack span can be
neglected. This means that none of these models ful® ls
the equilibrium equations for the sprockets, which
demands knowledge of the forces in both the entrance
and the exit parts of the chain.
A static model developed by the present authors was
presented in an earlier paper [12]. That model was
obtained from a chain drive containing two sprockets
and one chain. The two sprockets were connected by
two spans: one tension and one slack span. It was
necessary to include these in the analysis to ful® l the
equilibrium equations for the chain and sprockets. The
rollers that contact each sprocket can move along the
tooth surface and their positions are given by the static
equilibrium equations. In this report the European
geometry of the chain and sprocket is used, diVerent
from most of the above-mentioned reports.
The purpose of this paper is to combine the earlier
static model with dynamics to ® nd out how the geo-
metry and slack span aVect the amplitude and the load
distribution along the sprockets and the forces in the
chain.
2 DYNAMIC MODEL
A chain drive is used to transmit power between dif-
ferent parts in a complete transmission. Since the
dynamic behaviour of the chain drive is aVected by its
surrounding parts, it is necessary to include these in a
dynamic model. The chain drive itself contains a chain
which connects the driving and driven sprockets. These
are connected to the driving and driven mechanisms
with some kind of shaft. These mechanisms contain
some inertia as well as some variations in the driving
and braking torque. Since the surrounding systems are
not generally known, they are assumed to be made up by
one inertia and one stiVness, separated from each other,
on both sides of the chain drive.
A chain can be used to transmit power between sev-
eral sprockets, but the chain drive treated in this report
contains only three parts: one driving sprocket, one
driven sprocket, and the chain which transmits the
power between them. The chain which connects the two
sprockets with each other has two spans: one slack and
one tensioned. The tensioned span transmits most of the
power, while the slack span transmits very little power.
The rollers which are in contact with the sprockets can
move along the tooth surface and their position is given
by force equilibrium and by the fact that the distance
C04000 ß IMechE 2001
 A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DYNAMIC LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN A CHAIN DRIVE
between them is one chain pitch. The chain pitch is
aVected by the elastic deformation and thus dependent
on the stretching force in the link. To ful® l the com-
patibility equations for the ® rst and the last roller in
contact with each sprocket, the position of the ® rst and
the last roller in each span and the force in the con-
necting links have to be known. Therefore both the slack
span and the tight span have to be modelled. The eVects
from the driven side of the transmission as well as the
driving side are modelled as a ¯ ywheel that is connected
with the sprocket by a shaft.
To describe mathematically the chain drive shown in
Fig. 1, a few parameters have to be introduced. The
¯ ywheel at the driving side is indicated by the subscript 1
and the ¯ ywheel at the driven side by the subscript 2.
The driving sprocket is indicated by the subscript p, and
the driven sprocket by the subscript g. The moment of
inertia is J, the driving torque is Mdrive and the driven
torque is Mbrake. The centre distance between the two
sprockets is a, the number of rollers in the chain n, the
gravitational force acting at one roller mg, and the
number of teeth at the sprockets zp and zg .
A shaft, the connected ¯ ywheel and sprocket all have
the same rotational axis. The two shafts, their connected
¯ ywheels and sprockets are assumed to be parallel and
to be located in the plane perpendicular to the gravita-
tional direction. The two sprockets and the chain are
assumed to be in the same plane and all variations, on
the sprockets and the chain, in the direction along the
rotation axis of the sprockets are neglected. All the links
are assumed to have equal stiVnesses and equal unde-
formed pitches. The diVerence in pitch for the sprocket
is also neglected. All links are assumed to have equal
masses; the same is true for the rollers. The eVect of the
mass of the link on the equation of motion is neglected
and the sprockets are assumed to be rigid. The friction is
neglected when calculating the position of the rollers. It
is furthermore assumed that there are bearings at both
sides of both the ¯ ywheels and the sprockets. The
bending deformation in the shafts is small and can
therefore be neglected. All bearings are assumed to be
without any deformation.
Fig. 1 Chain drive and surrounding transmission
C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
571
3 THE CHAIN DRIVE
The chain drive can be divided into four diVerent parts:
the tight span, the slack span, and the chain in contact
with the driving and driven sprocket respectively. The
part of the chain in contact with one of the two
sprockets transmits power between the chain and the
sprocket through normal forces between the teeth and
the rollers, while the spans transmit the power between
them. The load distribution between the chain and the
sprocket depends on which point of the tooth ¯ ank each
of the rollers contact. Since the chain load in the tight
span is much greater than in the slack span, most of the
power is transmitted between the sprocket through the
tight span. The stretching force in the tight span is
higher and thus dominates over the gravitational force
in this part. In the slack span most of the stretching
force comes from the gravitational force. The four parts
of the chain drive can, for convenience, be treated
separately but, since they aVect each other, the com-
patibility has to be considered. A method to solve this
problem for a static case, has been presented by the
present authors in reference [12]. The geometry used in
this report is the European geometry de® ned by DIN
8187.
The gravitational force acting on the chain is taken
into account but not the inertia forces. The chain is
modelled as massless springs which connect the rollers.
Half of the mass at the two connecting links together
with the mass of one roller are lumped at the centre of
each of the rollers where the corresponding gravitational
forces act. It is assumed that all the rollers have the same
masses and the same undeformed pitches. All links are
modelled with equal stiVnesses.
At the part of the chain which is in contact with the
sprocket, each roller can move along the tooth surface
and the position will be given by the geometry of the
surfaces, the distance to the surrounding rollers and the
force equilibrium. The distance between the contacting
rollers is dependent on the stretching force in the links
and the rollers will therefore contact at diVerent points
on the tooth ¯ ank. This means that the position of each
roller is dependent on the torque acting at each sprocket
as well as the length of the spans and the stretching force
in them.
To make it easy to describe the ¯ ank in the x 0 and y 0
coordinates, a non-dimensional coordinate 04²46 has
been introduced (Fig. 2). It varies linearly between
every two succeeding integers and describes the centre
position of a roller, with the radius Rr , which moves
along the tooth ¯ ank. The opposite half of the tooth is
described by re¯ ecting the x 0 coordinates in the y 0 axis.
The position of an arbitrary roller can ® nally be
described by rotating the coordinates a number of pitch
angles. The complete sprocket can thus be rotated to
every arbitrary position.
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C
572 I TROEDSSON AND L VEDMAR
Fig. 2 De® nition of the non-dimensional coordinates ²
By using the ² coordinate the position in the next-
neighbouring roller can be described if the position of a
speci® c roller, the force acting at the previous link, and
the distance between the rollers are known. The distance
between two rollers is calculated from the stretching
force in the link between them and the elastic defor-
mation thereby given. Since the stretching force between
the two rollers depends on their position, the coordi-
nates of the second of the two rollers are ® rst calculated
using the undeformed link length. The force in the link is
Fig. 3 Sprocket in an arbitrary load position
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
thereafter calculated, which gives a new roller position.
This calculation is repeated until the position given by
two following iterations are equal.
In Fig. 3 the forces on a roller in a general sprocket
position are shown. The angle ’ is used to describe the
position of the sprocket. The rotation coordinates to the
® rst contacting tooth’ s centre-line on the sprocket are ’p
and ’g . To describe the position of a speci® c roller the
angle ’i is used. The angles between the y axis and the
® rst roller of each sprocket are ’1;p and ’1g . With the
forces in Fig. 3, the moment on the sprocket from the
chain becomes
Mp ˆ F 0;p R1;p cos…’1;p ¡ ’in;p †
X
n
‡ Fn;p Rn;p cos…’n;p ‡ ³p;out † ¡ mg Ri;p sin ’i;p
iˆ1
Mg ˆ ¡ F0;g R1;g cos…’1;g ¡ ’in;g †
X
n
¡ Fn;g Rn;g cos…’n;g ‡ ³g;out † ‡ mg Ri;g sin ’i;g
iˆ1
…1†
where ³in and ³out are the chain angles, relative to the x
axis, of the ® rst and last links respectively in contact
with the sprocket.
The tight span is modelled as a series of links posi-
tioned along a straight line. The end points are the ® rst
connecting rollers at each sprocket. Since this span is
assumed to be stretched, the eVect from the gravitation
force on the position of the rollers is neglected, but its
eVect on the stretching forces in the chain is taken into
account.
The position of the rollers at the slack span is calcu-
lated from the force equilibrium and the fact that the
distance between them is one chain pitch. The major
part of the stretching forces in the links comes from the
gravitational force. The stretching force is therefore
normally small and the elastic deformation is conse-
quently neglected, making the pitch equal to the unde-
formed pitch in this part of the chain. This pitch is
assumed to be equal for all links. However, if the dis-
tance between the end points of the slack span is greater
than the number of links in this span multiplied by the
chain pitch, a tight span is assumed and the elastic
deformations is then included in the analysis. The
equations for calculating the tight span, the slack span
and the position of the rollers in contact with one of the
rollers have been given in detail in reference [12].
4 FRICTIONAL FORCES
Most of the friction in a chain drive comes from the
movement of the bushings, pins and rollers. This friction
C04000 ß IMechE 2001
 A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DYNAMIC LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN A CHAIN DRIVE
is a combination of Coulomb friction and viscous
damping dependent on the lubrication. This is not
considered in this model. However, damping must be
introduced to produce a stable solution. Since most of
the power is transmitted in the tight span, it is assumed
that most of the damping also occurs at this side. The
damping force is usually much smaller than the
stretching force in the chain but is in some way related
to this. The damping force in the slack span is neglected,
since the stretching force at the slack span is smaller
than at the tight span. For convenience, a viscous
damping force is assumed, proportional to the relative
velocity between the two end points at the tight side. The
damping force can then be described as
Fd ˆ Dchain ‰R1;p ’_ p cos…’1;p ¡³in;p †¡R 1;g ’_ g cos…’1;g ¡³in;g †Š
The damping in a chain has been studied by Rachner [2]
and by Schlottmann et al. [13]. They studied the loga-
rithmic decrement ¯ for a vertical hanging chain with a
mass at the end, and with the movement along the chain.
The logarithmic decrement ¯, and the damping constant
D given thereby, are diVerent depending on what kind of
lubricant is used. For example, the logarithmic decre-
ment for a chain lubricated with grease is twice that for a
chain lubricated with oil.
In order to calculate the equivalent damping constant
in the tight span for the modelled chain drive, the
equation of motion was set up for a simpli® ed model
with two free sprockets and one tensioned chain span
tangentially connecting the two pitch circles. The
equation for this model could then be solved analytically
and the damping constant Dchain could be calculated
from the logarithmic decrement as
¯!0
Dchain ˆ
p‰R 2d;p cos2 …’1;p ¡ ³sp †=Jp
‡R 2d;g cos2 …’1;g ‡ ³sp †=Jg Š
Fig. 4
C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
573
The damping in the two shafts comes from the internal
damping in the material due to hysteresis. This damping
is smaller than the damping coming from the relative
movement between two surfaces. This kind of damping
could with good approximation be modelled as
equivalent viscous damping. The damping moment
could then de described as
M1;damp ˆ Dshaft;1 …’_ p ¡ ’_ 1 †
M2;damp ˆ Dshaft;2 …’_ g ¡ ’_ 2 †
…4†
When solving the equation of motion the coordinates in
Fig. 4 have been used. The inertia in the chain is
neglected but not the gravitational force since otherwise
…2† it would be impossible to calculate the position of the
roller in the slack span. The outer systems on each side
of the chain drive are separated into one inertia and one
elasticity. These represent the inertia and the elasticity of
the complete system in a simpli® ed form. The equation
of motion for the model then becomes
J1 ’1 ˆ Mdrive ‡ M1 ‡ M1;damp
Jp ’p ˆ ¡M1 ¡ M1;damp ‡ Mp ¡ Fd R1;p cos…’1;p ¡ ³in;sp †
Jg ’g ˆ Mg ¡ M2 ¡ M 2;damp ‡ Fd R1;g cos…’1;g ¡ ³in;sp †
J2 ’2 ˆ M2 ‡ Mbrake ‡ M2;damp
…5†
where
M1 ˆ Cshaft;1 …’p ¡ ’1 †
M2 ˆ Cshaft;2 …’g ¡ ’2 †
…3†
and the spring constants for the shafts are called Cshaft;1
and Cshaft;2 .
Transmission
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C
574 I TROEDSSON AND L VEDMAR
5 SOLVING PROCEDURE
The equations of motion are solved using the Runge±
Kutta± Fehlman method. The torques Mp and Mg ,
which have to be calculated for every time step, depend
on the coordinates of the angles ’p and ’g and can be
calculated if these are known. The equations concerning
the chain in reference [12] are also valid for this report,
but the solving procedure is diVerent in some ways, since
the angle coordinate ’g in that case was not given. In
earlier sections the chain drive has been divided into
four diVerent parts. The diVerent parts are driving
sprocket, driven sprocket, slack span and tight span. At
the part with the chain in contact with the sprocket it is
possible to calculate the position of the next roller if the
position of the ® rst of the pair, and the stretching force
in the link between them are known. However, the
contacting force and the stretching force in the link are
dependent on the position of the roller and the angle
between the roller centre and the contact point between
the roller and the contacting ¯ ank at the sprocket. This
means that it is possible to locate the coordinates for all
rollers in contact with the sprocket as long as the tension
force and the contacting point are both known. The
stretching force in the ® rst link at each sprocket is
known from the compatibility with the tight and slack
spans; the other sprocket forces are not known. Since
the coordinate of the angles ’p and ’g will vary for every
time step the stretching forces will vary as well. When
calculating the stretching forces in the tight span, the
length has to be known. However, the positions of the
® rst contacting rollers are unknown. Therefore values of
the non-dimensional coordinates ²p;1 and ²g;1 have to be
assumed. The coordinates for the ® rst contacting roller
can then be calculated. All the tension forces in the links
at the tight span, with nsp;link links, can thereafter be
calculated, especially the ® rst and the last as shown in
the following equations:
"q























Clink
F0;p ˆ …x 1;g ¡ x1;p †2 ‡ …y1;g ¡ y1;p †2 ¡ nsp tlink
nsp;link
#
nsp;link …nsp;link ¡ 1†mg
¡ sin ³in;p
2Clink
F0;g ˆ F 0;p ‡ …nsp;link ¡ 1†mg sin ³in;p
…6†
When the coordinates of the ® rst contacting roller at
each sprocket are known together with the force in the
link which connects them to the tight span, it is possible
to calculate the position of the second contacting roller
at each sprocket. By repetition, all contacting rollers can
then be positioned at the sprockets. The position of the
last contacting roller at each sprocket de® nes the end
position of the slack span. If the distance between these
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
end positions is longer than the length of the remaining
links, a tight span is assumed. Otherwise the end posi-
tions in the slack span are used to calculate the forces,
and the directions of the forces in the ends of the span.
To verify that the number of rollers in contact with the
sprockets is correct, ® rst ful® lment of the equilibrium is
checked for the ® rst and last contacting rollers at each
sprocket. If the contacting force at one of these rollers is
negative, it is necessary to decrease the number of con-
tacting rollers on that sprocket and to increase the
number of rollers on the enclosing span. It is thereafter
also checked whether the ® rst and the last rollers at each
span contact the sprockets. If this is the case, the num-
ber of rollers that contact the sprocket has to be
increased and the number of rollers in the enclosing span
is decreased. When all roller coordinates are known, the
forces in the link after the last contacting rollers, F n;p
and Fn;g , are calculated from the condition in each
sprocket. These forces can then be compared with the
stretching forces in the same links, Fsl;1 and Fsl;n0 cal-
culated from the conditions valid for the slack span,
giving the diVerences in forces as Fn;p ¡ Fsl;1 and
F n;g ¡ Fsl;n . If these diVerences are too large, new values
for ²p and ²g are chosen. It is possible to solve the
problem by using the Newton± Raphson method and the
derivatives can then be calculated using the diVerence
equation. However, it is sometimes necessary to intro-
duce limitations in the derivatives in order to ensure that
the system converges. In the program used to solve the
problem, a check is made that the stretching forces in
the tight span do not reach values below zero, since then
the program cannot ® nd a solution. A numerical pro-
blem in the solving procedure is that the stretching force
can reach a value below zero in one of the iterations,
caused by a large step in the value of ²p or ²g . An
investigation then has to be made into whether this is the
correct solution or a numerically false solution. This is
done by using a constant-step method using small steps.
The calculation starts from the sprocket position just
after a new roller has contacted the driving sprocket and
continues to the sprocket position, where the contacting
force on the ® rst roller at the driven sprocket becomes
less than zero. The number of rollers in the tight span is
then increased by one and the coordinates ’g and ’2 are
decreased by one pitch angle. Then the calculation
continues until a new roller contacts the driving
sprocket. The number of rollers at the tight span is then
decreased by one and the coordinate ’p and ’1 are
decreased by one pitch angle. It is veri® ed for every time
step that the free rollers in the spans do not interfere
with any of the sprocket teeth.
The results and the time that it takes to solve the
problem depend on the starting values. When starting
from rest with only the torques Mdrive and Mbrake acting
on the model, assuming that ’p ˆ ’1 and ’g ˆ ’2 , very
high oscillations will occur, which make it almost
impossible to solve the problem. A better way to start
C04000 ß IMechE 2001
 A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DYNAMIC LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN A CHAIN DRIVE
the calculation is to assume that the same torque acts on
both sides of the ¯ ywheels. This means that
’1 ¡ ’p ˆ Mdrive =Cshaft;1 and ’2 ¡ ’g ˆ Mbrake =Cshaft;2
when starting. These starting values result in a high-
torsion oscillation in the shafts, high from the beginning,
but the amplitude of these oscillations decreases with
time. The time that it takes to achieve a steady state
condition is, however, quite long and the last method
results in a very long solution time. In order to obtain
better starting values a simpli® ed model was developed.
This model contains the two ¯ ywheels, their connecting
shafts and two sprockets. The chain is then modelled as
a tight span with no mass. The stiVness in this tight span
is set to the stiVness in the tight span in the presented
model. The end points of the tight span are assumed to
contact the sprockets at the pitch circles given by the
pitch of the elastic deformed chain. This simpli® ed
model is given the same damping as the presented
model. The simpli® ed model is then executed until a
stable solution is obtained. Then the values of the
speeds, the angles, the torque in the shafts and the force
in the tension span are translated into the presented
model as starting values.
6 RESULTS
If the polygon action is neglected by approximating the
chain as a stiV belt, which acts at pulley radii equal to
the sprocket pitch circle radii, the natural resonance
speeds of revolution for the shafts can be calculated
approximately by solving the following equation:
³
´ ³
!1;2 4
J1 J2 Jtot ‡…C1 Jtot J2 ‡ Ctot J1 J2 ‡ C2 J1 Jtot
zp
Á damping in the chain and shafts. The damping in the
zp zg
‡ J1 C 22 ‡ C 21 J2 ¡ J1 Ctot C2
z g zp
!
¡ C1 C2 Jtot ¡ C1 Ctot J2 ˆ0
where
J g zp J p z g
Jtot ˆ ‡
zg zp
C 2 zp C 1 zg
Ctot ˆ ‡
zg zp
The resonance speeds of revolution for the chain drive
can be approximately calculated using an elastic belt,
C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
575
with stiVness equal to the stiVness of the tight span and
free pulleys:
s 


















1 Clink …R 2d;g Jp ‡ R2d;p Jg †
!3 ˆ …9†
zp navgJp Jg
The studied chain drive has n ˆ 40 links. The numbers
of teeth are zp ˆ 10 and zg ˆ 20, the pitches at the
sprockets are tp ˆ tg ˆ 15:875 mm and the chain has the
pitch tlink ˆ 15:95 mm. The moments of inertia for the
¯ ywheels used are J1 ˆ J2 ˆ 0:2 kg m2 , the moment of
inertia for the two sprockets is calculated by approx-
imating them with a solid disc with the outer diameter
equal to the pitch radius of each sprocket, the spring
constants for the shaft, C1 ˆ C2 ˆ 155:6 N m/rad and
the chain stiVness Clink =navg ˆ 17:7 MN/m. The approx-
imate natural resonance speeds of revolution for the
shaft become !1 ˆ 2:66 rad/s and !2 ˆ 88:9 rad/s, and
the approximate natural resonance speed of revolution
for the chain is !3 ˆ 1770:6 rad/s.
The calculation of the forces in the chain is performed
using the solving procedure described earlier. When the
calculation starts, the oscillations are quite high. Most
of these oscillations are caused by the initial conditions
and are a result of the solution of the homogeneous
equations of motion. However, these oscillations
decrease with time and, after a while, only the particular
solution will remain, resulting in an oscillation with
constant amplitude from pitch to pitch. Since the start-
up phenomena are dependent on the start condition,
which is unknown, only the steady state condition is
studied in this report.
Using a constant rotational speed the calculations
were started and carried out until a stable solution was
´ received. The constant torque M drive ˆ 10 N m and
!1;2 2 Mbrake ˆ 20 N m were used for all cases. The amplitude
zp of the oscillations in the chain is dependent on the
chain is diVerent when the chain is lubricated by oil from
that when the chain is lubricated by grease. Therefore
two diVerent values of the damping constant in the
chain were studied, representing typical values for these
…7† two cases. The damping in the two shafts is set to
Dshaft ˆ 0:024 N m/s for both shafts in all cases. The
diVerence of the force extrema, Fmax ¡ Fmin , in the link
which connects the driving sprocket and the ® rst roller
in the tight span, is shown in Fig. 5 for diVerent speeds.
For this case it is impossible to obtain a solution from
the model for speeds higher than !p ˆ 630 rad/s, since
the oscillation results in negative stretching forces in the
tight span and the model is not designed for this. In Fig.
5 it could be seen that the system responses to
approximately !3 =3; !3 =4; !3 =5; . . .. The system there-
…8† fore contains an in® nite number of natural responses.
The system responses will also exist for !3 and !3 =2 even
if they cannot be calculated for this case. The mean
stretching force Fmean in this case is approximately 400 N
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C
576 I TROEDSSON AND L VEDMAR
Fig. 5
and the doubled amplitude which is shown in Fig. 5
given by static calculation according to the polygon
eVect is around 20 N. It is also interesting to note that
the amplitude can be higher than the mean force with
still positive stretching forces in all the links at the tight
span. This is caused by the fact that the force diVerence
Fmax ¡ Fmean is much greater than the force diVerence
Fmean ¡ Fmin . The highest of the two natural response
speeds in the outer system is visible for the curves near
!p ˆ 100 rad/s. Furthermore it can be seen that the
amplitude of the force generally increases with higher
speeds.
In Fig. 6 the variation of the gear ratio U ˆ !p =!g is
shown. The same damping is used as in Fig. 5. A static
calculation would give the variation in gear ratio,
Umax ¡ Umin , equal to 0.1 for comparison. As can be seen
in Fig. 6, the variation in gear ratio goes asymptotically
to 0.1 for speeds lower than 200 rad/s. The natural
response speed could also be seen in the variation in the
gear ratio. The mean variation in the gear ratio seems to
increase with higher speeds. Comparing Figs 5 and 6 it
can be seen that the variation in the mean gear ratio does
not increase as rapidly as the stretching force.
In Fig. 7 the force in the link, which connects the ® rst
contacting roller at the driving sprocket and the tight
span, is shown during one pitch, when Dchain ˆ 30 N s/m.
It could be seen that the variation in the force increases
with higher speeds. The variation in the force is a mix of
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
DiVerence in the force extrema
several response speeds. For lower speeds the response
speed for the outer system is dominant since that speed
is close to the natural response speed. For higher speeds
the response speed for the chain becomes more and
more important. The frequency from the chain is visible.
As stated earlier, it is noticeable that the maximum force
for higher speeds diVers more from the mean value than
the minimum force. The point where a roller enters the
slack span is noticeable in Fig. 7 at ’p =…2¬p † approxi-
mately equal to 0.2, and the point where a roller enters
the tight span is noticeable at ’p =…2¬p † approximately
equal to 0.7.
Figure 8 shows the stretching force in a link when it
travels around the complete chain transmission which
has n ˆ 40 links. The stretching force is shown versus a
non-dimensional coordinate along the chain de® ned as
’p =…2¬p †, from one to the number of links. This coor-
dinate has its origin at the point where a roller has just
entered the driving sprocket. The coordinate is equal to
1.0 when the ® rst roller comes into contact with the
driving sprocket. Since the ® gure shows the results for a
steady state condition the force for 40 < ’p =…2¬p † < 41
is equal to the forces for 0 < ’p =…2¬p † < 1. It is remark-
able that the variation in the force in the tight span is
very much aVected by the oscillations coming from the
relative movement between the sprockets, when the
forces in the slack span hardly varies at all. The ¯ uc-
tuation in the stretching force along the sprockets
C04000 ß IMechE 2001
 A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DYNAMIC LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN A CHAIN DRIVE 577

Fig. 6 Variation in the gear ratio

Fig. 7 Force in the tight span at diVerent speeds

C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C
578 I TROEDSSON AND L VEDMAR
Fig. 8
implies that the position where each roller contacts a
¯ ank diVers greatly.
7 SUMMARY
The presented model of a chain transmission combines a
static calculation of the forces at the sprocket and in the
chain, using the complete geometry, with dynamic
oscillation of the sprockets. Since it is necessary to
model some part of the surrounding geometry, the
results also include the eVects from this. The calculation
shows that older static models do not give suYcient
results for a chain drive acting at higher speeds. The
developed model is used to calculate the forces acting in
the chain, at the roller and on the sprockets. The results
show that the roller positions vary according to the
dynamic behaviour. It is obvious that the tension forces
in the tight span are more aVected by the variation,
coming from dynamic eVects, than the slack span.
Although the force in the slack span is small, it is
absolutely necessary to include this part in the analysis:
otherwise it will be impossible to determine the height
position of the rollers on the sprocket. These positions
have a signi® cant in¯ uence on the load distribution and
the dynamic load in the chain.
Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016
The stretching force in the chain
REFERENCES
1 Binder, R. C. Mechanics of Roller Chain Drive, 1956
(Prentice-Hall, Englewood CliVs, New Jersey).
2 Rachner, H.-G. Staalgelenkketten und Kettengetriebe, 1962
(Springer-Verlag, Berlin).
3 Naji, M. R. On timing belt and roller chain load
distribution. PhD dissertation, University of Houston,
Houston, Texas, 1981.
4 Naji, M. R. and Marshek, K. M. Experimental determina-
tion of the roller chain load distribution. Trans. ASME, J.
Mechanisms, Transmission Autom. Des., 1983, 105, 331±
338.
5 Naji, M. R. and Marshek, K. M. Analysis of roller chain
sprocket pressure angles. Mechanisms Mach. Theory, 1984,
19(2), 197± 203.
6 Kim, M. S. and Johnson, G. E. Mechanics of roller chain±
sprocket contact: general modelling strategy. In ASME
International Power Transmission and Gearing Confer-
ence, Vol. 2, DE-Vol. 43-2, 1992, pp. 689± 695 (American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York).
7 Kim, M. S. and Johnson, G. E. Mechanics of roller chain±
sprocket contact: observations about the contact phenom-
ena and load distribution. In ASME International Power
Transmission and Gearing Conference, Vol. 2, DE-Vol.
43± 2, 1992, pp. 697± 702 (American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, New York).
8 Turnbull, S. R. and Fawcett, J. N. An Approximate
Kinematic Analysis of the Roller Chain Drive, 1975, pp.
907± 911 (Mechanical Engineering Publications Limited,
London).
C04000 ß IMechE 2001
 A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DYNAMIC LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN A CHAIN DRIVE 579

9 Turnbull, S. R., Nicol, S. W. and Fawcett, J. N. An
experimental investigation of the dynamic behaviour of a
roller chain drive. ASME paper 77-det-168, 1977.
10 Fawcett, J. N. and Nicol, S. W. A theoretical investigation
of the vibration of roller chain drives. In Proceedings of
the Fifth World Congress on the Theory of Machines and
Mechanisms, Montreal, Canada, 1979, pp. 1482± 1485.
11 Veikos, N. M. and Freudenstein, F. On the dynamic
analysis of roller chain drives. Part 1: theory. In Mechan-
ical Design and Synthesis, DE-Vol. 46, 1992, pp. 431± 439
(American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York).
12 Troedsson, I. and Vedmar, L. A method to determine
the static load distribution in a chain drive. Trans.
ASME, J. Mech. Des., September 1999, 121, 402±
408.
13 Schlottmann, G., Welke, L. and Klith, O. Experimentelle
Parameterermittlung fur Zugmittelgetriebe. Maschinenbau
Technik, September 1990, 39(9), 397± 400.

C04000 ß IMechE 2001 Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on September 18, 2016 Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 215 Part C