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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES

A Small Turbocharger for Passenger Car and

Truck Applications
Shohei Oguma and David Elpern
Garrett Automotive Group
Allied-Signal, Inc.

Philippe Brocard

Garrett S.A. France

Allied-Signal, Inc.

=For

The Engineering Society

Advancing Mobility
and sea ~ iand
r SpaceA

International Congress and Exposition

Detroit, Michigan
February 25-March 1,1991

- - -

4 0 0 C O M M O N W E A L T H D R I V E , W A R R E N D A L E , P A 1 5 0 9 6 - 0 0 0 1 U.S.A.

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A Small Turbocharger for Passenger Car and

Truck Applications
Shohei Oguma and David Elpern
Garrett Automotive Group
Allied-Signal, Inc.

Philippe Brocard

Garrett S.A. - France

Allied-Signal, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The Garrett Automotive Group of AlliedSignal, Inc. has developed a new small turbocharger to meet a worldwide demand arising from
the need for fuel efficient and low emission small
engines for passenger cars and light trucks. This
new turbocharger, designated the GT15, is
smaller, lighter and lower in cost than Garrett's
successful T2 turbocharger and is also designed
to meet the more stringent durability requirements
of the future.
INTRODUCTION
The continued worldwide demand for fuel
efficient and low emission passenger cars and
light trucks has caused engine manufacturers to
design smaller and lighter engines. This has led
to a renewed realization of the advantages of
turbocharging small displacement engines to meet
fuel economy and performance goals.
The Garrett Automotive Group of AlliedSignal, lnc., has developed a new small turbocharger, the GT15, to meet this demand.
In order to meet the difficult design goals,
which included excellent performance, durability
and low cost for a turbocharger that would be
manufactured and marketed worldwide, it was
necessary to use a different approach than had
previously been used for turbocharger design and
development. A multifunctional team consisting of
manufacturing, quality, sales and application
engineering from manufacturing plants in France
and Japan was joined with the traditional product
engineering department in the U.S. Also, suppliers designed, developed and ran preliminary

qualifications on some subcomponents. Only final

qualification on these subcomponents was run inhouse. This joint development resulted in shortened development time and a common cost
effective worldwide design.
DESIGN GOALS
The following design goals were established
by a worldwide survey of many engine manufacturers:
1. APPLICATION TARGET - 52-89 kw for
gasoline engines and 45-75kw for diesel
engines.
2. COMPACT SIZE - 10% reduction in overall size compared to an equivalent flow T2
unit.
3. LOW WEIGHT - 3.3 kg (20% reduction in
weight compared to an equivalent flow T2
unit).
4. GOOD PERFORMANCE - Peak adiabatic
compressor efficiency of 72% with adequate range to match target engines and
minimum turbine efficiency of 60% (including mechanical frictional losses).
5. GOOD RELIABILITY - 8.4 life of
50,00Okm, based on T2 experience.
6. LOW COST - 15% reduction in manufacturing cost compared to an equivalent flow
T2 unit.
Two different configurations of GT15 were
designed to meet the market requirements:
- The high temperature design is for gasoline
engines with exhaust gas temperatures up

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to1 010C and diesel engines with exhaust

gas temperatures up to 840C. It features a
duplex stainless steel turbine housing and
an lnco 713 material turbine wheel for high
temperature strength and good oxidation
resistance. A water cooled center housing is
used to prevent oil coking.
The low temperature design is for gasoline
engines with exhaust gas temperatures below
910C or diesel engines below 770C. It
features a high silicon ductile iron turbine
housing and a GMR 235 material turbine
wheel for lower cost with good durability.
While a water c o ~ l e dcenter housing is required for gasoline applications, some diesel
applications may use an air cooled center
housing with acceptable reliability.

MAJOR DESIGN FEATURES

A cross-sectional view of the water cooled
version of the turbocharger is shown in Figure 1.
The air cooled version is shown in Figure 2. The
major components are indicated on the Figures.
ACTUATOR BRACKET
BACKPLATE
HOUSlNG

WATER
PASSAGE
I

JPURNAL BEARING

TURBINE HOUSING -CENTER HOUSING

ATTACHMENT BOLT, M8

Figure 1. GT15 Cross Section (Water Cooled)

Figure 2. GT15 Cross Section (Air Cooled)

1. CENTER HOUSING - Two center housing designs are available, air cooled and water
cooled. Both designs are grey iron and feature a
large oil drain area for improved turbine side oil
control. The water cooled design has a large
water passage completely surrounding the turbine
end of the housing to cool the metal surfaces to a
low enough temperature to prevent coking of the
oil. The large oil drain and water passages make
the casting easier to manufacture. No separate
heat shield is needed with the water cooled
design. The air cooled design requires a heat
shield and features cooling fins on the outside of
the housing to reduce the heat to the bearings
and oil passages.
2. JOURNAL BEARINGS - A new bearing
system was developed replacing the conventional
two-piece fully floating journal bearing with a onepiece semi-floating bearing. This bearing is
prevented from rotating with a retaining pin held in
place by the center housing and the thrust bearing. The bearing is allowed to move transversely
to provide damping. It is positioned axially by the
turbine shaft hub and a shoulder on the retaining
pin. This eliminates the need for snap rings
simplifying center housing machining and assembly.
3. BACKPLATE - A die cast aluminum alloy
backplate is bolted to the center housing with four
M5 size bolts. These bolts also hold the thrust
bearing firmly to reduce axial deflection, thus
reducing a potential noise source. The separate
backplate design also allows the future use of
larger compressors on the same center housing.
4. COMPRESSOR HOUSING ATTACHMENT - The compressor housing is mounted on

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the backplate with four M5 size bolts identical to

those used to mount the backplate to the center
housing. For easy access during assembly, the
bolt heads are towards the compressor inlet. No
separate clamps are used. Different compressor
orientation is achieved by machining mounting
holes in different locations. This method was
chosen for ease of manufacturing as it is less
expensive than alternatives, such as V-bands or
snap rings. Two of these mounting bolts also
mount the wastegate actuator.
5. TURBINE HOUSING ATTACHMENT The turbine housing is attached to the center
housing directly with four M8 size stainless steel
bolts. Again, no separate clamps are used and
different orientations are achieved by different
machining of the turbine housing.
6. SEALS - Two types of compressor seal
are available. The dynamic seal, a simple, very
low friction seal has a single piston ring and a
feature to pump any oil present away from the
seal area. The carbon seal, a positive mechanical
seal, consists of a spring loaded carbon ring
rubbing directly on the thrust collar.
The turbine end seal consists of a piston ring
and a large oil slinger to direct oil away from the
seal area.
7. COMPRESSOR - The aluminum alloy
compressor housing is a two-piece die cast
design that may also be made as a single piece
sand casting. It is available in one scroll size ( 3 8
AIR) and three trims (.48, .54 and .60). (AIR is
equal to the area of housing inlet for turbines, or
outlet for compressors, divided by the radius from
the center of the housing. It is an index of relative
flow capacity and is analogous to nozzle size.
Trim is the diameter ratio squared of the wheel
inlet to the outlet for compressors, or outlet to inlet
for turbines, and is generally related to flow.)
The radial outflow compressor wheel is a
scale of the successful T2 wheel to 43mm tip
diameter with ten blades, five full length and five
splitter or half length blades. The blades have 33"
backward curvature to achieve wide flow range
with good efficiency.
8. TURBINE - The turbine housing is
available in either duplex stainless steel for high
temperature applications or high silicon ductile
iron for low temperature applications. It is available in three scroll sizes (.34, .40 and .46 AIR)
and with three trims (.64, .70 and -76) for high flow
and two trims ( 5 0 and 5 8 ) for low flow.

Two different design 42mm diameter radial

inflow turbine wheels are available to cover the
required flow ranges with good efficiency.
The high flow turbine wheel was designed for
higher power output applications (above 56 kw for
diesel or 65 kw for gasoline engines). The low
flow turbine wheel was designed to meet lower
power output applications. Both wheels were
designed for low inertia and improved turbine
efficiency at low flow, low pressure ratio operating
conditions for good response without compromising high end performance.
9. ACTUATOR - A new actuator, one-third
smaller diameter than the T2, was developed to
reduce cost and size.
SIZE AND WEIGHT
Figure 3 shows the relative size of the GT15
turbocharger and the T2 turbocharger. The
weight of the GT15 turbocharger is approximately
3.4 Kg with a water cooled center housing configuration and 3.2 Kg with an air cooled center
housing configuration. This represents approximately a 20h reduction compared to the T2
turbocharger configuration having the same flow
capacity.
The polar moment of inertia of the GT15
rotating group is also reduced from that of the T2
having equivalent flow by about 40%.

Figure 3. GT15 vs. T2 Size

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high flow wheel in a small AIR housing. The

minimum turbine plus mechanical efficiency of
60% can be achieved for all flow ranges, if the
proper wheel is used.

OPERATING LIMITS
Table 1 describes the GTI 5 turbocharger
operating limits.
Table 1.
SPEED
(RPM)
LOW TEMP
GASOLINE
DIESEL

210,000

HIGH TEMP
GASOLINE
DIESEL

210,000

TURBINE
INLET TEMP
(MAXI MUM
INTERMITTENT "C)

VIBRATION
(MEASURED
ON CENTER
HSG. - G)

HlGH FLOW
.46A!R
7

o
.

32, @ 200 Hz
910
770

.I

/ /

LOW FLOW
.34 AIR
.50 TRIM
HlGH FLOh
,461.76

32, @ 200 Hz
1010
840

HlGH FLOW
,341.64

1.5

/
L LOW FLOW

PERFORMANCE

,341.50

1. COMPRESSOR PERFORMANCE - The

compressor map is shown in Figure 4. Despite
the small size of the turbocharger, the compressor peak adiabatic efficiency met the goal of 72%
and has a wide range to cover the high side
application target power outputs. For lower
power output applications, a smaller trim compressor is available.

1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6

TURBINE PRESSURE RATIO, PlTlP2T

Figure 5. Turbine Performance

3. BEARING PERFORMANCE - Figure 6

shows a comparison of the shaft motion of both
the one-piece bearing system chosen for production and a prototype two-piece bearing system
relative to the production T2 bearing system. For
-

2 PC BEARING

1.o

'--I PC
-BEARING
4

50
100
150
TURBO SPEED (KRPM)

I
200

Figure 6. Shaft Motion

1

2
3
4
5
6
7
CORRECTED AIR FLOW, KgIMIN

Figure 4. 60 Trim Compressor Performance

2. TURBINE PERFORMANCE - The turbine maps are shown in Figure 5 for both high
flow and low flow wheels. At low flow rates, the
efficiency of the low flow wheel is higher than the

shaft motion, the one-piece bearing system was

clearly superior throughout the operating range of
the turbocharger. The figure shows data only up
to 190,000 rpm to show a comparison with the T2
(the T2 has a 190,000 rpm speed rating). Test
results show that the shaft motion of the GT15
improved with speed above 190,000 rpm.
Figure 7 shows a comparison of the bearing
power consumption of the one and two-piece
bearing systems. The power consumption of both

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systems was measured on a cold air test rig to

minimize heat transfer effects; all other components which affect the power consumption measurements were identical. Again, the one-piece
bearing was clearly superior to the two-piece
bearing system.
The data was taken only up to 150,000 rpm
because of test rig limitations; however, it should
be noted that at high turbocharger speeds, the
bearing power consumption is not as siy nificant a
part of turbine power output as it is at low speeds.

Figure 9 shows turbine seal leakage characteristics of the GT15 compared to the T2 seal.
The data was obtained on a test rig which subjected the seal to an increasing negative pressure
while turbocharger speed was kept at 5000 rpm.
This method was used because it is difficult to get
repeatable results on engine tests. The GT15
seal will tolerate a higher negative pressure
without leakage.
-a-

s.
u
LT
3

1 PC SEMI-FLOATING BEARING

60

x+
LL

-5.0

0
V)

LT
3

TURBO SPEED (KRPM)

Figure 7. 1 Piece Semi-Floating Journal Bearing

Power Loss
4. SEAL PERFORMANCE - Compressor
end seal leakage was measured on a diesel
engine by motoring while restricting compressor
inlet air flow. The amount of the restriction was
increased by 1.25 KPa steps until leakage was
detected. Each step was run for five minutes.
Figure 8 shows compressor seal leakage characteristics as a function of turbocharger speed. The
GT15 dynamic seal described above is compared
to the more complex, expensive, T2 dynamic seal.
The GTI 5 seal will tolerate a higher inlet depression without leakage at any given speed.

20
30

I
40

I
I
I
I
I
80 90 100 110 120
TURBO SPEED (x100 RPM)

I
50

I
60

I
70

Figure 8. Compressor Side Oil Sealing

Characteristics

z%

-10.0

LEAK

Figure 9. Turbine Side Oil Sealing Characteristics

5. HOT SHUT DOWN PERFORMANCE Figure 10 shows hot shut down tests comparing
the GTI 5 with the T2 turbocharger. The tests
were run on a gas stand with a turbine inlet
temperature of 900C. Thermocouples were put
in the bearing area shown in Figure 11. After the
temperatures reached steady state, oil flow, water
flow and gas flow to the turbine were stopped to
simulate an engine shut down. For both the air
cooled and water cooled versions, the peak
temperatures with the GT15 were essentially
equal to the T2. The running temperature was
higher with the water cooled GT15 than the T2
because of the shroudless configuration. This
temperature difference is negligible for durability.

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T2 AIR COOLED 7

./

.
,..

250

=--- - ----.------_
/

GT15 AIR COOLED

.J

yT2 WATER COOLED

GTI 5 WATER COOLED

2
3
4
TlME (MINUTES)

6. VEHICLE TRANSIENT PERFORMANCE

- Vehicle transient performance is affected by
aerodynamic efficiency, bearing friction and inertia
of a turbocharger. To demonstrate the advantages of the GT15 compared to the T2, tests were
run on a 1300 Kg vehicle with 2.0 liter diesel
engine and standard transmission. The car was
run at steady speed in third gear at 40 km/hr and
then accelerated to 70kmlhr at full throttle. Figure
12 shows the GT15 equipped car reached 50 km/
hr 20% quicker than the T2 equipped car. From
this point on, the acceleration was equal for both
vehicles. This demonstrates that the lower inertia
of GT15 rotating group has a significant impact on
vehicle transient response and the aerodynamic
performance of the GTI 5 and the T2 units tested
was essentially equal.

Figure 10. Hot Shut Down Temperature at

Turbine Side Bearing Housing: GT15 vs. T2

I
1

I
2

TlME (SEC)

Figure 12. Vechicle Transient Performance

3rd Gear
DURABILITY

THERMOCOUPLE
LOCATION

'

Figure 11. Hot Shut Down Temperature

Measurement Location

The long term durability of the GT15 turbocharger was demonstrated by running tests
similar to, but severer than those used to qualify
the successful T2 turbocharger. The tests included the following:
ENGINE DURABILITY - Diesel engine for
1000 hours with the air cooled low temperature
configuration.
ENGINE DURABILITY - Gasoline engine for
500 hours with the water cooled high temperature
configuration.
GAS STAND CYCLIC DURABILITY Speed ranged from 30,000 to 21 0,000 rpm.
Turbine inlet temperature ranges were:
250 to 1010C for high temperature unit.
250 to 91 0C for low temperature unit.

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GAS STAND HIGH SPEED DURABILITY Speed was constant at 210,000 rpm. Turbine inlet
temperatures were:
1010C for the high temperature unit.
910C for the low temperature unit.
MARGINAL LUBE DURABILITY
CONTAMINATED LUBE DURABILITY
VIBRATION TEST - 0-32G FOR 50 HRS
ACTUATOR CYCLE TEST - 100,000 CYCLES
AT 145C
CONCLUSION
A worldwide demand has emerged for compact, lightweight, high performance, low cost and
durable turbochargers to be applied to the smaller
engines needed to meet fuel economy and emission requirements. The GT15 has been designed
and developed to meet this demand.
After thorough evaluation, it has successfully
met the objectives and is now available for customer qualification.