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An automatic tensioner with an asymmetric damping structure used in an engine front end accessory drive system is analyzed. An analytical model is established to calculate the hysteretic behavior of the tensioner. The contact characteristics of contact pairs are modeled and investigated for disclosing relation between contact pair, friction and hysteretic loop of an automatic belt tensioner. The presented models are validated by a torque measurement versus angular displacement of a tensioning arm. The errors between the calculation and the measurement are analyzed. The working torques of the tensioner during loading and unloading process are described by a bilinear hysteretic model and are written as a function with a damping ratio. The influence of damping structure parameters on the hysteretic torque is investigated. The method presented in this paper can be used for predicting the nonlinear characteristics of a tensioner before prototyping.

A dynamic performance calculating model for a powertrain-subframe mounting system (PSMS) is presented. Calculation methods for determining the dynamic displacements of a powertrain center of gravity (CG), the dynamic displacements of a subframe CG and the dynamic reaction forces of each mount in a PSMS under ground and motor shake excitation are developed in this paper. An optimization procedure based on the genetic algorithm and SQP is developed for reducing resonance peaks of the reaction forces at mounts. A generic PSMS with three powertrain-subframe mounts and four subframe-body mounts is used to validate the optimization method. The optimization results demonstrate that the results using the optimization procedure can effectively reduce the reaction forces at mounts.