Air induction noise investigation during turbocharger surge events in petrol engines

Turbocharging is used as a means to downsize petrol engines, thereby, producing more power for a lower engine size, when compared with a naturally aspirated engine. Due to the presence of a throttle valve in the intake system in petrol engines, flow is restricted at the outlet pipe of the compressor during low load engine operation. For example, during transient tip out tip in maneuvers. Hence, there is a chance of the turbocharger operating in near surge or surge conditions and, thus, generating surge noise. This Thesis describes an experimental and simulation method to predict and measure the turbocharger surge noise. Initially, experimental transient tip-in and tip-out maneuver was performed on a non turbocharged car with a petrol engine. The measured noise level in the intake manifold, at a low frequency of up to 1200 Hz, was analysed and was shown not to represent surge noise. Next, a one dimensional simulation method was applied to simulate the noise of the engine and this demonstrated an increase in the acoustic pressure level in the intake manifold during the tip in and tip out maneuver. However, a surge noise pattern was not observed in the analysis of acoustic pressure signals in the intake system using Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT). The simulation procedure was also used to inform the design of an experimental rig to recreate the surge noise under laboratory conditions. An experimental turbocharger noise rig, designed and built for this purpose, is explained in the Thesis. Important component parts likely to be involved in the surge noise generation such as the intake system, compressor, throttle body, compressor recirculation valve and measurement and control systems were integrated into the test rig. Background noise contributions from the electric motor, AC mains, supercharger pulley, throttle body, inverter fan, throttle body gearing and structural vibration of the supporting structure were identified from the analysed frequency components of the signals from surface microphone measurements taken at the intake system. This helped to clearly identify the surge noise frequency components (3250 Hz) in the STFT analysis. The fundamental mechanism of noise generation was identified using an analysis of the experimental results and a frequency calculation for vortex shedding and the radial acoustic resonances. One of the main conclusions of the Thesis is that the compressor recirculation valve (CRV) open or close position, the CRV delay time and the throttle position are major contributing factors to the cause of the surge noise. Another major conclusion is that the radial acoustic resonance may be a mechanism of surge noise generation. Finally, a passive solution to reduce the surge noise is proposed. A pipe with cross ribs is designed as a passive solution using the radial acoustic resonance calculation and the corresponding nodal patterns. This solution demonstrated a measured intake system noise reduction of up to 10dB under compressor surge conditions.