Abstract
Skew phenomena of a flat belt running between cylindrical rollers with out-of-plane angular misalignment were simulated by means of the FEM software MARC. The effects of roller misalignment angle, belt initial tension, coefficient of friction, and an added tension roller on the belt skew were investigated. The FEM results indicate that the skew transient state disappears very quickly and the skew rate is proportional to the roller misalignment angle and is about 60% in magnitude compared with the in-plane misalignment case. Moreover, when the tension roller is placed in a suitable position with a certain in-plane angular misalignment, the belt skew is greatly reduced due to the out-of-plane misalignment. The skew generating mechanism with out-of-plane angular misalignment was also investigated.
