Computational study of a radial flow turbine operates under various pulsating flow shapes and amplitudes

Radial flow turbines are extensively used in turbocharging technology due to their unique capability of handling a wide range of exhaust gas flow. The pulsating flow nature of the internal combustion engine exhaust gases causes unsteady operation of the turbine stage. This paper presents the impact of the pulsating flow of various characteristics on the performance of a radial flow turbine. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic model was coupled with a one-dimensional engine model to study the realistic pulsating flow. Applying square wave pulsating flow showed the highest degree of unsteadiness corresponding to 92.6% maximum mass flow accumulation due to the consecutive sudden changes of the mass flow rates over the entire pulse. Although saw-tooth showed a maximum mass flow accumulation value of 88.9%, the mass flow rates entailed gradual change resulted in the least overall mass flow accumulation over the entire pulse. These two extremes constrained the anticipated performance of the radial flow turbine operates under realistic pulsating flow. Such constraints could develop an operating envelop to predict the performance and optimize radial flow turbines' power extraction under pulsating flow conditions.