Experimental study of oil coking problem and contribution to the modelling of heat transfer in turbochargers

Abstract

The automotive industry represents one of the most important sectors in the world. Given its socio-economic influence, research is aimed at reducing fuel consumption and emissions. Turbochargers provide several benefits including increased power for a given engine size, improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. The turbocharger is an important piece for the new generation of engines that must comply with the Euro 6 or in the U.S. Tier 3 vehicle emissions and fuel standard program. As more effort is made to increase efficiencies and reduce emissions, the complexity of the system increases. The high rotational speeds, pulsating flow conditions and high temperature differences between working fluids (exhaust gases, compressed air, lubricating oil, coolant fluids) make the turbo-charging a challenging task. Numerical simulation opens a range of possibilities to study the performance, efficiency and design of components in the turbocharger, but requires continued accuracy refinements. In this thesis, a great effort has been made to improve the overall understanding of the different physical phenomena that occur inside the turbocharger. Both, experimental and modelling efforts have been made to understand the thermal behaviour of the turbocharger under engine start/stop conditions. After state-of-the-art review of thermal studies and heat transfer simulation codes, this work presents an extensive experimental testing campaign that includes a thermal characterization of the turbocharger in stationary and transient conditions. Subsequently, several turbochargers were measured to assess the consequences that degraded oils can generate in the bearing system during endurance tests of oilcoking.To minimize the possibilities of coke formation, some theoretical studies were done. First, a 1D turbocharger model was used in GT-Power TM for a detailed study of the temperature rise in the central housing during an engine hot-stop. The simulated cooling strategies aims to find an optimal in terms of minimizing extra energy consumption per K housing temperature reduction. After, a 2D radial model is proposed as improvement of an existing one-dimensional model developed at CMT -Universitat Politècnica de València. Aiming for a low computational cost, the radial model was developed to be compatible with fast one-dimensional engine simulations. Later, a detailed solution of heat fluxes was made by means of CFD using a 3D design of the turbocharger's central housing. The 3D model improved the results when temperature of the bearings/shaft is required. Additionally, thermal properties within the turbocharger can be obtained and therefore a reduction of the experimental tasks in the thermo-hydraulic test bench. Both 2D and 3D models were validated using experimental data, demonstrating predictive accuracy improvements on the results of previous models.i Resumen La industria automotriz representa uno de los sectores más importantes del mundo. Dada su influencia socioeconómica, la investigación está destinada a reducir el consumo de comb...