Development of a bending fatigue test for rings from a CVT-Pushbelt

Fatigue tests are a very time consuming process in engineering, in which also a lot of energy is required. Speeding up fatigue tests and making them less energy consuming, would lead to major profits. The aim of this study is to obtain these profits by the development of a new bending fatigue test. In addition, the objective is to apply this new method to the bending fatigue test of rings from a CVT-Pushbelt. A new bending fatigue testing method is developed and is successfully applied to the bending fatigue test of the CVT-pushbelt rings. The new method makes use of spring capabilities of the ring for displacement amplification via resonance. A concept model is created with which tests are done to validate the new method. It is concluded that the speed is increased by almost 60% and the energy requirement is reduced by 95%. Tests until specimen failure show similar results as current tests, while the conditions of the fatigue test remain the same.BMDBioMechanical EngineeringMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin