Contradicting results about heat transfer effects on the performance of turbine turbocharger motivated this study. It was aimed to assess the effects that the wall treatment in a numerical sense has on the performance of a radial turbine of automotive turbocharger operating under a continuous flow condition. Adiabatic and non-adiabatic conditions were analyzed by using Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS), Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and Detached Eddy Simulations (DES) approaches. When considering heat transfer, heat transfer loss at various locations is highly dependent on the near-wall modelling approach employed. Development of thermal boundary layer in the upstream region of turbine affects how the gas is convected in the downstream components, such as the scroll and the rotor. As long as the deviation in predicting thermal boundary layer does not affect the prediction of gas temperature at the inlet and outlet of the rotor, the difference in turbine power prediction by different near-wall modelling approaches was found to be small.

This study was motivated by the difficulties to assess the aerothermodynamic effects of heat transfer on the performance of turbocharger turbine by only looking at the global performance parameters, and by the lack of efforts to quantify the physical mechanisms associated with heat transfer. In this study, we aimed to investigate the sensitivity of performance to heat loss, to quantify the aerothermodynamic mechanisms associated with heat transfer and to study the available energy utilization by a turbocharger turbine. Exergy analysis was performed based on the predicted three-dimensional flow field by detached eddy simulation (DES). Our study showed that at a specified mass flow rate, (1) pressure ratio drop is less sensitive to heat loss as compared to turbine power reduction, (2) turbine power drop due to heat loss is relatively insignificant as compared to the exergy lost via heat transfer and thermal irreversibilities, and (3) a single-stage turbine is not an effective machine to harvest all the available exhaust energy in the system.

Large temperature gradients are associated with automotive turbocharger and thus the turbine experiences significant heat loss. Currently, the investigation of aerothermodynamic effects as a result of heat loss in turbine is commonly done by looking at the global performance parameters, i.e. pressure ratio and efficiency. This study aims to investigate the aerothermodynamic effects of heat transfer on a radial turbine operating under engine-like pulsating flow condition by identifying and quantifying the loss mechanisms via an exergy-based method using Detached Eddy Simulation data. Major findings with this study are: 1) Although exergy lost via heat transfer and internal irreversibilities could be as much as the turbine power, the drop of turbine power is only 4% as compared to an adiabatic turbine;2) Only about 12% of the available exhaust energy is extracted by the investigated turbine.

This research was primary motivated by limited efforts to understand the effects of secondary flow and flow unsteadiness on the heat transfer and the performance of a turbocharger turbine subjected to pulsatile flow. In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of exhaust manifold on the flow physics and the performance of its downstream components, including the effects on heat transfer, under engine-like pulsatile flow conditions. Based on the predicted results by Detached Eddy Simulation (DES), qualitative and quantitative flow fields analyses in the scroll and the rotor’s inlet were performed, in addition to the quantification of turbine performance by using the flow exergy methodology. With the specified geometry configuration and exhaust valve strategy, our study showed that 1) The exhaust manifold influences the flow field and the heat transfer in the scroll significantly, and 2) Although the relative inflow angle at the rotor’s inlet is significantly affected by the initial exhaust gas blow down from the exhaust manifold, the consequence on the turbine power is relatively small.