Heat transfer in turbocharger turbines under steady, pulsating and transient conditions

• Compare turbine heat transfer correlations from different studies.
• Compare heat transfer for a same turbine on-engine and on gas-stand.
• Analyse heat transfer under steady and transient operating conditions.
• Gas stand heat transfer correlations are transferrable to engine conditions.
• Heat flows can be reversed compared to steady conditions during transients.

Heat transfer is significant in turbochargers and a number of mathematical models have been proposed to account for the heat transfer, however these have predominantly been validated under steady flow conditions. A variable geometry turbocharger from a 2.2 L Diesel engine was studied, both on gas stand and on-engine, under steady and transient conditions. The results showed that heat transfer accounts for at least 20% of total enthalpy change in the turbine and significantly more at lower mechanical powers. A convective heat transfer correlation was derived from experimental measurements to account for heat transfer between the gases and the turbine housing and proved consistent with those published from other researchers. This relationship was subsequently shown to be consistent between engine and gas stand operation: using this correlation in a 1D gas dynamics simulation reduced the turbine outlet temperature error from 33 °C to 3 °C. Using the model under transient conditions highlighted the effect of housing thermal inertia. The peak transient heat flow was strongly linked to the dynamics of the turbine inlet temperature: for all increases, the peak heat flow was higher than under thermally stable conditions due to colder housing. For all decreases in gas temperature, the peak heat flow was lower and for temperature drops of more than 100 °C the heat flow was reversed during the transient.