Complex modal analysis of non-self-adjoint hybrid serpentine belt drive systems

A linear damped hybrid (continuous/discrete components) model is developed in this paper to characterize the dynamic behavior of serpentine belt drive systems. Both internal material damping and external tensioner arm damping are considered. The complex modal analysis method is developed to perform dynamic analysis of linear non-self-adjoint hybrid serpentine belt-drive systems. The adjoint eigenfunctions are acquired in terms of the mode shapes of an auxiliary hybrid system. The closed-form characteristic equation of eigenvalues and the exact closed-form solution for dynamic response of the non-self-adjoint hybrid model are obtained. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the method of analysis. It is shown that there exists an optimum damping value for each vibration mode at which vibration decays the fastest.