Experimental assessment of the rotor outlet flow in a twin-entry radial turbine by means of Laser Doppler Anemometry

Abstract

The current paper presents the validation of some hypotheses used for developing a one-dimensional twin-entry turbine model with experimental measurements. A Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) technique has been used for measuring the axial Mach number and for counting the number of particles downstream of the rotor outlet. These measurements have been done for different mass flow ratio (MFR) and reduced turbocharger speed conditions. The flow coming from each turbine entry does not fully mix with the other within the rotor since, downstream of the rotor, they can still be differentiated. Thus, the hypothesis of studying twin-entry turbines as two separated single-entry turbines in one-dimensional models is corroborated. Moreover, the rotor outlet area corresponding to each flow branch has linear trends with the MFR value. Therefore, the rotor outlet effective area used for one-dimensional models should vary linearly with the MFR value.