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Fatigue failure mechanism in synchronous belts with steel cord was investigated. The belt failure was initiated near the tooth root, where the steel cords were broken. The steel cord was made for twisting nineteen steel wires. It consisted of one core wire, six inner layer wires and nine outer layer wires. The bending fatigue tests of the steel cord were carried out and discussed the fatigue failure mechanism. The bending fatigue was firstly initiated for the outer wires. However, the bending stress was highest in the center core wire according to our geometrical analysis. Therefore, the interaction between the wires may increase the axial stress and the total stress of the bending and the axial stresses may fatigue the outer wire. On the other hand, the FEM results showed that the maximum stress occurs in the outer layer wire by the restriction between wires.
