Pressure distribution on the blade surface of an automotive mixed flow turbocharger turbine under pulsating flow conditions

Abstract

The increment of the contribution to CO2 release by transportation industry as other sectors are decarbonizing is evident. As number of world population continue to increase, the task of developing highly downsized high power-to-weight ratio engines are critical. Over more than a hundred years of invention, turbocharger remains a key technology that enable highly boosted efficient engine. Despite its actual operating environment which is pulsating flow, the turbocharger turbine that is available to date is still designed and assessed under the assumption of steady flow conditions. This is attributable to the lack of understanding on the insight of the flow field effect towards the torque generation of the turbine blade under pulsating flow conditions. This paper presents an effort towards investigating the influence of pulsating flow on the blade loading and its differences from steady state conditions through the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). For this purpose, a lean-vaned mixed-flow turbine with rotational speed of 30000 rpm at 20 Hz flow frequency, which represent turbine operation for 3-cylinder 4-stroke engine operating at 800 rpm has been used. Results presented in terms of spanwise location of the blade indicated different behavior at each location. Close to the hub, there are strong flow separation that hinders torque generation is seen while at mid-span more torque is generated under unsteady flow as compared to its steady counterpart. Moreover, close to the shroud, the pressure difference between steady and pulsating flow is almost identical.