Thermomechanical Analysis of a Turbocharger Based on Conjugate Heat Transfer

Abstract

One of the most challenging tasks in designing a turbocharger is to guarantee a sufficient lifetime. Turbine housings are critical parts due to their very complex geometry and consequently complicated temperature and stress distributions. Therefore, high thermal loads as well as thermo-mechanical fatigue have to be considered. Calculating the thermal stress distribution in the turbine housing, steady state and transient, can indicate the regions of crack initiation. From this information selective design improvements can be deduced to increase the component lifetime. But the quality of the stress analysis is strongly dependent on a reliable temperature distribution. Taking into account the interdependency of heat transfer between solid walls and fluid, conjugate heat transfer (CHT) calculations can provide temperature data of high accuracy. Since a transient CHT-calculation is still beyond state of the art, a new approach has been developed. Two steady state CHT-calculations serve to determine heat transfer coefficients at engine brake and full load. Beginning with the engine brake temperature distribution, it is assumed that the gas temperature and the mass flow change immediately. Therefore heat transfer coefficients at full load serve as a boundary condition for a subsequent transient solid body calculation simulating the acceleration process. For the deceleration process the full load temperature field is combined with the engine brake heat transfer coefficients. Monitor points give information about the steepest temperature gradients in the material. At discrete time points a steady state stress analysis has to be performed to detect the regions of highest loads. This subsequent step is essential because in a complex geometry like in a spiral housing with a divider and regionally different wall thicknesses, the stress maxima are not necessarily located at the same places as the temperature peaks. For the two steady state CHT-calculations the turbine wheel has been included in order to consider a realistic flow field. Compared to a transient calculation the degree of abstraction is as low as possible because the assumed frozen rotor boundary condition takes into account centrifugal and coriolis forces. This paper demonstrates the calculation procedure considering a twin-entry turbine housing with an integrated manifold designed for a truck application. The computational results are in excellent agreement with thermal shock test data. A second loop with an improved design proves the success of the method.