A Method to Determine the

I. Troedsson
Department of Machine Elements
Lund Institute of Tectinology
Lund, Sweden
L. Vedmar
Department of Macliine Elements
Lund institute of Tectinology
Lund, Sweden
Static Load Distribution in a
Chain Drive
A model of how to calculate the load distribution for a chain drive is presented. In the
model the complete standard geometry is used without any assumptions. The rollers which
are in contact with the sprockets can move freely along the tooth flanks and their positions
are given by force equilibrium. Since the positions of the rollers and thereby also the load
distribution are dependent on the two connecting spans, these necessary tight and slack
.•spans have been included in the model. The elastic deformation in the chain is included
as well as the gravitational force.

Introduction
Chain drives are an old invention but are still considered as a
common way of transmitting power in mechanical systems. The
major advantages of chain drives are the flexibility in selecting
shaft centre, the ability to drive more than one shaft, the high
reliability and durability and the relatively cheap components.
However, chain drives introduce problems such as noise and
vibration. Even though chain drives have been in use for a long
time, research in the open literature on this machine element has
been concentrated to the last half of this century.
In the 1950s and 1960s R. C. Binder [1] and H-G. Rachner [8]
presented the first step to an analysis of forces and stresses in a
chain drive. In the early 1980s, Naji and JVIarshek [5, 6, 7]
complemented Binder's and Rachner's works by theoretical and
experimental investigation to study contact phenomena under
quasi-static condition due to non-trivial geometry of the sprocket
tooth. In the 1990's Kim and Johnson [3, 4] presented a model
using a more exact geometry.
Binder [1] and Rachner [8] assumed that the contact angle due
to the symmetry of each tooth was constant. But they did not
comment on how to determine it's value. Naji and Marshek [5, 6,
7] used a simplified model of the geometry, assuming that if the
roller contacted the bottom of the gap between two teeth, the
contact always occured at one point. Kim and Johnson improved
this model by using the full ANSI standard geometry. However,
none of them have considered any elastic deformation either in the
chain or the sprocket and none of them have used a complete gear
set with two sprockets and two connecting chain spans.
Sprocket and chain geometry has been standardised by the
American standard ANSI B29.1 and the European standards DIN
8180, DIN 8187 and DIN 8188. The American standard defines the
geometry of the tooth using four arcs. The European standards use
five segments which are a mix of straight lines and arcs. Each arc
curvature is larger than the radius of the roller. This work has been
developed from the European standard which differs from the
works by most of the above mentioned authors.
The angle of contact force on the sprocket varies a lot. This
variation affects the distribution of contact forces and chain link
tension. It is therefore important to calculate the contact angle
exactly at each tooth to predict the load distribution. The position
and subsequent contact angle can be calculated from the equilib-
rium equation together with geometric conditions. The external
forces and torque acting at a sprocket are affected by the driving
torque, load torque, gravitational force as well as the spans. To
Contributed by the Mechanisms Committee for publication in the JOURNAL oi'
MECHANCAL DESIGN. Manuscript received Jul. 1998; revised May 1999. Associate
Technical Editor: G. S. Chirikjian.
predict the behaviour for a chain drive, it is necessary to model the
complete set with the sprockets and the chain. The only alternative
is to assume some of the position of the rollers. This is not correct,
since their position is given by equilibrium.
A new model, that determines the load distribution without the
earlier assumption, is presented here. This calculation is made on
a chain drive with two sprockets; one driving and one driven. Both
sprockets are modelled according to the geometry standard DIN
8187 and all the contacting rollers have been modelled as well as
a tight and a slack span to connect the two sprockets.
Static Model
An example of a chain transmission is shown in Fig. 1. It
represents the simplest kind of transmission since it only includes
two sprockets and one chain. One sprocket is driving, the other one
is driven and the chain transmits the power between them.
In order to obtain a model for determining the load distributions
along the sprockets and the forces along the chain, the transmission
is divided into four separate parts. These four parts are tension
span, slack span, driving sprocket and driven sprocket. The dif-
ferent parts will, for convenience, be treated separately but, as they
affect each other, none of them can be neglected. The chain is
affected differently at each part. At the tight span most of the
power is transmitted between the two sprockets. Here the tension
force dominates over the gravitation force. The opposite is true for
the slack span where most of the tension force comes from grav-
itation. The chain part which is in contact with the sprockets, in
contrast to the two spans, is affected by contacting forces on the
rollers. The compatibility between the parts must be considered
when putting the parts together in a complete model.
To describe the model a few parameters first have to be defined.
The driving sprocket will be indexed p and the driven sprocket will
be indexed g. It is assumed that some parameters are known such
as the driving torque M,, or the load torque Mg, the number of teeth
at the two sprockets z,, and Zg, the number of rollers n and the
centre distance a. A coordinate system is defined in the centre of
the driving sprocket as shown in Fig. 1. This is the global coor-
dinate system, used to describe the geometry, when calculating the
position of the rollers and the sprockets.
The two sprocket centres are assumed to be located at the same
height with the gravitational force acting in the negative
y-direction. The gravitational force at the chain is assumed to act
in the roller centre. All parts of the model, both chain and sprock-
ets, are regarded as two dimensional bodies and all variations in
the direction along the rotation axis of the sprockets are neglected.
It is furthermore assumed that the two sprockets are working in the
same plane and trictional effects are neglected in the model. Since
the model is assumed to be strictly static, all inertia forces are

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 Fig. 1 Chain drive with sprockets and chain in a giobal coordinate
system

neglected. The only elasticity included is the elasticity in the chain

links, which are assumed to be equal for all links. All other parts
are assumed to be rigid. Fig. 2 Sprocket geometry

Chain in Contact witli Sprocliet

When the chain contacts the sprocket there will be contact
forces between the rollers and the tooth flanks. These can be
separated in forces acting in the normal direction and forces acting
along the surface. Since all friction forces are neglected in this
model, there will only remain forces in the normal direction to the
tooth flank. To obtain the normal direction of each possible contact
point the geometry has to be described.
This paper will only deal with chain and sprockets standardised
according to the European standard DIN 8187. This standard
geometry is shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
On the sprocket, from the bottom of the centre between two
teeth, the geometry starts with a straight part followed by an arc
with the radius r,. The arc ends at the angle 7 and is followed by
a second straight part. This straight part connects at the next arc
with the radius r^ which stops at the tip-radius. It is interesting to
note that the geometry is such that, at the same time, a roller cannot
contact more than one single point in the tooth space, since the
flanks' curvature radii are greater than the roller radius. Together
with the two end points of the tooth half, there are six points at the
flank where the geometry changes from a curved part to a straight
part and vice versa, see Fig. 4.
By using the coordinates for the six points, the geometry for the
complete flank can be described in the Cartesian coordinates x'
and y'. The opposite flank on the tooth can then be described by
just reflecting the x' coordinates in the y'-axis. Since the sprocket
is assumed to be rigid, the angle between the teeth is constant. A
complete sprocket can therefore be described by just rotating the
coordinates x' and y' a number of pitch angles.
The part of the chain which contacts the sprocket is a roller with
the constant radius R,. As stated above, only one single point at the
tooth surface can simultaneously be in contact with the same roller.
To find out which, the path the roller centre describes, when it
moves along the tooth flank, was calculated. This was done by
introducing the coordinate TJ which defines the position of the
roller centre relative to the tooth.
Since the distance between two rollers is one chain pitch, the
coordinates for roller (' + 1 and roller i, should fulfill the following
equation.
= ^x,+ i - xy + (>>,•+1 -yd' (1)
The pitch is normally affected by imperfections due to manufac-
turing errors. The elastic deformation of the chain will also affect
the chain pitch. It is therefore not obvious that the pitch of the
sprocket and the chain are equal. Furthermore it is important to
find out if, for a given roller position at tooth number i, there could
be more than one position where a roller can contact the tooth ;' -I-
1, and still fulfill Eq. 1, that is if the equation has more than one
solution. Since variation in chain pitch is common, it is necessary
to investigate if nlore than one solution exists for all possible chain
pitches. However, it is not possible to show the curve for all chain
pitches in one diagram. Therefore five discrete chain pitches are
shown in Fig. 5, which covers far more elastic deformation than
the strength allows.
In Fig. 5 the position T),+I for the roller ; -I- 1 is shown as a
function of the roller /'s position r},. Obviously, the position of the
next roller can be located, if the position of the first one is
somehow known. The above curves also imply that no point exists
where two values of the function exist for this case, since the
derivative has the same sign in the interval. These curves were
obtained from a sprocket with a small number of teeth. To find out
if two solutions exist for higher numbers of teeth, the same
investigation has to be made also for these sprockets. In Fig. 6 the
results for different number of teeth and i,,„j = 15.875 mm is
shown.

Nomenclature
a = Centre distance ^6011 = Bottom radius T) = Coordinate along the tooth flank
C = Chain link stiffness R,ii, = Tip radius (non dimensional)
F = Force / = Pitch 6 = Chain angle
g = Gravitational constant x, y = Coordinates ^ = Angle to previous roller
h = Distance z = Number of teeth
k = Distance a = Pitch angle Subscripts
m = Mass of the chain and roller j3 = Angle to following roller (• = Roller number
M = Torque 7 = Pressure angle g = Driven sprocket
n = Number of rollers r = Contact angle p = Driving sprocket
R,i = Pitch radius

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 ^lin
z=10
1= 15.875 mm 15.775 /
ri= 5.2 mm
r2= 12.7 mm 15.875 /
k = 3.5 mm / ' 15.975 ,
/i = 1.3 mm
—TSOTS

Fig. 3 Chain ilni< geometry VM 3

As seen in Fig. 6, the curves stay very close to each other in the
interval 4 - 6 . It is because the rollers centre only moves a very
short distance in the radial direction relative to the sprockets
centre, and is therefore still close to the pitch radius. An opposite
effect could be seen in the Fig. 5 where the curve differs a lot in
the same interval, since the roller ; + 1 lands on a greater pitch
radius when the chain pitch increases and vice versa. It could also
be noted that the possibility of two solutions occuring seems to 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
decrease with higher numbers of teeth, since the maximum deriv- n,
ative of the curve decreases. This means that the risk for two Fig. 5 Relationship between the location of the contact points of two
solutions is greatest for small numbers of teeth. The Fig. 5 showed adjacent rollers
that this did not occur for a sprocket with ten teeth. This implies
that two solutions do not exist for a normally working sprocket
with ten teeth or more.
F,+i and F^ are possible to determine if the previous tension force
When static force equilibrium of the chain and sprocket in F|, the mass m, and the coordinates for the rollers ;' - 1 and / +
contact is calculated, all friction forces and friction torques are 1 are known. Equilibrium gives the contact force
neglected. This means that four forces act at one roller; the two
tension forces, one in the previous and one in the following link, sin (i// + j3) mg cos j3
the contact force and the gravitational force. (2)
^' " ^' • s i n T r r ^ ^ sin ( F T ^
The coordinates ip^j and (pg„, are introduced to describe the
position of the two sprockets. Coordinates to describe the angle and the relation between the tension forces
between the centre of the first roller contacting each sprocket on
the tight side are also introduced as (p,,, and tpi^. The driving sin (F + i//) mg cos F
f,-n = Pi sin (F + |8) (3)
torque is called A/,, and the load torque M^. sin (F + /3)
In Fig. 7 the forces and their directions are shown. The forces
It is possible to predict the chain tension of the following link,
as long as the position of the next roller is known. This is the case
if the position of one roller is known and all the elastic deforma-
tions are neglected. Since elastic deformation exists, an iterative
method has to be used to calculate the tension force in the follow-
ing link and the thereby given coordinate for the next roller. As

(= 15.875 mm
^1=5.2 mm
r^= 12.7 mm

^M 3

ijfi
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Fig. 6 Relationship between the location of the contact points of two

Fig. 4 Tooth half with the path which the rollers centre describes adjacent rollers

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 inner pair. The stiffness for one outer and one inner was calculated
and the mean value was then used in the model.

Tight Span Section

As stated in the section "static model" most of the power is
transmitted at the tight span. This means that the tension force
dominates over the gravitation force and that the span is stretched.
Since friction was neglected, the tension span was modelled as a
series of mass-less springs, each of which has the same elasticity
as a chain link and all have their coordinates along a straight line.
It was assumed that the half mass of the links and the roller are
lumped to a point at the centre of the roller. This means that

Fig. 7 Sprocket with the contacting chain part
shown in Eq. 3 it is necessary to know the force in the previous
chain link. It is obvious that the only links where the force can be
calculated from the compatibility are the first and the last one at the
sprocket. These are the link which connects the first roller at the
sprocket to the last roller at the tight span, and the link which
connects the last roller in contact with the sprocket to the first one
at the slack side. This force could be calculated from geometric
parameters, moment equilibrium and compatibility. The parame-
ters which are known from the compatibility are the tension side
force, the slack side force and the driving torque. The moment
equilibrium gives the compatibility equations
e„ (5)
and
F„,i, + n-mg-sin (6,,,,,,) (6)
where n is the number of teeth in the span, mg is the gravitation
force, and 0,„,, and 0,„g are the angles for start and end point.
Slack Span Section
The slack side is quite different from the tension span, since the
tension force is very small here. The major part of the tension force
comes from the gravitation force in the chain. This side can
therefore not be assumed to be a straight line. When calculating the
positions and tension forces in this span, it is assumed that the half
mass of the links and the mass of the roller are lumped to a point
at the centre of the roller here as well. A method of how to
calculate the coordinates for the slack span, shown in Fig. 9, is
described below.
Equilibrium gives
Fj sin (pj = Fj_, sin £Pi_|

M,, = /^o.,,^i,,, cos (cpi.p - e,„,p) - F„^i,R„j, cos ((p„,,, + e,,,„„,) F, cos <p, + mg = F,_i cos (p;_i (7)
Combining these two equations give
- mg-Y, Ri.p sin (<P;,„) mg sin (pi
F„ = 1, 2,
' ' sin (<p, - (p,_,) '
^ « = -Po.gRi.s COS (9,,, - 0,„,j,) + F„,gi?„,s cos (ip„,j + 9j.„„,)
mg sin (p,_
n 1, 2, (8)
sin (cp, - <p,_,)
+ mg • 2 Ri.« sin (ip,J (4)
This means that there are two equations for each roller, except
for the one at the ends.
where /?,,, and R,j, are the radii to the first contacting roller and
R„j, and R„,g are the radii to the last contacting roller at the
sprocket. The position of the rollers can be calculated numerically
using an iterative method when solving Eqs. 4.

Calculation of the Chain Stiffness

Since the chain model includes elastic deformation, it is neces-
sary to calculate the stiffness of the link. The sprockets and the
rollers are assumed to be rigid. To find out if this is a good
approximation, the deformation of a link was compared to the
contact deformation given by Hertz [2] for the same load. Such a
comparison shows that the contact deformation is much smaller
than the link deformation and thus could be neglected.
To calculate the stiffness in the link the finite element method
was used. The mesh used in the calculation is shown in Fig. 8. To
simulate the connection to a rigid bush, a fixed displacement was
attached to the nodes at the upper side of the hole in the F-direction
at the same time as these nodes' displacement in the X-direction
were fixed. Then the reaction force and the elastic forces were
calculated.
A chain is normally made by two kinds of link pair, one outer
pair and one inner pair. The outer pair is normally smaller than the Fig. 8 Finite element mesh

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 mg sin ipi starting values. An investigation of this showed that if the slack
Fo^ sin ((PI - <po) side is fairly stretched, a fast solution can be created by using start
values from an arc which has the same curve length as the slack
side, but for greater slack a second degree curve gives a faster
m^ sin cp2 m^ sin <Po solution.
F, =
sin (^2 - <Pi) sin (<Pi ~ W When the angles are known, the forces in each chain link on the
slack side can be calculated. It is then possible to calculate forces
and coordinates for each roller as long as the starting point and end
point of the slack are known.
mg sin (p„ mg sin (p„_2
F„-,
" ' =Tr
sin (<f)„ - ip„^i) sin ((p„^i - cp„-2)
Static Analysis
mg sin (p,,^. The problem has been divided into four parts: tension span,
" sin(<p„-(p„„,) (9) slack span, driving sprocket and driven sprocket which have been
treated separately. When putting them together the compatibility
The geometry gives the two missing equations, necessary to has to be considered.
solve the equation system with n + I number of unknowns, Since the tension span is modelled as a number of springs which
coordinates describe a straight line, it is possible to calculate the
AJC L angle coordinate ipi^ to the first contacting roller at the driven
^sm<p,= ^ — = y sprocket
1 1

(4/?L(«i sin (pi.p + a)^ + AR- ifi^hg (P],p) • sin' 9,.„

n-1

2, cos (p, = 2. -7- = 7 (10)

- 4i?,,^(i?i,p sin (p,,p + fl) • (R^J, sin tpi,,, + a)
1 I

These equations can be put together to an equation system Fop (1 + n)

n\tlank + -~^+ 2-C "^8 ^i'^Vin.pj j +R

AJC;
/i = 2 sin (f, - E ^ = + Ri.p cos^ (p,J • sin (pi.j + {Ri,p sin ip,,,, + a)

^y, Fo.p ( i + «) . \ y 2
/2 = E COS 9/ - 2 ^= 0 n\ ti„„i, + ~^+ 2-Co .^ mg sin cp,,,,,,} ] + Rl.S

+ Rl^ cos^ ^,,,j - 4Ri,Rl„ cos^ cp,,,, = 0 (12)

mg sm (P2 mg sm ipo
•^' sin (<p2 - ^1) sin (9, - <po)
With the Eq. 12 it is possible to calculate (pi,j if <p,,p, /?!,,,, /?,,,,
the centre distance a, and the force F„j, are all known. However,
the radii Ri_p, iJ,^ are both dependent on the forces and torques
acting at the sprockets. These radii and forces have to be chosen
mg sm (p„ mg sin (p„-2
Jn+l ~ 0 (11) when the load distribution is calculated on sprockets such that the
sin ((p„ - <p„_j) sin (cp,,^, - (p„_2) compatibility for the slack side is fulfilled. It is therefore necessary
that is, there is a set of equations which are all equal to zero. These to solve the complete model in an iterative way. In the solution
equations can be solved numerically using the Newton-Raphson procedure it is assumed that the position of the driving sprocket
method. ip,j„ the number of chain links n, the centre distance a, the chain
A procedure for solving the above problem now will be given. mass m, the chain stiffness C, the number of teeth on the sprockets
First the start values for all angles are guessed. Thereafter the z, and the driving torque Mp are known.
equation system will be solved and new angles will be calculated When starting to solve the complete model, the values of -r;,,,,
from the result. This has to be an iterative solution and continues and T)| jj have to be guessed. If the tension force in the tight span
until the difference between the angles in two following iterations is given an approximative value and the number of links at the
are small enough. span is guessed, the radii to the first rollers centre on each sprocket
To make a fast solving procedure, it is necessary to have good Ri^p andR,g can be calculated as well as the position of the driven
sprocket <pi,g. To see if the guessed number of links in the slack
span is correct, two types of checks have to be made. First, it is
necessary to find out if the first rollers' contact force is positive on
both sprockets. If this is not the case, the number of links at the
span has to be increased. Secondly, it has to be checked if the first
or the last roller in the span is in contact with any one of the
sprockets. In that case the number of links in the span has to be
decreased. If anyone of the two checks fails, the calculation of ^1 ^
has to be redone.
The number of rollers which contact each one of the two
sprockets, will then be guessed. The contact forces, the tension
forces, and the deformation at the chain part which contact the
sprockets will then be calculated. The angle of the link after the
last contacting roller 0^ „„, and 9^ „„, on both sprockets has to be
guessed. These angles will later be given by the compatibility
between the slack span and the sprocket.
Fig. 9 The slack span model A slack span will then be calculated from the last roller which

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 contacts the driving and driven sprockets. If the distance is longer 250
than the length of the remaining chain, a tight span is modelled [urn,'
also at this side, otherwise a slack span is used. To see if the " ^ ^ • « . , .

number of rollers in contact with the sprockets is correct, the same 200
checks are made as on the tight span. The forces on the last roller
which contact each sprocket can now be calculated properly from
the geometric compatibility. If the contact force on any of these 150
rollers is negative, the number of rollers at the slack span is
• ^,l.f
increased by one and a new span has to be calculated from the ^
100
second last contacting roller at the sprocket. Then the forces on the
second last roller are calculated as if this is the last one and the sign r;
of the contact force is checked again and so on until the contact
50
force is positive. A check to see if the first or last roller at the span r; ^
contacting any of the sprockets is made as well. In order to get a
stable solution the limit is given that the number of rollers only is ^
allowed to increase or decrease by one in every recalculation of the
slack span. When the slack side has passed the checks, a possible
geometric solution is obtained. Now the tension force at the first -50 1 2
link given by the slack span calculation is compared to the tension 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12
(p/(2a)
force in the same link given by the calculation of the sprocket. The
same is made for the last link at the span. This is defined as Fig. 11 Roller centre radii and contact angles

^F=\F,.„-F„J

AF., (13)
were F,,,,, and F„_g are the forces in the link after the last contacting
roller at the sprockets while F,,,,, is the force in the first and F„,, the
last link at the slack span. These forces are all dependent on TJ,,,
and T)i,j,. It is obvious that AF,, and AF^ have to be zero when the
solution is correct. To find the value of TJ,,,, and TJ, ^ where AFp
and AFg are zero the Newton-Raphson method in two dimensions
has been used. When calculating dFJd'r]^, dF^/drj^, dFJdr],, and
dFJdi],, a difference equation was used. A problem occurred
where the Newton-Raphson method did not converge when getting
close to the zero point. This appears to be an inflexion point and
the derivative dF^/drj,, and dFJdT]^ approached zero at the same
time as the derivative dFp/drjg and dFJdt],, increased and became
dominant. An other problem was that the derivative given by the
difference equation was not sufficient when getting close to zero.
To solve this problem a method was developed where the deriv-
ative was limited to remove the instability.
Numerical Example
A chain drive is studied with the number of rollers n = 40, the
number of teeth at the driving sprocket z^ = 10, the number of
teeth at the driven sprocket Zg = 20, the centre distance a =
196.8 mm, the pitch at the two sprockets t,, = tg = 15.875 mm,
the chain pitch f/,,,* = 15.95 mm, and the constant driving torque
Mp = 5 Nm. The contacting points and their normals for the
studied example are shown in Fig. 10. Since friction is neglected,
the contact forces will act along these normals. For the driven
sprocket there is one zone where the rollers take load and one zone
where the contact normals are nearly radial, and therefore do not
transmit any power. It can also be seen that none of the rollers
contact the opposite flank of their tooth space. At the driving
sprocket there is also a power transmitting zone as well as a less
power transmitting zone, even if the last zone is smaller then that
on the driven sprocket. However the last roller transmits some
power since the contact normal is not exactly radial. It is also
noticeable that the angle between the first and the last load taking
roller at each sprocket is in the same range. This could be a
similarity to a belt drive. If the driving torque increases, the last
rollers will climb and contact the tooth at a greater radius so that
more power can be transmitted. If the driving torque increases
even more, the contacting rollers will climb out on an even greater
radius and the distance of the slack span will increase as well as the
force in the slack span. If the necessary force at the slack side
cannot be exceeded, the last roller will start to jump over the teeth.
In order to visualise the results, a rollers' centre radius and the
corresponding contact angle is shown in Fig. 11. The radius is
calculated relative to the sprocket's centre and is then compared to
the pitch radius of the sprocket. The contact angle T is calculated
relative to the middle of the gap between two teeth. The contact
250
1
F[N]
200 '\ ^ XvA;yj\. \AJ vA;

150
\

100

I -

11
50 \

\
\
\ ... " T " 1 .-
0
0 12 16 20 24 1
28 1
32 36 40
ip/(2a,,)

Fig. 10 The contact normals given by the model Fig. 12 Tension forces and contact forces In a complete chain

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 angle is therefore zero when the roller contacts the bottom of the 2.08
gap (point 6 in Fig. 4). The roller contacts the first tooth from
length coordinate 1 to 2 in Fig. 11 and then the second tooth from M,/M„
2 and so on. The first contacting roller contacts the sprocket 2.06
\
between the points 3 and 4 (see Fig. 4) and on a greater centre
radius than the next one. The radius decreases then until it contacts
the bottom of the gap and the value is there equal to zero. The
2.04
\
contacting angle F' is constant equal to 90° — y — a as long as the \
roller contacts the straight part between the points 3 and 4 (see Fig.
4). It decreases then down to zero when the contact point moves
j

II
from the point 4 to the point 6. The curves change a lot when the 2.02
. Rachner's model
torque increases to the point where the last roller at the sprocket
takes load, since the centre radius of the last roller then can be
greater than the first. 2.00
The tension force Fi + i in the link i + 1 and the contact forces
/ \
This model •'
F,. at the roller / are shown in Fig. 12. The forces are plotted ''
against a non-dimensional coordinate which has its origin at the 1.98
first contacting roller at the driving sprocket and acts along the
driving sprocket. Between zero and one the link is not in contact
and the variation in force depends on the polygon effect. When 1.96
contact occurs the contact force increases and the stretching force 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
decreases. When the next roller gets into contact the curves change
direction. The two forces decrease until the roller leaves the
Fig. 13 Torque ratio when the driving sprocl<et is turned one pitch
sprocket and enters the slack span. Then the contact force is zero
until the roller enters the driven sprocket. The way the coordinate
is defined, the stretching force at the driving sprocket will now be
the local force F,. This is why the contact force decreases to zero distribution are affected by the pitch of the chain, the pitch of the
after the stretching force has entered the tension side at point 29. sprockets, the elastic deformation and also by the torque's on
After coordinate 29 the tension is affected by the polygon effect. driving and driven sprocket. It is possible to find solutions very
Notice that since the driving and driven sprocket do not work in close to the point where the jumping over teeth phenomena occurs.
phase, a roller will not leave and enter the driven sprocket at an Also there is a difference in the polygon effect when comparing
even coordinate in Fig. 12. the developed model to previous models. This difference is caused
From the forces shown in Fig. 12, the driven torque can be by the slack span as well as the fact that the radius to the first
calculated according to Eq. 4. The torque at the driven sprocket, contacting roller at each sprocket vary during one pitch.
calculated from this theory as well as from Rachners [3] theory, is
shown in Fig. 13. It can be seen that a roller leaves the driven
References
sprocket at 0.75. Since the pitch angle is constant and the entrance
radii Rip and /?i„, do not differ much from the pitch radii, the 1 Binder, R. C , 1956, Mechanics of Roller Chain Drive, Prentice-Hall, Engle-
wood Cliffs, New Jersey.
polygon effect cannot be expected to be affected a lot. It can be 2 Hertz, H., 1895, Gesammelte werke, Leipzig.
seen in Fig. 13 that the curves stay relatively close to each other, 3 Kim, M. S,, and Johnson, Glen E., 1992, "Mechanics of Roller Chain-Sprocket
but the difference is visible and will for instance affect the results Contact: General Modelling Strategy," ASME.
if a dynamic calculation is made. 4 Kim, M. S., and Johnson, Glen E., 1992, "Mechanics of Roller Chain-Sprocket
Contact: Observations about the Contact Phenomena and Load Distribution," ASME.
5 Naji, M. R., 1981, "On Timing Belt and Roller Chain Load Distribution," Ph.D.
Summary Dissertation, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
6 Naji, M. R., and Marsheck, K. M., 1983, "Experimental Determination of the
The load distribution in a chain drive with two sprockets was Roller Chain Load Distribution," ASME Journal of Mechanisms, Transmission and
calculated. The method used in this paper is shown to be a Automation in Design, Vol. 105, pp. 331-338.
powerful tool to calculate the rollers' position along the chain as 7 Naji, M. R., and Marsheck, K. M., 1984, "Analysis of Roller Chain Sprocket
Pressure Angles," Mechanisms and Machine Theory, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 197-203.
well as the forces acting at the rollers and the sprockets. The 8 Rachner, H-G., 1962, Staalgelenkketten und Kettengetriebe, Springer-Verlag,
contacting angles between sprockets and rollers and the load Beriin.

408 / Vol. 121, SEPTEMBER 1999 Transactions of the ASME

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