Low-cycle fatigue of turbo charger compressor wheels online prediction and lifetime extension

R. Christmann1, F. Lngler2, M. Habermehl3, P.-M. Fonts4, L. Fontvieille5, P. Moulin6 1)-3) Borg Warner Turbo Systems Engineering GmbH, Germany 4)-5) Renault SA, France 6) Institut francais du ptrole, France

ABSTRACT: Compressor wheels on turbochargers in passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles belong to the category of highly stressed components which are exposed in particular to mechanical (or thermo mechanical) cyclic loading during operation, besides all ambient conditions which motor vehicles typically have to cope with. Frequent causes of failure on the compressor wheel are fatigue fractures, whereby a distinction can be made between Low-Cycle Fatigue (LCF) und High-Cycle Fatigue (HCF) as regards the tolerable number of cycles and the damage effects occurring. The LCF range is characterized by the dominant occurrence of plastic strain. This article is intended to present a method allowing the damage to the compressor wheel during vehicle operation to be calculated online and, as a result, appropriate measures to be taken with respect to charging pressure control to prolong the lifetime or increase the tolerable number of load cycles of the wheel. Keywords: Turbocharger, Low-Cycle Fatigue (LCF), Compressor Wheel. Online Lifetime Estimation NOMENCLATURE CPU d, D dx d2 E E FEM Life n, N n' POS p2max R Rm rpm Rp0.2 Central Processing Unit Damage Partial Distance Compressor wheel outer diameter Strain Strain width range Finite Element Method Lifetime in kilometres or hours Number of cycles Cyclic solidification exponent Probability of survival Maximum boost pressure Stress ratio Mechanical strength Revolutions per minute Yield strength Stress t u u x, X Ratio of damage and distance Time Turbocharger tip speed Controller output Distance Delta or Difference Amplitude Estimated Cycle i Maximum Mean Minimum Setpoint Summarized Total

() ()a ()est ()i ()max ()mean ()min ()sp ()sum ()tot

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020

INDRODUCTION

The reliability of vehicles in general has gained more and more importance in the car industry. The very greatest efforts are made to continuously monitor and improve the quality of the components from their origins to their integration in the vehicle. All required tests and calculations are conducted in order to ensure the individual components can endure the stresses the vehicles are typically required to cope with and so guarantee the reliability. Among those, lifetime calculations are performed on critical components in order to estimate the survivability in the run-up. Turbocharger compressor wheels in passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles belong to this category. Turbocharger compressor wheels are highly stressed components exposed in particular to mechanical alternating stress during operation which can cause LCF fractures. The mechanical stress-strain behaviour is caused by centrifugal-force loading at circumferential speeds which leads to an exceeding of the yield point and causes plastic deformation of the material. The first section gives an overview of the calculation of the LCF lifetime in order to allow the reader to better understand the usually performed procedure. It explains the required data and the corresponding steps in the procedure for forecasting the lifetime. In the second part of the paper two strategies to extend the lifetime of the compressor impeller are explained. Both methods for calculating the damage to the compressor wheel are based on the measured turbocharger speed during vehicle operation. The problems implementing an online lifetime estimation algorithm is described. A comparison to the offline calculation is presented as well. Moreover, it discusses suitable measures that may prolong the lifetime of the compressor wheel during operation. The simplifications of the algorithms to implement them in the vehicle and the resultant compromises are explained, too. The article concludes with a summary and an outlook. 2 LCF OFFLINE LIFETIME CALCULATION

The lifetime calculation used here is a combination of local and nominal stress concept for arithmetically verifying the operational strength [1], [2], [3]. All influences on the fatigue behavior are recorded by (stress-controlled) component Whler curves. Instead of taking recourse to across-the-board nominal stresses in failure-critical cross-sections, the calculated stresses are corrected locally in respect of the plastification occurring and the resultant inherent stresses when subject to elastic-plastic alternating-deformation loading. The procedure is validated on the basis of numerous field tests and overspeed tests. Figure 1 outlines the procedure schematically. The required input variables for calculation are as follows: Representative driving cycles in the form of turbocharger speed profiles as a load spectrum with adequately long recording time and adequately high sampling rate. The cyclic flow curve for describing the material behaviour and The stress-controlled Whler curve of the compressor wheel for mapping the fatigue influences.

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Cyclic load

Cyclic flow curve

FEM Simulation

Neuber rule

Stress-strain path

Whler curve

HAIGH diagram

Damage accumulation Figure 1: Schematic representation of the lifecycle calculation of compressor wheels 2.1 Rainflow analysis The first step is to filter out a damage-equivalent load spectrum in respect of speed cycles from representative data taken from turbocharger speed curves as a function of time, featuring different characteristics in respect of speed peaks and speed gradients as a function of the travel distance (see Figure 2). Using the statistical Rainflow counting method [4], the speed profiles are dissected into discrete damaging events by means of two parameters. The result comprises pairs of local maxima and minima that identify a loading cycle and exert a damaging influence. The filtered load spectrums are combined to simulate the entire assumed vehicle life in order to calculate the lifetime. Information on the order of loading cycles is lost as the result of data reduction. This is justified in particular if the driving cycle input contains all characteristic load features.

Figure 2: Example speed-time data of a turbocharger for various travel routes: a) Country road, b) Highway. 253

10.1243/17547164C0012010020 2.2 Determining the linear stresses After Rainflow counting, the maxima and minima of the individual turbocharger revolution speed cycles (rpmi) are converted to corresponding circumferential speeds (ui) over the outer diameter (d2) of the compressor wheel and then related stress values (i) are computed in linear-elastic fashion as the result of pure centrifugal-force loading with i ~ ui2. This stress computation also requires a reference stress that occurs at a specific speed of rotation (or circumferential speed). This reference is assessed through an analysis of the particular compressor wheel or on a compressor wheel that is geometrically similar with respect to the typical defect symptoms (see Figure 3). These (local) reference values are determined and validated a priori by FEM calculations.

Figure 3: Characteristic LCF damages of a compressor wheel 2.3 Stresses in the cyclic stress-strain curve Neuber rule Application of the NEUBER rule [5] allows pre-calculated, ideal, fictitious, elastic overstresses and understresses to be projected onto the cyclic stress-strain curve (also referred to as flow curve) of the stabilized material state in the RAMBERGOSGOOD formulation [6]:

E + 0.002 = 2 Rp0.2 2 2 E

(1)

so that one obtains corrected stresses for elastic-plastic material behavior. The flow curve is described by the yield strength Rp0.2 and the cyclic solidification exponent n'. A further stress correction is allowed for over-elastic tensile stress. For this purpose, the cycle with maximum stress amplitude and, thus, with maximum damage is taken from the temporary load spectrum, and the resultant inherent compressive stress is calculated following the NEUBER correction and complete linear-elastic relief [7]. In order to describe the strength-increasing influence, this inherent compressive stress is superimposed additively on the stresses derived from the remaining load cycles. The cyclic stress-strain curve can be determined both by LCF tests on material samples or by hub expansion tests as the result of differing centrifugal-force loading on the compressor wheel itself, which may also be dependent on the characteristic defect symptoms of the compressor wheel used. 2.4 Critical stress amplitude a (R = 0) for the same lifetime N The next step is to transform the corrected minimum and maximum stresses of the load cycles to equivalent amplitudes a and mean stresses mean:

a =

max min 2 max + min 2

(2) (3)

mean =

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020 The individual cycles are identified by the different R values, the ratio of minimum and maximum stresses, in order to take in account that the average stress influence (cycle-dependent) is not a constant:

R=

min max

(4)

Consequently, it is necessary to project the numbers extracted from the load spectrum, given by (a, mean), along a line of equal lifetime or damage effect in the HAIGH diagram onto the state of the given component Whler curve with known average stress influence. In general, the Whler curve is determined in the case of pure threshold loading, i.e. R = 0, so that one obtains (a, mean)|R=0. The curve of constant damage effect is defined in the HAIGH diagram on the abscissa by the fracture stress (model of equal damage effect analogous to GOODMANN linear slope for brittle material). 2.5 Damage accumulation at 50 % probability of survival (POS) These transformed stress amplitudes allow the related load changes to be taken from the (given) component Whler curve with damage-equivalent stress amplitudes. The multi-stage load spectrum is converted to a damage-equivalent single-stage spectrum with the linear damage accumulation hypothesis after Palmgren [8] and Miner [9]. Each oscillation or closed hysteresis supplies a damage contribution that is accumulated in linear fashion. The linear hypothesis assumes that, in the case of multi-stage loading, each stress amplitude i/2 that occurs ni times causes a damage share in failure. The damage share is determined for each speed cycle i found:

d(i) =

n(i) N(i)

(5)

whereby N(i) corresponds to the maximum number of load changes that the component endures at an amplitude of i/2. The damage shares for the individual cycles are summed in linear fashion. The sum is the result for i cycles of a spectrum

D sum = d(i)
i =1

i=k

(6)

A failure of the compressor wheel is assumed in the case of overall damage D = 1. It is necessary to know the distance for the spectrum in kilometers or hours in order to state for instance lifetime in operating hours or kilometers. Thus, ultimately, one obtains the maximum travel distance for a 50 % POS in kilometers for example:

Life(POS = 50%) =

Dis tan ce D sum

(7)

2.6

Lifetime for the required POS on the basis of the Weibull distribution The lifetime for another POS is calculated on the basis of the lifetime for a POS of 50 %. The lifetime for a POS of 90 %, 95 % and 98 % is determined by default. In order to forecast the distance traveled for other failure probabilities, it is possible to use a WEIBULL diagram with known failure slope, determined by overspeed tests. The lifetime for a required POS can be determined as follows: ln POS b Life(POS ) = Life(POS = 50%) ln 0.5
1

(8)

where b is the slope of the straight Weibull function in the Weibull diagram as results from experimental testing.

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020 3 ONLINE LCF

Following the analysis described above, we now want to design an online damage estimation, in order to control this damage to a desired value. It is therefore necessary to make various simplification assumptions. The degree of damage is all the higher when the difference between the turbo speed reached at the end of the transient and the initial turbo speed is high, and the mean turbo speed during the transient is high. Other operating conditions also have an influence (temperature, for example), but to a lesser extent. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that the compressor wheel is subjected to a succession of cyclic stresses leading to plastic micro-deformations and, therefore, component damage. Component damage can be estimated by a linear accumulation of the damage incurred on each cycle (Miner damage) and the application of Whler curves which gives the damage corresponding to cyclic stresses at constant amplitude, characterized by testing. A simple algorithm detects extrema values of the turbocharger speed and selects a transient or half-cycle when the difference between a minimum and a maximum value exceeds a calibrated threshold. The online damage calculation is then applied to this transient. Overall component damage corresponds to the sum of this successive damage. On a given transient, the extreme and mean stress values on these transients can be determined. The stress incurred by the component during the transient is composed of a term proportional to the amplitude of the transient (difference between maximum and minimum turbocharger speed), corrected as a function of mean stress on the transient (mean between maximum and minimum turbocharger speeds), according to the GOODMANN principle. The following formula is applied:

max min 1 mean Rm

(9)

where max, min and mean are the maximum, minimum and mean material stress values which, in our case, correspond to compressor speed during the transient, and Rm the mechanical strength of the compressor wheel material. This formula may be corrected to take account of more complex dependencies. The temperature of the compressor wheel could therefore be considered as an influence factor. The temperature can be estimated from the boost pressure gas temperature, calculated using the diabatic temperature increase.
110 105 Stress amplitude [%] 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 10 100 1000 Number of cycles 10000 100000

Figure 4: Whler curve for the compressor for a certain temperature

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020 In the context of estimating damage, it can be assumed that the wheel temperature is equal to the temperature of the gas at the compressor outlet, while ignoring the dynamic aspects. For this study, the choice was made to keep to a simple formula and not to take account of temperature in estimating wheel damage. Consideration of more complex (but static) phenomena does not affect the estimation and limitation principles described below. The calculated stress is then projected onto a Whler curve to estimate damage. In the case of the compressor wheel, we can therefore plot in this baseline the maximum number of cycles corresponding to a given stress as shown on Figure 4. The damage suffered for a cycle is therefore the inverse of this maximum number of cycles. In the case in question, the Whler curve can be inverted by the following calculation:

di =

1
a i e b

(10)

where di is the damage occurring during transient i and i is the stress level during transient i, calculated using the formula indicated above. Constants a and b are calibration parameters, i is calculated through an extrema detection software that was optimized for limited CPU memory consumption and compatibility with transient frequency. Finally, the single damages for each transient are summarized to achieve the damage estimation. The validation process adopted consists of comparing the damage estimated by the simple calculations described in this section and a more accurate assessment conducted in the offline LCF estimation. In the case studied, this comparison is illustrated in Figure 5. There is a direct linear relationship between the two estimations. The damage estimate proposed in this section has been validated in relation to the results provided by the offline lifetime calculation obtained from the same data considered as a reference.
0.00016 0.00014 Online damage estimation 0.00012 0.0001 0.00008 0.00006 0.00004 0.00002 0 0.00E+00 5.00E-07 1.00E-06 1.50E-06 2.00E-06 2.50E-06 3.00E-06 3.50E-06 4.00E-06 Offline damage estimation

Figure 5: Comparison between the estimate of compressor damage computed offline and the simplified criterion computed online for various drive cycles

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020 The proposed method is optimized in terms of computation time and memory use, with the developments being designed to be implemented in an ECU. The implementation of the damage criterion is the crucial point in the strategies developed. The online damage estimation gets a good correlation with the offline damage estimation, only a slope adjustment has to be tuned during some driving cycles. 4 MEANS TO IMPROVE THE LIFETIME

4.1 Corrective actions: analysis/validation Following the above analysis, it is possible to act on damage in two ways: by reducing the amplitude of the transients by reducing the average compressor speed value during this cycle. We cannot influence the number of cycles as this depends solely on the driver. It may be noted that time derivative parameters do not have a direct influence on the damage estimate which is derived from static factors only. However, a change in the time derivative parameters can have an indirect effect on damage during a transient: if the duration of the transient is too short for the system to be stable at the end the maximum value attained by the state of the system depends on its in the time derivative parameters. To reduce the damage, the following corrective actions were considered: reducing the maximum boost pressure setpoint allowed by the engine control, called p2max-method calculating a maximum compressor speed on each transient by reversing the damage rate estimation calculations described above and computing the corresponding maximum pressure setpoint by the inversion of the compressor map. This method is called d-method
Turbocharger speed [rpm]
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 300
-5

x 10

320

340

360

380

400

420

440

460

480

500

Time [s]
6 x 10

Total Damage [-]

5 4 3 2 1 0 0

no limitation P limitation
2,max

d limitation

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Time [s]

Figure 6: Turbocharger speeds without limitation (solid line), with a p2max limitation (green/dot and dash line) and with a d-limitation (red/dash line), and corresponding damage estimation (arbitrary driving cycle)

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10.1243/17547164C0012010020 The difference between the two methods comes from the fact that the maximum boost pressure setpoint is the same for all the transients in the first method, but depends on the transient with the second strategy. The difference is illustrated by the results shown below. In order to validate the selected corrective actions, tests were performed by simulation with an arbitrary reduction value. By applying the damage estimation described above, the positive impact of the action in question can be ascertained. The data resulting from these tests were also validated by applying the complex damage estimate calculation. The comparison between online calculation and the offline calculation is shown in the points in Figure 5. Figure 6 shows the difference in damage estimation, with and without the application of a limit for the two adopted solutions. The effect on the system and the resulting damage reduction can be observed. For each test, the limitation corresponds to an arbitrary constant value. 4.2 Damage limitation strategies After constructing an estimate of compressor wheel damage and selecting a corrective action, the loop can be closed by designing a controller to limit this damage. The proposed structure is illustrated in the schematic below. Xtot
d sp

+ -

Min(u,0)

Dtot
dest

Figure 7: Schematic of the calculation In Figure 7 dsp and dest are the setpoint and estimated damage rate, C is a PI-type controller, and u the selected corrective action. Only negative errors are considered, if a transient damage is lower than the setpoint, no action is made on the system and the controller is inactive. This is represented by the block Min(u,0). The damage rate is calculated by the ratio between the damage (dest) measured over a distance travelled by the vehicle (dx), and this distance:
dest = d est dx

(11)

This strategy is difficult to implement as the selected corrective action will have an impact on vehicle operation. It must therefore be accompanied by saturations of the controller output corresponding to extreme cases not to be exceeded; these are to be determined on fine-tuning the engine or vehicle. The damage setpoint is calculated to enable the vehicle to achieve a certain mileage. This calculation can be done at any time, by taking account of the distance travelled and the total damage incurred. The following formula is proposed:

D tot = dest X tot = dx dsp = Dmax D tot Xmax X tot

(12)

where Dtot is the total damage, Xtot the total distance travelled, and Dmax the total damage allowed corresponding to a target distance of Xmax. The selected state variable is distance as it corresponds to the baseline in which the target maximum damage is expressed. The estimated damage rate is obtained by 259

10.1243/17547164C0012010020 filtering the damage rate per transient (ratio between the damage occurring during the transient and the distance travelled during this transient). This strategy is difficult to implement as the selected corrective action will have an impact on the vehicle operation. It must therefore be completed by saturations of the controller output corresponding to extreme cases that must not be exceeded; these are to be determined during fine-tuning of the engine or vehicle. For the strategy based on limiting the maximum boost pressure setpoint, the controller output (u on Figure 7) corresponds directly to the maximum pressure (p2max setpoint). For the maximum turbo speed limitation strategy, the calculations are more complex as they require that the damage estimation formulae be inverted. The controller output dPI is applied as an input for the inversion calculations in (14) and (15), thus giving:

d = dsp + dPI

(13)

where d is the damage rate used for the inversion calculations, and dPI the setpoint correction provided by the controller (u on Figure 7). A maximum speed setpoint is calculated continuously by considering that the minimum speed at the beginning of the transient is equal to the final value of the last detected minimum (min). The distance travelled since this minimum is recorded as x. The accepted damage for the transient i considered (di) is equal to the product dx. To avoid this value being too low just after detecting the beginning of a transient, value x is limited by a minimum value (it is assumed that the distance covered during the transient will be greater than a minimum). The damage estimation calculations are then inverted:

1 i = a b ln x d
and

(14)

max

min 1 i + i 2Rm = 1+ i 2Rm

(15)

The maximum speed allowed on the transient i considered is thus obtained. Figure 8 shows a comparison of the results for the cumulated damage obtained with the two methods. In this case, contrary to Figure 6, the two controllers force the evolution of the total damage to the same value. This is the reason why the two damages increase almost at the same rate.
6 5 x 10
-5

Total Damage [-]

no limitation P control
2,max

4 3 2 1 0

d control

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Time [s]

Figure 8: Comparison of the two methods of limitation on the turbo speed and damage (OEM specific cycle)

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1.5

x 10

-5

d [1/km]

1 0.5

setpoint P2,max control

d control

0.5

1.5

2.5 x 10

3
5

Distance [km] Total Damage [-]

1 0.5 0

P2,max control
d control
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 x 10 3
5

-0.5

Distance [km] P2,max setpoint [hPa]

3000

2500

2000

1500

0.5

1.5

2.5 x 10

0 3
5

Distance [km]

Figure 9: Simplified model with damage rate control on a test conducted for 100 000 km of urban driving, followed by 100 000 km of highway driving and a return to urban driving Simulations representative of a vehicle lifetime have been performed to validate the developed methods. Damage is controlled to obtain a maximum total damage value of 1 after 300 000 km, which guarantees correct compressor operation while degrading its performance levels as little as possible. The Figure 9 shows the behaviour of the controllers (p2maxmethod in green/dot and dash line, and dmethod in red/dash line) for changes in the drivers behaviour. The two strategies exhibit similar performances. In both cases, limitation can be observed up to 100 000 km for driving causing significant damage. Then, over the following 100 000 km, an increase in the setpoint rate is due to driving causing little damage. The system is safe and does not require any modification. The strategy has therefore no action on the system because positive errors are not considered (see Figure 7). Over the final 100 000 km, the return to urban driving causing significant damage leads to limitation being reapplied after a short transient period. It may be noted that the system is less stressed at the end of the simulation than at the beginning, whereas the driving cycle is identical. This is due to the intermediate period during which the distance covered was high but the damage incurred remained low. A higher damage rate at the end of the vehicle life is thus accepted. If the return to damaging conditions was made later, the system could end up at a final damage value of less than or equal to 1 even with normal compressor working conditions. The limitation strategy would automatically be deactivated by increasing its command to ineffective values.

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d setpoint [1/km]

x 10 6

-5

10.1243/17547164C0012010020 5 CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK

To derive good offline LCF estimations there is a lot of input data required. Characteristic turbo charger speed profiles, geometric, material data and spinning tests which do result in Whler curves are needed. A high effort is needed to derive all the required input data, but they are essential to give a good LCF estimate. Calculation methods today at BorgWarner are very precise due to long experience in this field and a lot of correlations of the offline calculations with the real world in the past did lead to an improvement in the estimations algorithms used. Differences of offline estimations and real world failures do mainly occur due to imperfections of the casted compressor wheels, or because of turbocharger speed profiles which do not represent the application in reality. Compared to the very complex offline LCF calculation a simplified online LCF calculation method is described. Limitations of calculation time and memory in an ECU cause the algorithms used to be less complex. Two methods to extend the lifetime of a compressor wheel during operation are presented. Both strategies impact the drivability of the vehicle in a different way and usually extend the compressor wheels lifetime in a different way, too. But the d-limitation method minimizes this impact thanks to a boost pressure reduction to the most damaging transients only. In addition a control algorithm is presented which leads to a similar damage rate for both strategies presented. The speed sensor commonly used to limit overspeed gets here some new functions: a) extending the reliability of some severe applications b) applying preventive service possibilities c) reducing the occurrence of failures during the regular operation of an engine Instead of applying online LCF calculation and limitation strategies in the vehicles the use of milled compressor wheels made of aluminium instead of cast aluminium wheels may be advisable as the basis of these results. The service life of such milled compressor wheels made of aluminium is longer than that of the aluminium cast materials used. For even more critical vehicle applications, BorgWarner also offers compressor wheels made of titanium primarily for the commercial vehicle sector. Authors 2010 6 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] REFERENCE LIST Buxbaum, O.: Betriebsfestigkeit, 2. erw. Auflage, Stahleisen Verlag, 1992 Hnel, B. et al.: Rechnerischer Festigkeitsnachweis fr Maschinenbauteile, 3. Auflage, Forschungskuratorium Maschinenbau, 1998 Haibach, E.: Betriebsfestigkeit - Verfahren und Daten zur Bauteilberechnung, VDI-Verlag, 1989 ASTM E 1049-85 (Reapproved 1997): Standard practices for cycle counting in fatigue analysis, in: Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 03.01, Philadelphia 1999, pp. 710-718 Neuber, H.: Theory of stress concentration for shear-strained prismatical bodies with arbitrary nonlinear stress-strain-law, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Volume 26(4), pp. 544-550, 1961 Ramberg, W. and W. R. Osgood: Description of stress-strain curves by three parameters, Technical Report No. 902, NACA, 1943 Issler, L. Ruo, H. und P. Hfele: Festigkeitslehre Grundlagen, 2. Auflage. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1997 Palmgren, A.: Die Lebensdauer von Kugellagern, Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure, Band 68, Nr. 14, 1924, pp. 339-341 Miner, M. A.: Cumulative Damage in Fatigue, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1945, pp. 159-164.

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