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In this article, the acoustic characterisation of a turbocharger compressor with ported shroud design is carried out through the numerical simulation of the system operating under design conditions of maximum isentropic efficiency. While ported shroud compressors have been proposed as a way to control the flow near unstable conditions in order to obtain a more stable operation and enhance deep surge margin, it is often assumed that the behaviour under stable design conditions is characterised by a smooth, non-detached flow that matches an equivalent standard compressor. Furthermore, research is scarce regarding the acoustic effects of the ported shroud addition, especially under the design conditions. To analyse the flow field evolution and its relation with the noise generation, spectral signatures using statistical and scale-resolving turbulence modelling methods are obtained after successfully validating the performance and acoustic predictions of the numerical model with experimental measurements. Propagation of the frequency content through the ducts has been estimated with the aid of pressure decomposition methods to enhance the content coming from the compressor. Expected acoustic phenomena such as ‘buzz-saw’ tones, blade passing peaks and broadband noise are correctly identified in the modelled spectrum. Analysis of the flow behaviour in the ported shroud shows rotating structures through the slot that may impact the acoustic and vibration response. Further inspection of the pressure field through modal decomposition confirms the influence of the ported shroud cavity in noise generation and propagation, especially at lower frequencies, suggesting that further research should be carried out on the impact these flow enhancement solutions have on the noise emission of the turbocharger.

Experimental and numerical investigation of isothermal flow in an idealized swirl combustorIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The main purpose of the paper is the validation of different modelling strategies for turbulent swirling flow of an incompressible fluid in an idealized swirl combustor. Design/methodology/approach -Experiments have been performed and computations carried out for a water test rig, for a Reynolds number of 4,600 based on combustor inlet mean axial velocity and diameter. Two cases have been investigated, one low swirl and the other high swirl intensity. Measurements of time-averaged velocity components and corresponding rms turbulence intensities were measured using laser Doppler anemometer, along radial traverses at different axial locations. In the three-dimensional, unsteady computations, large eddy simulation (LES) and URANS (Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations or Reynolds Averaged Numerical Simulations) RSMs (Reynolds-stress models) are basically employed as modelling strategies for turbulence. To model subgrid-scale turbulence for LES, the models due to Smagorinsky and Voke are used. No-model LES and coarse-grid direct numerical simulation computations are also performed for one of the cases. Findings -The predictions are compared with the measurements and reveal that LES provided the best overall accuracy for all of the cases, whereas no significant difference between the Smagorinsky and Voke models are observed for the time-averaged velocity components. Originality/value -This paper provides additional valuable information on the performance of various modelling strategies for turbulent swirling flows.

Current trends in the automotive industry towards engine downsizing mean turbocharging now plays a vital role in engine performance. A turbocharger increases charge air density using a turbine to extract waste energy from the exhaust gas to drive a compressor. Most turbocharger applications employ a radial inflow turbine. However, mixed flow turbines can offer non-zero blade angles, reducing leading edge (LE) separation at low velocity ratios. The current paper investigates the performance of a mixed flow turbine with three different volute aspect ratio (AR) designs (AR = 0.5, 1 and 2). With constant A/r (ratio of volute area to centroid radius), the AR = 0.5 volute design produced a 4.3% increase in cycle averaged mass flow parameter (MFP) compared to the AR = 2 design. For the purpose of performance comparison, it was necessary to manipulate the volute A/r's to ensure constant MFP for aerodynamic similarity. With the volute A/r's manipulated to ensure constant MFP for aerodynamic similarity, the maximum variation of cycle averaged normalized efficiency measured between the designs was 1.47%. Purely in the rotor region, the variation in normalized cycle averaged efficiency was 1%. The smallest tested volute aspect ratio showed a significant increase in volute loss while the ARs of 1 and 2 showed similar levels of loss. The smallest AR volute showed significant secondary flow development in the volute. The resulting variation in LE incidence was found to vary as a result.

The results are reported for an extensive series of measurements (using laser Doppler anemometry) of the mean and fluctuating flow fields for swirling turbulent flow downstream of an orifice in a tube. The influence of a concentric outlet contraction is found to be negligible for low “supercritical” swirl. For high “subcritical” swirl, the outlet geometry is found to have a significant influence throughout the flow field and, in the case of an eccentric (i.e., offset) outlet, to lead to an asymmetric flow with a distorted core. In no case was the core found to precess or the flow to be periodic.

The operation of compressor at lower mass flow rates is limited by surge which is marked by large fluctuations in operational variables and accompanied by significant increase in noise. Ported shroud casing treatment is a widely used method to control the flow near unstable conditions in order to obtain a stable operation and enhance deep surge margin. The research on the acoustic effects of the ported shroud design is limited. Therefore, this paper numerically characterises the acoustic features of a turbocharger compressor with ported shroud design operating at marginal or soft surge conditions and investigates the correlation between acoustic characteristics and the spatial flow structures. The acoustic and the flow field features are analysed using spectral signatures obtained from an experimentally validated numerical model using both performance and acoustic measurements. Propagation of the frequency content through the ducts has been estimated with the aid of the beamforming and method of characteristics to enhance the content coming from the compressor. Expected acoustic phenomena such as rotating order tones and blade passing peaks are correctly identified in the modelled spectrum with the limitation to capture the specific broadband features. Hence, the numerical model can be used to further the research encompassing the impact these flow enhancement solutions have on the noise emission of the turbocharger. Inspection of the flow field shows radially exiting fluid at the ported shroud slot leading to the formation of the high-speed jets exiting the ported shroud cavity. Circumferential propagation of the stall cells is also identified in the impeller. Further inspection of the pressure field through modal decomposition implies the localisation of the energetic noise sources in the impeller downstream components. The influence of the ported shroud cavity on the acoustic characteristic of the compressor is not significant and is limited to the propagation of the tonal noise in the direction of impeller upstream.

With the advancements in manufacturing, materials and computational methods, turbomachinery designs have become more efficient providing higher specific power and reliability with lower weight and cost. The rotational speed of turbomachines has increased while the overall machine size has decreased for a similar power output leading to the pervasive presence of small, high-speed turbomachines, specifically centrifugal compressors in helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), auxiliary power units (APUs), turbochargers and micro gas turbines. In addition to superior aerodynamic performance over a wide range, increased operating speeds have made the acoustic emissions of small centrifugal compressors a critical aspect of design. Therefore, this work presents an experimental campaign to characterise the acoustic behaviour of a compressor with an intent to quantify the dominant features of the flow-induced noise for design and near surge operating conditions. Furthermore, the campaign is extended to establish the impact of the ported shroud casing treatment and operating speed on the acoustic emission of the compressor. The induct noise measurement method is used in this work to quantify the noise generated in the compressor by measuring pressure fluctuations near the inducer and diffuser while the propagation of the generated noise to the ducts is computed from an array of piezoelectric sensors. Spectra at the design operating point are dominated by tonal noise while broadband noise content is the dominant feature of spectra for near surge operation. Although the ported shroud cavity does not significantly alter the overall noise levels of the compressor operating at design condition, it does seem to propagate tonal noise. For near surge operation, the casing treatment positively impacts the acoustic emission with a reduction of approximately 10 dB in the range up to the blade pass frequency. Furthermore, various broadband features are also observed to be alleviated by the casing treatment.

Developments in computing infrastructure and methods over the last decade have enhanced the potential of numerical methods to reasonably predict the aerodynamic noise. The generation and propagation of the flow induced noise are aerodynamic phenomena. Although the fluid flow dynamics and the resultant acoustics are both governed by mass and momentum conservation equations, former is of convective and/or diffusive nature while the latter is propagative showing insignificant attenuation due to viscosity except for small viscothermal losses. Aeroacoustic modelling of systems with intricate geometries and complex flow is still not mature due to challenges in the accurate tractable representation of turbulent viscous flows. Therefore, state-of-the-art for computing flow-induced noise in small centrifugal compressors is reviewed and critical evaluation of various parameters in the numerical model is undertaken in this work. The impact of various turbulence formulations along with corresponding spatial and temporal resolutions on performance and acoustic predictions are quantified. The performance predictions are observed to be within 1.5% of the measured values irrespective of turbulence and timestep parameters. The noise generated by the impeller is observed to be reasonably correlated with the measurements and the absolute values of the sound pressure levels along with decay rates predicted by LES and SBES formulations are better than the similar predictions from DES and URANS formulations. The impact of timestep size is observed and is determinant of the frequency up to which spectra can be appropriately resolved. Furthermore, results emphasise the importance of high spatial resolution for scale resolving turbulence formulations to yield better results and the information can be used to select appropriate numerical configuration considering time and accuracy trade-offs.