Mistuned Vibration of Radial Inflow Turbine Impeller

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the numerical prediction of impeller blade vibration due to excitation by the wake of nozzle guide vanes in turbochargers. This problem is particularly important as turbochargers are used in a broad range of operation conditions, leading to some unavoidable resonant frequencies. In the paper, first the unsteady pressure distributions on the rotor blades are analyzed and structural response analysis is performed for the excitation component with largest contribution to pressure fluctuation. In a parametric survey, pressure expansion ratio and inlet flow temperature are varied in order to investigate the impact on vibration response. Unsteady CFD+FEM prediction well explains the qualitative trends that appeared in experimental survey. The result also points out that a fluctuation in natural frequency among the blades of only a few percent may cause large magnification factors. Finally, adjustment of disk thickness is suggested as a measure to reduce the magnification factor and its effectiveness demonstrated numerically as well as experimentally.