Abstract
Fatigue failure of synchronous belts was investigated under fluctuating torque conditions. At first, the fatigue failure morphology was observed. The results showed that the friction between the belt bottom land and pulley tooth was the important factor for fatigue failure of the belts. The facing fabric was wore and the cord was damaged by the friction. Then. a simplified mechanical model for the cord failure by the friction was proposed to explain the cord failure morphology.
