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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES

Development of Turbocharger for

Improving Passenger Car Acceleration
Tsuyoshi Watanabe and Takaaki Koike
Ishikawajima-HarimaHeavy Industries Co., Ltd.

Hiromu Furukawa
Warner-lshi Corp.

Nobuyuki lkeya and Masaru Sakakida

Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.

Reprinted from: Design and Development of New Engines and Components

(SP-1138)

The Engineering Society

For Advancing Mobility
Sea Air and S ~ a c-e

and

International Congress & Exposition

Detroit, Michigan
Februarv 26-29.1996

400 CommonwealthDrive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (412)776-4841 Fax:(412)776-5760

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Development of Turbocharger for

proving Passenger Car Acceleration
Tsuyoshi Watanabe and Takaaki Koike
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.
Hiromu Furukawa
Warner-lshi Corp.
Nobuyuki lkeya and Masaru Sakakida
Ishikawajima-Harirna Heavy lndustries Co., Ltd.
Copyright 1996 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

Recently, passenger cars require better acceleration from

low engine speed including starting-up in order to decrease
the amount of paticulate matter (PM) of diesel engines or to
improve the driver's feeling. However, turbocharged cars generally have worse response than the non turbo cars because it
takes a few seconds to get the turbocharger rotate up to high
speed, usually called "Turbo-lag". In order to solve this,
various technologies have been developed for a turbocharger
itself as well as for charging system such as the sequential
system. Here in this paper, we focus on the development of
the following turbocharger technology to reduce Turbo-lag
and to achieve better transient response.

The following is a brief explanation of vehicular turbochargers. As shown in Fig. 1, a vehicular turbocharger consists of the radial type turbine and compressor impeller on
each side of the center section having the bearings and seal
sections. Smaller turbochargers for passenger cars have builtin waste gate control system for better engine performance at
low engine speed.

1. MIXED-FLOW TURBINE IMPELLER

2. TWIN ENTRY TURBINE HOUSING

3. BALL BEARING SYSTEM
4. SEPARATED THRUST BEARING SYSTEM

oil inlet
air
wastegate actuator

rturbine housing
(single scroll)

ball bearing

There are series of turbochargers ranging from small turbochargers for gasoline engines with approximately 0.5Ldisplacement volume to large turbochargers for diesel engines
with approximately 15L one.
The main theme in this paper is about the development of
the following three items which contribute to enhance vehicle acceleration through turbocharger improvement.
(a) To reduce the inertia moment of the rotational parts and
then to improve acceleration of the turbocharger revolution by developing the turbine impeller of reduced diameter without the reduction of the turbine efficiency.
(b) To make effective use of exhaust pulsation at low engine speed by eliminating interference of exhaust gas
pulsation by use of two channels until just before turbine impellers; otherwise in a 4-cylinder engine with one
channel, exhaust gas pulsation interference occurs at low
engine speed.

compressor impeller

compressor housing

Fig. 1

cooling water inlet

seal plate

Vehicular turbocharger

(c) To improve engine acceleration by increasing steady

state performance of turbochargers through reduction
of mechanical loss at the bearing sections.
The mixed-flow turbine was developed for item (a), the
twin-entry turbine housing for item (b) ,and the ball bearing
system and separated thrust bearing system for item(c).
The following is the details of these advanced technology turbochargers.

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y-- mixed-flow turbine impeller

turbine housing scroll

for mixed-flow turbine

Conventional
radial turbine

Fig. 3

Fig. 2

W E D - E Z O W TURBINE IMPELLER
Structure Fig.2 shows the cross section of a turbocharger
using the mixed-flow turbine impeller. This turbocharger
differs from a turbocharger using the conventional radial turbine impeller in that the exhaust gas coming from the turbine
scroll does not flow into the turbine impeller vertically from
the periphery but flows diagonally. The scroll is designed to
make it possible and the outer trim of the turbine impeller is
diagonally cut back. Fig.3 shows the outviews of the radial
and mixed-flow turbine impellers.

-0

Outviews of radial and mixed-flow turbine impeller

Approach One of the ways to improve acceleration is to

speed up the start of turbocharger revolution by reducing the
inertia moment of the rotational parts. The turbine impeller
occupies most weight and inertia among the rotary parts.

Cross section of mixed-flow trubine

Mixed-qow
turbine

Therefore, to reduce the external diameter of the turbine impeller is the most effective way to reduce inertia moment.
However, the turbine efficiency decreases by mere reduction
of the external diameter of the radial turbine impeller. Therefore, the mixed-flow turbine impeller has been developed to
preserve the turbine efficiency with the reduced external diameter.")

-0

Mixed-flow turbine

- - - - + Radial turbine

Mixed-flow turbine

- - - - -0 Radial turbine

Radial turbine
total-to-total

Mixed-flow turbine
total-to-total

Velocity ratio u21Cis

mass flow parameter

Fig. 4

Characteiristic of mixed-flow turbine

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By the adoption of the mixed-flow turbine, specific speed

Ns of the turbine impeller can be made higher, and thus, the
gas flow rate of it is larger than that of the same-sized radial
turbine. Then for the same gas flow rate in Fig.4, the size of
the mixed-flow turbine can be made smaller than that of the
radial turbine as shown in Fig.5. So,the inertia moment of
the mixed flow turbine can be reduced.
With the external diameter of the radial turbine impeller
reduced, rotor peripheral velocity u, decreases. On the other
hand, high boost pressure or turbine pressure ratio are sometimes required to improve output power and fuel consumption of the engines. In this case, adiabatic gas velocity Cis of
gas which flows into the turbine impeller increases. Therefore, low rotor peripheral velocity u, and high adiabatic gas
velocity Cis make velocity ratio u,/Cis low. In the conventional radial turbines high efficiency cannot be expected in
the low velocity ratio u,/Cis. In order to get high efficiency
at low velocity ratio, an incidence angle to the rotor should be
made small by changing the angle at the impeller inlet section, and the velocity triangle at the blade inlet should be optimized. Since the radial turbine blade consists of only radial
elements because of constraints from the rotating stress and
manufacturability, the angle at the impeller inlet can not be
opposed to the direction of the gas flow.
On the other hand, since the mixed-flow turbine has the
diagonal impeller inlet section and axial factor of gas incidence angle, they can be arranged with the inlet impeller angle
to oppose to the direction of the gas flow. That is, the inlet
angle of low velocity ratio gas can be matched with the impeller angle of the mixed-flow turbine, and then, the turbine
efficiency at low u,/Cis can be maintained.

Effect As shown in Fig.4, the mixed-flow turbine has

better efficiency than radial turbine at low u,/Cis when the
turbine capacity at low pressure ratio is the same. What is
more,it has larger flow rate at high pressure zone compared
to the radial turbine. At the same time, mixed-flow turbine
shaft weight ratio and rotary assembly weight ratio against
the radial turbine are approximately 80% (Fig.5), and the inertia moment is reduced to about 55% of the radial turbine.
Shape comparison

o mixed-flow turbine
radial turbine

Fig.6 shows the results of 2.8L diesel engine accerelation

test and simulation. The mixed-flow turbine shortened the time
reaching a boost pressure of 53KPa by approximately 33%
compared to the radial turbine at the same vehicle accerelation
test. Further, acceleration response simulation was carried
out. Response simulation was based on the above vehicle
and engine data and the inertia moment of turbocharger rotational parts. The result was that the mixed-flow turbine shortened the time by 30% compared to the radial turbine, and it
was nearly equal to the test result. Thus, the adequacy of the
simulation method was confirmed.
test result

-- - mixed-flow
turbine
radial turbine

slmulatlon result

-- - mixed-flowturbine
-radial turbine

tlme (second)

Result of 2.8L diesel engine acceleration

response test & simulation

Fig 6

Using this simulation, 2L gasoline engine acceleration response was calculated, and the effect of the mixed-flow turbine is also shwon in Fig.7. The simulation was carried out
with the initial speed of 20 kmlh, and with the third gear position. The result was that the mixed-flow turbine shortened
the time reaching a boost pressure of 53KPa by approximately
20% compared to the radial turbine.

-radial turbine
-- - m~xed-flowturbine
20%

the upper row :radial turbihe

the lower row : mixed-flow turbine
initial speed 2Okmlh
full acceleration

time (second)

Fig. 7
Fig. 5

Comparison between radial and mixed-flow

turbine

Result of 2L gasoline engine acceleration

response simulation

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TWIN ENTRY TURBINE HOUSING

Structure Conventionally, in order to eliminate exhaust interference in Ccylinder engine, the pipe combining No. 1 and
No.4 exhaust pipes and the pipe combining No.2 and No.3
exhaust pipes are twisted and conducted to the turbine housing with the twin scroll which has two gas-inlet ports parallel
to the turbine axis. In this case, the configuration of the pipes
become complicated and the fluid loss will occur. However,
by the adoption of twin entry turbine housing which has two
gas-inlet ports vertical to the turbine axis and the gas flow
paths are twisted toward the turbine inlet, better performance
of the engine is obtained as mentioned below. By the adoption of this structure, the manifold and wastegate by-pass can
be designed simply. Fig.8 shows the cross section of the twin
entry turbine housing.

twin entry turbine housing

Fig. 9

Fig. 8

35%

100%

engine speed

Comparison of 3 and 4 cylinder 0.66L gasoline

engine with single entry turbine housing

Cross section of twin entry turbine housing

Approach As characteristics engines have, 4-cylinder

engines are superior in silence but have a disadvantage of
smaller torque at low speed compared to 3-cylinder engines.
Fig.9 shows comparison of boost pressure of 3- and 4-cylinder 0.66Lsingle entry turbocharged gasoline engines. The 4cylinder engine is inferior to the 3-cylinder engine in boost
pressure and torque. This is because in a 4-cylinder engine
exhast gas pulsation intefere each other.

On the other hand, in the twin entry turbine housing, the

2 No.3
combined pipes of No.1 and No.4 pipes and of ~ 0 . and
pipes of the 4-cylinder engine are separately connected to the
turbocharger to eliminate inteference. As shown in Fig. 10,
peak pressure of the exhaust gas in the twin scroll is higher
than that in the single scroll. Therefore, the twin entry turbine housing makes more use of the exhaust gas pulsation
and higher torque at low engine speed is obtained than single
entry turbine housing.

engine

crank shaft angle

crank shaft angle

Fig. 10 Pulsation at turbine housing scroll

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Effect As shown in Fig.ll,gas flow rate at partial

admission(from scroll A or B) is about 60% of the full
admission(from scroll A and B). This is equal to the situation
when the turbine capacity is reduced at partial admission,and
then boost and torque at low engine speed is increased more
than in the single entry turbine housing. At high engine speed
gas flows from both A and B, providing the same torque as
the single entry turbine housing.

Further, acceleration response simulation was carried out

for 2L- gasoline engine. Calculation was done for the same
vehicle data shown in Fig.7 and gas flow data of single and
twin entry turbine housing shown in Fig. 11. The result was
that the twin entry turbine shortened the time reaching a boost
pressure of 53KPa by approximately 25% compared to the
single entry turbine as shown in Fig. 13.

-.---

--

-twin
single entry turbine
entry turbine

,4--

third gear
full acceleration

single entry turbine housing

--

turbine housing

time (second)

Fig. 13 Result of 2L gasoline engine acceleration

response simulation

a
m

structure
7Prdoad spring
011 film damner i

mass flow parameter

Fig. 11 Effect of twin entry turbine housing

Fig.12 shows torque and boost pressure characteristics when
a single entry and twin entry housing turbochargers are
mounted actually on the 0.66L gasoline engine. In the twin
entry housing, torque was improved by 14% at low engine
speed and was almost the same at high engine speed compared to the single entry turbine housing.

r
C

- single entry turbine housing

----

twin entry turbine housing

V-_

spring receiver

Fig. 14 Cross section of ball bearing turbocharger

BALL BEARING SYSTEM

engine speed

Fig. 12 Engine performance of twin entry and single

flow turbine housing

Structure Fig.14 shows the cross-section of the ball bearing turbocharger now mass-produced. In the bearing section
two angular type ball bearings are arranged to face each other.
The inner races hold the turbine shaft and receive radial force
and thrust force in both directions. The outer races are inserted into the oil film damper placed in the bearing housing.
Bearings on both sides are provided with a certain pre-load
each other by the pre-load spring through the spring receiver
and also fixed in place. The oil film damper which holds the

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rotational parts and two ball bearings is supported in floating

conditions by means of oil film in the bearing housing. Therefore, it has a superb damping which absorbs shaft and
external vibration^.'^)

standard thrust bearing

separated thrust bearing

Approach Mechanical loss of the ball bearing is naturally

smaller than that of the plain bearing and also varies with
lubrication conditions. In the case of high temperature or
high speed turbochargers, a certain amount of lubricating oil
is necessary because lubrication using only a slight amount
of mist oil to reduce mechanical loss causes anxiety in securing bearing life. Therefore, a certain mechanical loss is
inevitable, but mechanical loss of the ball bearing is approximately one-third of that of the conventional plain bearing as
shown in Fig.15.

5
100
m

--m -mc -

Fig. 17

Thrust bearing structure

=
s
0

0
0

SEPARATED THRUST BEARING SYSTEM

I

peripheral speed (mls)

Fig. 15 Mechanical loss of bearing

Effect-Acceleration response simulation was carried out

by using 2L gasoline engine data and mechanical loss data.
As shown in Fig. 16, the result was that the ball bearing turbocharger shortened the time by 9% compared to the plain
bearing one.

-.-.-

ball bearing
plain bearing

Structure In the conventional full-floating bearing turbocharger, lubrication oil is supplied onto the both sides of the
thrust bearing directly (Fig.17). Thus, the amount of oil to
the thrust bearing is about 60-70% of the total amount, and
the friction loss here is large. However in the new separated
bearing structure, lubrication oil is suppied directly only to
the positive thrust face (compressor side). The opposite thrust
face is lubricated by the small amount of oil from the journal
bearing, and thus, the amount of oil to the thrust bearing is
reduced to about 30% of the total amount.

Approach The separated thrust bearing has been developed to decrease oil distribution ratio to the thrust bearing.
Consequently, compressor side seal performance has been improved because oil flow rate to the thrust bearing has been
decreased. As a result, oil supplied to the turbocharger has
become approximately a half in volume compared to that in
the standard thrust bearing structure, reducing mechanical loss.

third gear
full acceleration

time (second)

Fig. 16 Result of 2L gasoline engine acceleration

response simulation

Effect To confirm effect of reduction of mechanical loss by

reducing oil flow rate to the turbocharger, boost pressure was
compared between the separated thrust bearing and standard
thrust bearing of the 0.66L gasoline engine. As shown in
Fig. 18,boost pressure was 10% higher in the separate thrust
bearing than in the standard thrust bearing.
The effect of the separated bearing system was simulated
for 2L gasoline engine. Calculation was based on the same
car data and mechanical loss data which are previously mentioned. The result was that the response time with separated
thrust bearing was 6% shorter than with the standard thrust
bearing shown in Fig. 19.

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- - - &, -

separated thrust bearing

standard thrust bearing

-separated
standard thrust bearing
thrust bearing

-.-.-

third gear

time (second)

Fig. 19 Result of 2L gasoline engine acceleration response simulation

engine speed

Fig. 18 Separated thrust bearing effect on 0.66L gasoline engine boost characteristics

CONCLUSIONS
As shown in table 1, acceleration was improved by using
turbochargers with four items of high technology. Compared
to the conventional full-floating bearing turbocharger, the
mixed-flow tubine shortened by 20%, the twin entry turbine
housing shortened by 25%, the ball bearing shortened by 9%,
the separated thrust bearing shortened by 6%, respectively,
of the time reaching a boost pressure of 53KPa at the speed
from 20lun/h at the third gear full acceleration. This paper
introduced effect using each four high-tech items separately.
When these four items are combined, further splendid effect
can be expected shown as table 1.
Most effective way of improving passenger car acceleration by the turbocharger with the wastegate valve system,is
to adopt mixed-flow turbine and twin entry turbine hous-

ing combined with ball bearing system or separated thrust

bearing system,and they shorten about 40%compared to the
standard wastegated turbocharger.
Furthermore,we will improve aerodynamic performance
and the low density material of the turbine and compressor
impeller to achieve better transient response. with this
development,the characteristics of the turbocharged engines
would be better than the naturally-aspirated or supercharged
engines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We express our hearty thanks to all who gave us advice
and suggestions for the improvement of the turbocharger technology.

REFERENCES
Hiroaki Minegishi, et al.,: Development of a small
mixed-flow turbine for automotive turbochargers, International Gas turbine and Aeroengine Congress and
Exposition of ASME 1995.
(2) Kazuya Miyashita, et al.,: Development of High Efficiency Ball-Bearing Turbocharger,SAE870354,Feb.1987
(1)

Table 1 High technology turbochargers acceleration

No.

5
6

items
mixed-flow
turbine
twin entry
turbine
ball bearing
separated
thrust bearing
Nol+No2+No3
No1+NoP+No4

Simulation Result
difference
rom standard)

20% shorter
25% shorter
9% shorter
6% shorter
41% shorter
37% shorter

condition
4 cylinder 2L gasoline engine
initial speed 20kmIh
third gear full acceleration
The time reaching a boost
pressure of 53kPa was compared