EFFICIENT SIMULATION OF BUSH AND ROLLER CHAIN DRIVES

Abstract

Bush chains and roller chains are frequently used in valve train systems of combus- tion engines. Their complex dynamical behaviour is dominated by the effects of high velocities and transient driving torques as well as by polygonal action and rotatory impacts. These phenomena may be studied efciently by the methods of multibody dynamics. However, the high-frequency characteristics and the comparatively large number of degrees of freedom cause challenging numerical problems. There are two basic strategies to keep the numerical effort in time integration within reasonable bounds: On the one hand it may be reduced by adapted modelling, on the other hand specic time integration schemes may be used to solve the equations of motion. The paper introduces methods in both elds and presents simulation examples to show their effect on efciency and to validate their implementation.