Port Design Study in Waste Gate Turbocharger with Numerical Simulation

A smart waste gate (WG) turbocharger controls boost by bypassing turbine flow through the WG port which allows optimizing both low and high speed engine performance. However, the WG port in the turbine housing involves much complex geometry which leads to potentially higher thermal stress and plastic strain if design is improper.

This paper first presents the common thermal cracking problems at port zone and then shows finite element analysis (FEA) results for one design. The predicted location correlates well with the observed failure port location. A design study with key parameters for the port is conducted under same boundary conditions. Key parameters include height H, inner diameter D and inner diameter fillet r of the port. Totally 13 designs are analyzed under packaging and performance limitation. Accumulated plastic strain (APS) from FEA is used to evaluate different designs. Curves are plotted to show the relationship between APS and design parameters. These curves clearly show how to control height, inner diameter and fillet under packaging limitation to reduce the plastic strain level. This study provides a knowledge base for the design of WG port and can be a guide at the initial design stage.