<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Conventional silencers have extensively been used to attenuate airborne pressure pulsations in the breathing system of internal combustion engines, typically at low frequencies as dictated by the crankshaft speed. With the introduction of turbocharger compressors, however, particularly those with the ported shroud recirculating casing treatment, high-frequency tones on the order of 10 kHz have become a significant contributor to noise in the induction system. The elevated frequencies promote multi-dimensional wave propagation, rendering traditional silencing design methods invalid, as well as the standard techniques to assess silencer performance. The present study features a novel high-frequency silencer designed to target blade-pass frequency (BPF) noise at the inlet of turbocharger compressors. The concept uses an acoustic straightener to promote planar wave propagation across arrays of quarter-wave resonators, achieving a broadband attenuation. The effectiveness of the silencer is evaluated on a turbocharger gas stand where the compressor is the noise source. The experiment utilizes a unique rotating inlet duct upstream of the silencer to perform a modal decomposition of the acoustic field in order to compute sound power levels across the operating flow range at various compressor rotational speeds. The results are then compared to those from an earlier experiment with a straight duct installed at the compressor inlet to determine silencer insertion loss, defined here as the difference between upstream (with respect to flow direction) sound power levels without and with the silencer. The study also addresses the resulting compromise in compression system performance and noise generated due to flow-acoustic coupling within the silencer. Hence, the current effort demonstrates the effectiveness of a novel silencer in terms of insertion loss derived from a modal decomposition of the multi-dimensional acoustic field at the compressor inlet.</div></div>
The present study focuses on the acoustics of a turbocharger centrifugal compressor from a spark-ignition internal combustion engine. Whoosh noise is typically the primary concern for this type of compressor, which is loosely characterized by broadband sound elevation in the 4 to 13 kHz range. To identify the generation mechanism of broadband whoosh noise, the present study combines three approaches: three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions, experiments, and modal decomposition of 3D CFD results. After establishing the accuracy of predictions, flow structures and time-resolved pressures are closely examined in the vicinity of the main blade leading edge. This reveals the presence of rotating instabilities that may interact with the rotor blades to generate noise. An azimuthal modal decomposition is performed on the predicted pressure field to determine the number of cells and the frequency content of these rotating instabilities. The strength of the rotating instabilities and the frequency range in which noise is generated as a consequence of the rotor-rotating instability interaction, is found to correspond well with the qualitative trend of the whoosh noise that is measured several duct diameters upstream of the rotor blades. The variation of whoosh frequency range between low and high rotational speeds is interpreted through this analysis. It is also found that the whoosh noise primarily propagates along the duct as acoustic azimuthal modes. Hence, the inlet duct diameter, which governs the cut-off frequency for multi-dimensional acoustic modes, determines the lower frequency bound of the broadband noise.
The automotive turbocharger compressor in the present experimental study features a ported shroud casing treatment, which is known to elevate tonal noise at the blade-pass frequency (BPF) while reducing broadband whoosh noise and providing higher boost pressures at low mass flow rates. The high operating rotational speeds of such modern turbocharger compressors push the BPF to ranges where acoustic wave propagation is multi-dimensional within the compressor ducting. Simultaneously propagating acoustic modes at the BPF result in strong circumferential and axial variation of in-duct sound pressure levels. This poses a challenge for acoustic characterization and comparison of different hardware since typical measurement techniques do not consider the sensitivity of acoustic pressure to the measurement location. The current work utilizes a steady-flow turbocharger gas stand with a unique rotating compressor inlet duct fitted with multiple wall-mounted dynamic pressure transducers capable of performing a modal decomposition of the acoustic field. The decomposition is done using time-resolved acoustic pressure measurements from different orientations of the rotating inlet duct during steady compressor operation. The resulting modal amplitudes are then used to determine the sound power level, a quantity that is independent of the acoustic pressure measurement locations. Therefore, in addition to revealing the modal content of noise at the compressor inlet, the rotating inlet duct experimental setup better characterizes the acoustic field with sound power levels across the operating flow range at various compressor rotational speeds.
<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The ported shroud casing treatment for turbocharger compressors offers a wider operating flow range, elevated boost pressures at low compressor mass flow rates, and reduced broadband whoosh noise in spark-ignition internal combustion engine applications. However, the casing treatment elevates tonal noise at the blade-pass frequency (BPF). Typical rotational speeds of compressors employed in practice push BPF noise to high frequencies, which then promote multi-dimensional acoustic wave propagation within the compressor ducting. As a result, in-duct acoustic measurements become sensitive to the angular location of pressure transducers on the duct wall. The present work utilizes a steady-flow turbocharger gas stand featuring a unique rotating compressor inlet duct to quantify the variation of noise measured around the duct at different angular positions. The acoustic pressure transducers installed on the rotating duct record time-resolved in-duct acoustic pressure at different azimuthal locations while the compressor is held at a steady operating point. Acoustic measurements are performed across the flow range of a ported shroud compressor at three different rotational speeds. A comparison of sound pressure levels measured at different azimuthal locations reveals the significant contribution of high-frequency BPF noise to the variation in the acoustic pressure around the duct.</div></div>
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