Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing

EngineeringFaculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra

Malaysia

EMM3806 Mechanical Engineering

Laboratory I Semester 2 (2020/2021)
Lab Title : LAB 6: BELT FRICTION
Group No. : E-1
Name Matrics No.

MUHAMMAD AFIQ BIN JAMAL MOHAMED 206003

MUHAMMAD AZWAR BIN MOHAMMAD SHAM 206567

KHAIRUL NASHRAN BIN ANUAR 205951

MUHAMMAD IZZAT NAJMI BIN WAHAK 206870

ADAM MUHAMMAD BIN WIZMANIDZAL 205481

Date of laboratory/experiment: 5.5.2021

Submission date of report: 21.5.2021
Lecturer Name: Dr. Mohd Zuhri bin Mohamed Yusoff
NO. CONTENTS PAGE

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. EXPERIMENTAL WORK/METHODOLOGY 2

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3

4. CONCLUSION 5

5. REFERENCES 5
INTRODUCTION

The belt is a power transmission belt that is flexible. It is capable of transferring power
with minimal power loss from one stage to another. The flat belt was the first belt used in the
world. Just the bottom half of a flat belt makes contact with the pulley surface. A flat belt's
drawback is that the flat belt pulley must be precisely balanced to prevent the belt from slipping.
V-belt is a belt that is designed to solve the problem that flat belts have. The V-belt is normally
mounted in a pulley's groove. The pulley groove is in contact with both sides of the belt in a V-
belt. This can prevent or minimize the chances of the belt slipping.

Flat belts need much more pre-tensioning to transmit a given torque without slipping. This
is particularly true for high transmission ratios and, as a result, low contact angles. In such
situations, tension pulleys with a given contact pressure are recommended to minimise the
transverse force. V-belts have a trapezium-shaped (V-shaped) cross-section. They are made up of
a tensioning portion made up of several layers of endlessly woven polyester fibre cord strings, a
high-quality rubber mixture heart, and a rubberized cotton or synthetic fabric enclosure. Different
designs are used depending on the intended use. For high outputs at high speeds, flat belts are not
recommended.

The aim of this experiment is to figure out how much friction there is between the belt
and the pulley. The use of a belt and the angle of contact between the belt and the pulley are two
things to consider. A flat belt and a V-shaped belt were both used in this experiment. In this
experiment T2 has been fix to 10 kg for V-blet and 8 kg for flat belt. The spring's other end was
mounted at 45° to 180° angles. T1 can be recorded from the spring scale. For calculate the value
for coefficient for flat belt we can use formula 𝑇2 =𝑇1 𝑒 μs β. while belt friction we use formula
𝑇2 =𝑇1 𝑒 μs(μs)enh β β.

Figure 1 : Belt friction main frame unit.

1
METHODOLGY

Material & Equipment

This particular experimental unit enables experiments to be performed on belt drives and belt
friction. In this particular experiment the LS-12001-BF Belt Friction Apparatus is used. The
core of the apparatus is a cast iron pulley with grooves in its circumference for V-belts and flat
belts. The pulley is mounted in ball bearings and is operated with a hand crank. The inertia of
the pulley contributes to even rotation. The belts grip the pulley at an angle of contact from 30°
to 180° in 15° steps. Two spring balances measure the tensile forces at each end of the belt. The
belt tension can be precisely adjusted using a threaded spindle.

Experiment set up
The experiment began by placing the apparatus on a level table. Next, the V-belt was fixed both
ends of the belt brackets to spring scales. One end is normal spring scale (A) while the other
end is spring scale with screw strut (F) and it is tightened with screw and nuts. Then, the spring
scale screw strut was inserted into the outer side hole of the screw strut holder (G) which was
later on tightened slightly with loading nut (H). Next, the spring scale is placed to the spring
scale holder (D) at 45°. After that, the loading is applied to V-belt by turning the loading nut
(G). The spring scale screw strut was held by hand while the other hand was used to turn the
loading nut. While the loading nuts was turned until the load applied reached 10 kg, the spring
scale reading was observed carefully. To end the experiment for the V-belt at 45°, the reading
of the spring scale is recorded into the table and then later on, the whole experiment ended after
repeating the experiment with the V-belt at 90° and 180°, and then the flat belt at 45°, 90° and
180° except for the flat belt the load applied is only until 8 kg. Finally, the belt coefficient of
friction at different angle has been calculated.

2
RESULTS:

V-Belt
Belt V- Belt
Angle, B(⁰) SPRING SCALE 1 SPRING SCALE 2 Coefficient of
(kg) (kg) friction , µs
45 8.2 10 0.0906
90 8.2 10 0.0454
180 8.2 10 0.0328

Flat Belt
Belt Flat belt
Angle , B (⁰) SPRING SCALE 1 SPRING SCALE 2 Coefficient friction ,
(kg) (kg) µs
45 9.2 8 -0.1779
90 7.7 8 0.0244
180 6.5 8 0.0661

3
DISCUSSION

Seeing from this experiment, V-belt has more advantage than flat belt because of the shape itself.
V-belt use the area of the sides that contain the normal force meaning that V-belt use two normal
forces total while the flat belt use one forces which is the bottom side of the flat belt. This cause
the V-belt has higher friction than the flat belt but has lower forces need to pull than the flat belt.
This is because the normal forces on the V-belt will cancel each other out.

By using the theory formula, the contact angle is used to find the coefficient friction of the belts.
For the V-belt, the coefficient of friction depends on the angle of contact. The higher the angle of
contacts goes, the lesser the coefficient friction of the V-belt while the flat belt is different than
the V-belt. The relation between angle of contact and the coefficient of friction at flat belt is
directly proportional, the coefficient friction increases when the angle of contact increase.

Based on the results, the spring scale 1 from V-belt is constant while the flat belt is change. This
show that the flat belt is transmitting power to both side of the belt while the V-belt only transfer
power to one side only. By transmitting power to both sides, the energy loss is very minimal
while the energy loss in V-belt is high because of the power transmission on one side. Also, the
durability of flat belt is longer than V-belt because of low friction at lower angle.

Other two belt drives that is commonly uses in industry are open belt drive and closed or crossed
belt drive. The common application of belt drives in industry is such as motor and car engines,
windmill, conveyor belt, air conditioner compressor and many more. From this experiment, the
possible applications for V-belt are like drills, power tools and lathes while the flat belt which is
the have the most common usage in industry have applications such as in construction like fabric
ply belts and fabric cord belts. Conveyor belt are also example of application of flat belt.

4
CONCLUSION

In conclusion, by doing experiment of belt friction, we can determine coefficient of friction, µs

between flat and v belt. The value of µs varied as the angle change. The higher the angle of
contacts, the lesser the coefficient of friction for v belt while vice versa for flat belt. The belt
friction concept is very vital inside the application regarding power transfer and transmission.
By comparing for both type of belt, the v-belt have lower coefficient than flat-belt. We can say
that V-belt is better than the flat belt as V-belt will have decrease the possibilities of slip occur.
The high normal forces between pulleys and belts occur at low pretension offers low bearing
load and reliable operation in the small angles of contact. Therefore, the V-belt is less efficient
in comparison with the flat belt, as it is restricted by the high amount of flexing required. By
conducting these types of experiments as mechanical engineering students it is easier to
understand the application of belt drives in the field such as in automobile engines and in
machines where rotational motion is applied to transmit power from a source to a load operating
at a quite a distance

REFERENCE:

1. Vibration Lab 2 Belt Friction Lab Report.from https://pdfcoffee.com/vibration-lab-2-

belt-friction-lab-report-autosaved-pdf-free.html

2. R. C. Hibbeler, (2013). Mechanics of Materials, 9thEdition. Pearson Education, Inc.

page: 139-144

3. Callister, W. D., & Rethwisch, D. G. (2012). Fundamentals of materials science and

engineering: An integrated approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.