Heat Propagation Across Turbocharger Unit with Variable Turbine Inlet Temperature

Currently, issues about emission gains serious attention among the lawmakers and governments. Multiple regulation and enforcements have been applied to reduce the level of emission that released to the environment. Vehicle emissions have been identified as one of the major polluters thus forcing the carmakers to explore new technology to reduce the vehicle emissions. One of the technologies that have been preferred by the carmakers is the applications of forced induction system to the internal combustion engine. By using the forced induction system where currently turbocharger system is more often used compared to supercharger, two benefits can be achieved which are improvements of engine efficiency and engine size reduction. However, the ability of turbocharger unit to deliver compressed air can be affected by the amount of heat that travels along the turbocharger unit itself. In this paper, the effect of heat that originated from the exhaust gas that enters the turbine inlet towards the turbocharger performance was measured and analysed. An automotive turbocharger unit manufactured by Garrett Turbocharger model GT2056 was used in the study. The rotational speed is set between 20 000 rpm to 70 000 rpm and the temperature at turbine inlet is set between 40℃ to 100℃. The parameters that measured are the temperature difference at internal turbine, internal bearing temperature difference, internal compressor temperature difference, turbine casing temperature difference, bearing housing temperature difference and compressor housing temperature difference. From the results obtained, it can be observed that the heat travels from turbine towards the compressor side through the conduction between the contacting parts between the turbine casing, bearing housing and lastly at compressor casing. The heat that arrives at the compressor side through the casing will give small effect to the air mass flow that delivered by the compressor.