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A new timing chain with no chordal action

Article in MTZ worldwide · May 2004

DOI: 10.1007/BF03227673

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 A New Timing Chain
with No Chordal Action

Martin Sopouch
Theo Korse

AVL List GmbH, Austria

Smart-Chain B.V.

MTZ 5/2004
 DEVELOPMENT
You will find the figures mentioned in this article in the German issue Chain
of MTZ 5/2004 beginning on pageDrive
382.

Eine neue Steuerkette

ohne Polygoneffekt

Chain drives in internal

combustion engines fre-
quently induce a disturb-
ing noise, so-called whine
noise. Basically, this noise
is caused by the chordal
action or polygon effect
that originates from the
periodically changing
effective radius of the
sprockets. In this article,
SmartChain B.V. presents
a new roller chain or bush-
ing chain that entirely
avoids the disturbing poly-
gon effect. The concept
was evaluated by AVL List
GmbH, using the multi-
body dynamics software
Tycon.

A New Timing Chain

with No Chordal Action

1 Introduction and the sprocket mesh occur. The noise ex-

citation induced by the polygon effect usu-
The polygon effect is one of the main caus- ally occurs predominantly at the meshing
By Theo Korse and
es of the relatively high noise and vibration frequency of the chain drive (= polygon fre-
Martin Sopouch level of roller chains and bushing chains. quency). If this frequency coincides with a
Besides the excitation of longitudinal and natural frequency of the structure of the
transversal vibrations of the chain spans, engine, resonance occurs which leads to an
meshing impacts between the chain links additional increase in the level of structure-

MTZ worldwide 5/2004 Volume 65 19

DEVELOPMENT Chain Drive

borne noise. The resulting disturbing noise retical path is calculated in such a way that, al speed of the sprocket, it follows that, dur-
is known as whine noise. at a prescribed constant rotational speed of ing this time, the pin that was located at Q
Silent chains have more favourable a sprocket, the velocity of the chain at the must have been displaced over the un-
acoustic properties than roller chains or straight part of the path is constant. As a known curve to point Q1. Q1 may easily be
bushing chains due to their specific contact consequence, the rotational speed of the calculated or constructed by drawing cir-
kinematics. Compared to the bushing chain other sprocket is also constant. cles with radius p about points P1 and R1.
however, their cost price is at least twice as Figure 2 shows, in more detail, the theo- The intersection of both circles is point Q1.
high. In addition, the use of silent chains in retical path B in the engagement/disen- The remaining points Q2, Q3, Q4 are calcu-
heavily loaded timing chain drives, such as gagement region of a sprocket with the lated or constructed in the same way. From
in direct injection diesel engines, is hardly pitch circle St. It has a straight section PQ this basic kinematic theory, it follows that
possible. (corresponding to the x-axis), a circular sec- the chain shows no polygon effect if the
Synchronous belts generally show very tion RS on the pitch circle of the sprocket centres of the pins follow the path PQRS.
good acoustic behaviour, but their lifetime and a yet unknown curve QR. The distance This path is known by defining point Q,
is unacceptably short, in particular if used between P and Q equals the pitch p. The which is located at a distance a from the y-
in diesel engines. Therefore, there is a real same applies to the distances RS and QR. axis. As the curve QR is located outside the
need for a durable, low-noise, low-cost Consequently, if the centre of a pin is locat- pitch circle of the sprocket, the roller or
roller chain drive or bushing chain drive ed at P, the neighbouring centres of the pin bushing may come into contact with the
without a disturbing polygon effect. are located at the points Q, R and S. tooth cavity of the sprocket as soon as the
The section QR must be chosen in such a centre of the roller or bushing has arrived at
2 A New Chain with No way that, at a constant rotational speed of point R, which is a point on the pitch circle.
Polygon Effect the sprocket, the velocity of the chain at the As a result, a “controlled” contact with the
straight section is constant, independent of tooth cavity occurs during a relatively long
The new chain by SmartChain B.V. [5] is a the actual rotational angle of the sprocket. period of time. This time corresponds to the
durable, low-cost roller chain or bushing For this purpose, the straight section PQ is time needed for the displacement of the
chain that does not show a polygon effect. divided in an arbitrary number into equal roller or bushing over a distance equal to
Meshing impacts between the chain and sub-sections (here, for instance, five) P-P1, the pitch p. If desired, the tooth cavity may
sprocket no longer occur and the speed ra- P1-P2, P2-P3, P3-P4, and P4-Q. In the same way, be undercut, leading to low requirements
tio is totally constant. From a theoretical the section RS on the pitch circle is divided with regard to production tolerances and
point of view, it is expected that the noise into subsections R-R1, R1-R2, R2-R3, R3-R4, and consequently to reduced manufacturing
and vibration level of the new chain is at R4-S. costs.
least as favourable as that of the silent While the centre of a pin is displaced
chain. The new ideas of SmartChain B.V. from P to P1 over the straight section PQ, the 4 Design of the Chain Guidance
have been protected by international centre of a pin that was located at R, is dis-
patent applications. The new chain may be placed over the pitch circle to point R1. Con- The simplest way to force the moving
applied, for instance, in the (timing) chain sequently, based on the requirement of a chain to follow the theoretical path is to
drive of the camshaft(s), injector pump, bal- constant velocity of the chain at the guide it by a stationary guide in the fixed
ancer shaft or oil pump of an internal com- straight section and of a constant rotation- plane. However, the disadvantage of this
bustion engine.

3 Theory

The theory behind the “zero polygon effect”

of this new innovative chain is surprisingly 4 Design of the Chain Guidance
simple. It is based on elementary kinemat-
ic principles and is therefore considered to
be conclusive.
Figure 1 shows a schematic representa-
tion of a symmetrical and an asymmetrical
chain drive with a driving sprocket 3A and
a driven sprocket 3B. The two sprockets
have a pitch circle indicated with St. If a
chain link totally wraps a sprocket, the two
centres of the pins of the chain link are lo-
cated on the pitch circle. The zero polygon
effect is achieved by guiding the chain in
such a way that the centres of the pins of
the chain follow a specific theoretical path
2A, 2B in the stationary (i.e. fixed) plane.
Close to a sprocket, the theoretical path co-
incides with the pitch circle of that sprock-
et. At the straight part, the distance be-
tween the theoretical path and the com-
mon tangent line between the pitch circles Figure 4: The new chain guided by the stationary
of both sprockets equals value b. The theo- and rotating guide

20 MTZ worldwide 5/2004 Volume 65

 DEVELOPMENT Chain Drive

guide system is that the contact forces and of a simplified kineto-static model of the 6.2 Layout of the Chain Drive
also the local Hertz contact stresses be- SmartChain concept. For this purpose, an A simple drive with two sprockets (20/40
tween the chain link and the guide are rel- analytical model has been generated in teeth, sprocket mesh according to DIN 8196)
atively high, due to the small radius of cur- Matlab. and a pitch of 8 mm, which is typical of tim-
vature close to the sprocket. In addition, the The model is used to calculate the re- ing chain applications, was used as a basic
slip velocity between the chain link and the quired geometry of the abutments of the configuration. Guides were positioned in
stationary guide equals the velocity of the chain plates and the guide systems. In addi- both free spans. The chain drive does not
chain. As a consequence, the power dissipa- tion, the kinematics and the mechanical include a tensioning device in order to pre-
tion is high, as is the wear in the contact equilibrium conditions, including the effect vent adulteration of the specific properties
points between the chain and the station- of friction between the chain links and the of the various chain types. The initial pre-
ary guide. stationary guide and the rotating guide, are load of the chain was created by adjusting
Substantially better conditions occur if considered. The model calculates specific the position of the driven sprocket. The dri-
the chain is guided by a guide both in the mechanical parameters such as Hertz con- ving sprocket (20 teeth) has a prescribed
rotating plane of the sprocket and in the tact stresses at the contact area of the abut- constant rotational speed of 3000 rpm. The
stationary plane. This is achieved by modi- ments, elasto-hydrodynamic oil film thick- driven sprocket is loaded by a constant mo-
fying the chain plates of the chain, Figure nesses and mechanical efficiencies. The nu- ment of 20 Nm.
3. The chain plates, originally consisting of merical results are very convincing and do
an approximately “figure of eight” contour, not present an obstacle for the technical 6.3 Comparison with a Bushing
are supplied with two precisely shaped implementation of the new concept. Chain and a Silent Chain
abutments n at one side of the chain plate. Figure 7 shows the dynamic fluctuation of
At each side of the sprocket, a ring which 6 Multi-Body Dynamics the angular velocity of the driven sprocket,
serves as a rotating guide for the abut- Simulation using AVL-Tycon which is not constant due to the non-vary-
ments is mounted. The contours of the ing speed ratio. This fluctuation is an indi-
abutments have been calculated in such a In order to further increase the certainty cator of the quality of the transmission be-
way that the centres of the pins follow the about the practical feasibility of the new haviour of the chain drive. As expected, the
curved path PQRS. The chain plate with the chain, AVL List GmbH performed basic in- bushing chain shows the highest ampli-
abutment works together with the rotating vestigations by means of the method of tudes, whereas the silent chain shows a
guide ring and functions as a lever. The sta- multi-body dynamics (MBD). The software somewhat improved behaviour. The new
tionary guides guide the centres of the pins Tycon was used for this purpose. Based on a chain concept (variant with stationary
along the straight section PQ. simple chain drive, comparative analyses guides), however, shows a significant re-
Figure 4 shows a schematic representa- with the common chain types bushing duction in the respective amplitudes. If the
tion of the new chain with the stationary chain and silent chain were performed. The results in the frequency domain are com-
and rotating guide. The figure shows the aim was a comparison of the dynamic pared, all chain types clearly show the com-
transition phase in which the centre of a properties of the new chain with those of ponents of the polygon order (20th order of
pin is located at Q. In this position, the abut- known technical implementations. the driving sprocket) and its first harmonic
ment n touches the ring 10B. Between P and It must be emphasized that none of the (40th order). Considering the dominating
Q, the chain is guided by a straight station- investigated chains were optimised for the polygon order, the new chain achieves a re-
ary guide. present application. The required data of duction by a factor of 8.6 compared to the
Figure 5 shows a schematic representa- the chain were taken directly from already bushing chain and by a factor of 6.3 com-
tion of the straight contour 10A of the sta- implemented timing chain applications. pared to the silent chain.
tionary guide 302, which guides the bushes The silent chain, and in particular the new Figure 8 shows the longitudinal chain
or rollers. This guide has been inserted in a chain concept, certainly have further po- force in relation to an observer frame
groove machined in the sprocket. tential for improvement. Specifically, the which moves with the chain links. The av-
Figure 6 shows a compact and low-cost consistent separation of functions be- erage force level is 450 N in the tight span
solution. The stationary guide plate with a tween chain guidance and transmission of and 50 N in the loose span. For the bushing
straight contour 10A guides the abutments the circumferential force represents a con- chain, the superimposed, high-frequency
n. siderable advantage of the new chain sys- vibration due to the chordal action can be
The design can be simplified consider- tem. clearly seen. For the silent chain, this vibra-
ably by omitting the stationary guides. tion has been reduced, but is still distinctly
Multi-body dynamics simulations have 6.1 MBD Model of the Chain present. In contrast to this, the new chain
shown that the dynamic properties deteri- The multi-body dynamics model of the concept shows an almost smooth curve. In
orate only marginally. This design option chain is a discrete chain model in which the frequency domain, it is shown that the
has the advantage of significantly lower every chain link is considered as a rigid components of the polygon order, or those
manufacturing costs without making sub- body with three degrees of freedom [1]. Lon- of its first harmonic, are now very small. In
stantial sacrifices in terms of noise and vi- gitudinal stiffness, damping of the chain particular, with regard to noise excitation,
bration. and the friction in the joints are considered the longitudinal chain force is a first, albeit
as force elements between the centres of relative, criterion for assessment. There-
5 Analytical Model in Matlab the joints. The model comprises the exact fore, it is to be expected that the new chain
contours of the chain (abutments of the will lead to a significant reduction in noise
The practical feasibility of the new chain chain plates, bushing) as well as those of excitation.
concept must be proven by means of elabo- the sprockets (sprocket mesh, rotating The contact forces between the abut-
rate experimental tests. However, a good guide). The contact algorithm used is based ments and the stationary or rotating
first assessment of the feasibility of the on the local contact stiffness/damping, and guides, but also those between the bush-
new chain may also be acquired by means also considers friction. ings and the sprocket mesh, determine

MTZ worldwide 5/2004 Volume 65 21

DEVELOPMENT Chain Drive

major advantage especially with regard to ■ improved specifications (higher speed,

Acknowledgements contact mechanics: a continuous, long-last- higher maximum chain load)
ing force build-up occurs between the ■ compact and reliable design
SmartChain B.V. is greatly
chain and the sprocket mesh. In contrast, ■ suitable as a roller chain or a bushing
indebted to AVL List GmbH the picture at the bottom of Figure 9 shows chain
the corresponding curve of the contact ■ suitable for mass production
and the Christian-Doppler-
force of the bushing chain and the silent ■ manufacturing price about equal to
Laboratory for Engine and chain. These chains show the typical force roller chains or bushing chains
peaks caused by the meshing impact. ■ potential low-cost alternative for expen-
Vehicle Acoustics of the
Even when the stationary guides are sive silent chains
Institute for Internal Combus- omitted, all important parameters show ■ high power density
only a minor deterioration, Figure 10 and ■ high mechanical efficiency
tion Engines and Thermody-
Figure 11. With regard to the contact forces ■ reduced chain wear
namics of the Graz University between the chain plate/bushing and the It should be emphasized that, apart from
sprocket mesh, Figure 12, it is clear that the some functional experimental tests, the
of Technology for performing
force build-up occurs continuously and new chain by SmartChain B.V. has mainly
the multi-body dynamics without significant impact phenomena. been investigated on a theoretical basis.
The maximum chain force is about 130 N, In order to be totally certain about the
simulations with the software
which is almost identical to the variant real feasibility, the new chain still has to be
Tycon. with stationary guides. The results allow subjected to extensive experimental tests
the conclusion that the low-cost variant (test bench, fired engine). In addition, it is
without stationary guides also behaves sig- recommended to perform a simulation of
nificantly better acoustically than the the structure-borne noise excitation of the
bushing chain and silent chain. internal combustion engine resulting from
the new chain [2, 3, 4]. If the new concept
passes these tests successfully, the new
7 Overview of the Advantages chain with no polygon effect can become a
both the local Hertz contact stress and the of the New Chain breakthrough in (automotive)chain engi-
lifetime of the new chain to a considerable neering.
extent. In addition, the magnitude of the In short, the expected technical and com-
impulse of these forces determines the in- mercial advantages of the new chain are: 8 Conclusions
tensity of the excitation of structure-borne ■ potential reduction in the noise level
noise. Figure 9 shows the contact forces be- ■ acoustic quality at least equal to that of The new chain by SmartChain B.V. with no
tween the chain link and the driving silent chains polygon effect is based on a surprisingly
sprocket in the engagement region. The ■ (theoretically) no polygon effect simple approach and has an acoustic quali-
picture at the top applies to the new con- ■ no meshing impact ty that is at least equal to that of the silent
cept with stationary guides. All forces are at ■ constant transmission ratio chain. Its manufacturing price is not higher
a low level (maximum 130 N). Peak forces ■ (theoretically) no chain vibration than that of a roller chain or a bushing
due to the meshing impacts do not occur. ■ (theoretically) constant longitudinal chain. The new chain has the potential to
Furthermore, it can be observed that, first chain force penetrate and expand on the “low-noise”
of all, the abutment at the front side (seen ■ excellent behaviour even if stationary market of automotive silent chains and
in the running direction) makes contact guides are omitted synchronous belts.
with the stationary guide (red curve). Next,
the contact is taken over by the rotating
guide (= starting action of the lever, blue
curve). As soon as the descending phase has
been completed, the contact between the References
bushing and the sprocket mesh follows
(black curve). Due to the controlled mesh- [1] Sopouch, M.; Hellinger, W.; Priebsch, [3] Sopouch, M.; Hellinger, W.; Priebsch,
ing process, an acoustically very favourable H.H.: Prediction of Vibroacoustic Excita- H.H.: Simulation of Engine’s Structure
tion due to the Timing Chains of Recipro- Borne Noise Excitation due to Timing
force transfer occurs, as a result of the low cating Engines. ImechE 2003, Journal of Chain Drive. In: SAE paper 2002-01-0451
impulse. As soon as the chain link has total- Multi-body Dynamics, Part K [4] Sopouch, M.; Hellinger, W.; Priebsch,
ly wrapped the sprocket, the chain link is [2] Schaffner, T.; Sopouch, M.; Hellinger, W.; H.H.; Schaffner, T.: Design Parameters of
Ovari, T.; Priebsch, H.H.: Numerische the Timing Chain Drive and their Influence
positioned by the front and rear abutment Simulation des Einflusses verschiedener on Structure Borne Noise Excitation. 2002
of the chain plate, which are both support- Spannelemente auf die Körperschallanre- JSAE Spring Convention, Paper 20025326
ed by the rotating guide. During this gung durch Steuerkettentriebe. In: MTZ [5] Website of Smartchain B.V.:
64 (2003), Nr. 7-8 www.smartchain.nl
process, the circumferential force decreases
and, as a consequence, the contact force be-
tween the bushing and the sprocket mesh
decreases simultaneously. In the disen-
gagement region, the increase in the con-
tact force, due to the lever action of the rear
abutment, can still be seen to some extent
(green curve). The new concept shows its

22 MTZ worldwide 5/2004 Volume 65

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