Numerical Assessment of Unsteady Flow Effects on a Nozzled Turbocharger Turbine

In order to extract maximum amount of energy possible from the automotive reciprocating engine exhaust gas, the turbocharger usually installed closely downstream the exhaust valve thus exposing it to highly pulsating flow conditions. This condition induces highly complex flow field within the turbocharger stage and significantly impact its performance characteristics which is not fully understood. The main objective of this paper is to provide understanding of unsteady flow feature using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach validated with experimental data. Despite focusing on unsteady feature of the flow, this research also emphasizes the importance of accurately modelled geometry in the early section of the paper. A steady state validation against experimental data is performed prior to unsteady calculations. The effect of different phase shifting methods is described and the relationship of instantaneous efficiency with incidence angle is established. In the final section of this paper, the turbocharger stage is sectioned where its instantaneous performance is evaluated individually in each section. The unsteady simulation is performed at fixed 30 000 RPM with 20Hz pulsing flow.Copyright © 2012 by ASME