Numerical Analysis of Turbocharger Response Delay Mechanism

Increasing fuel economy is highly demanded because of the GHG reduction today. Turbocharged downsized engines have much attention as one of the effective technology for this demand. Turbocharged boost technology enables to increase thermal efficiency, but this also has a response delay known as turbo lag, which may cause lower engine performance and poor drivability. This issue impedes the broader application of this technology. The research discussed in this paper focused on turbo lag, and adopted a numerical approach to analyzing the detailed mechanism of this phenomenon. The study concluded that turbo lag is a delay in the boost pressure response that originates from a combination of factors. The primary factor in turbo lag is a delay that is due to physical properties of the turbocharger system; the secondary factor is a decreased effective turbine energy caused by a shift in the operating point, resulting from the primary factor. We also examined the methods of enhancement turbocharger response with this numerical analysis.