Evaluation of Alternate Bearing Designs in a High Speed Automotive Turbocharger

Automotive turbochargers experience self-excited instabilities through the majority of their operating speed range. The results of these instabilities can cause damage to the bearings, shafts, and housing walls. Preventing this damage while maintaining or increasing performance characteristics is a huge concern to industry due to the time and money needed to replace vital components. The aim of this research is to determine which characteristics of the bearings have the greatest influence on the damped natural frequencies. It was believed that axial groove bearings could offer an acceptable alternative to the floating ring bearings currently found in automotive turbochargers. DyRoBeS rotor dynamics software was used to determine analytically damped natural frequencies for floating ring bearings, and also for six, eight, and ten axial groove fixed geometry bearings, under different speed and loading conditions. The resulting data were compared to experimental test results from an on-engine turbocharger test stand and presented in this report.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Mondscehin, Brian David

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Kirk, R. Gordon

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• West, Robert L. Jr.
• O'Brien, Walter F. Jr.

• Turbocharger
• Stability
• Bearing
• Design

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06102010-010738

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33513