Analysis and Experimental Comparison of Models of a New Form of Continuously Variable Transmission

Efficient, high-performance continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology is currently being pursued by many engineering companies as a way to combat manufacturing cost, improve the feasibility of systems such as electric cars and small-scale wind power generation, and improve efficiency of many mechanical systems such as industrial pumps and fans. Successful, wide-scale implementation of efficient CVT technology has the capacity to reduce global energy consumption, diversify feasible energy sources and improve production and operating cost of many mechanical systems, but most contemporary designs have worse efficiency, cost or performance than the systems they are meant to replace. A new, unique mechanism called the Beale CVT has the capacity to overcome all these obstacles, but presents difficulties in design based on its dynamic characteristics, which have not previously been modeled or verified through experiment. This work successfully developed an accurate dynamic model for the elements making up the Beale CVT to be used in future design of the mechanism, which was then verified by experiment on a physical transmission prototype.