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1: Introduction
1
University of Applied Sciences Aargau, Steinackerstr. 5, 5210 Windisch, Switzerland,
Email: {d.bueche, n.hofmann}@fh-aargau.ch
2
ABB Turbo Systems AG, Haselstr. 16, 5400 Baden, Switzerland,
Email: peter.saelzle@ch.abb.com
A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH FOR SIMULATING THE
QUENCHING OF LARGE ALUMINIUM COMPRESSOR WHEELS
In this paper, we analyze the quenching of radial compressor wheels that are
used in large exhaust-gas turbochargers as shown in Figure 1. A wheel is made
out of one massive billet and is quenched in hot water. A 3D-FE model is used
to simulate the quenching process. Cooling rates as well as the residual stresses
are predicted using ABAQUSi. This commercial simulation package allows
performing first the thermal simulation (heat fluxes) and then the mechanical
simulation (stress-strain) using the transient temperature distribution as a
boundary condition. This sequential approach is valid as the influences of both
stress displacement and thermal expansion on the thermal simulation are small.
Figure 1: Exhaust-gas turbocharger (left) and compressor wheel (right) for large Diesel
engines built into e.g. container ships
Figure 2: Snapshots of compressor wheels shortly after dropping into water (left) and at a
later point in time (right), taken from Boer et al. ii
Computing the cooling rates and residual stresses in the compressor wheel after
quenching requires a thermal and a mechanical simulation. For both
simulations, the same FE mesh is used as shown in Figure 3. Cyclic symmetry
is used in the simulation to reduce the compressor wheel to the smallest
possible cyclic symmetric part. The transient temperature distribution at all
nodes of the thermal simulation is set as a boundary condition for the
mechanical simulation at all nodes of the mesh. In the mechanical simulation,
stresses occur due to temperature gradients in the wheel, which result in
different thermal shrinkage. Loads due to buoyancy forces or turbulence of the
quenching media are not considered.
Figure 3: 3D-FE-Mesh (11 000 Nodes, 8 900 Elements) of the compressor wheel in side-
view (left), cut (middle) and top-view (right). Cyclic symmetry allows simulating only a
segment of the wheel.
2 a: Thermal Simulation
∂T
ρ cp = ∇(λ ∇T ) , (1)
∂t
Boundary conditions that define the heat flux between compressor wheel and
quenching liquid have to be specified for all surfaces of the compressor wheel
as none of the surfaces are adiabatic (which is the default boundary condition
in ABAQUS). The surfaces of the FE mesh are shown in Figure 4. Four
different surfaces are marked in the figure. The first surface comprises the
cyclic symmetry surfaces, i.e. the side faces of the modelled segment of the
wheel. The second surface is the central bore of the wheel. All remaining
surfaces are subdivided according to their z-coordinate. As shown in the figure,
surfaces with a positive z-coordinate are surfaces of the flow channel
(comprising also the blades), all surfaces with a negative z-coordinate are on
the back wall.
Surfaces of the blades and the
flow channel (BC #2)
On the back wall and surfaces of the flow channel, large heat fluxes occur with
strong steam generation. It is necessary to include a mathematical model which
accounts for the heat flux. The heat flux is primarily dependent on the surface
temperature. The dependence of the heat flux on the surface position is of
A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH FOR SIMULATING THE
QUENCHING OF LARGE ALUMINIUM COMPRESSOR WHEELS
Figure 5: Heat flux as a function of the difference between the temperature of the surface
and the boiling temperature of the quenching medium, from Lienhard and Lienhardiii.
q& = α (T ) (T − T0 ), (2)
In contrast to the back wall and surfaces of the flow channel, the heat flux at
the surface of the bore is definitely dependent on the position along the length
of the bore. The quenching media can enter or exit the bore by the two
openings. Typically, the quenching media enters the bore from the lower
opening in a liquid phase and then evaporates while rising in the bore. The
media then exits the bore as steam at the upper opening as shown in Figure 2.
This leads to a clearly dependence of the heat flux on the position in the bore.
This dependence is difficult to model with a mathematical function. Thus, at
the bore, measured temperatures are set as boundary condition. Between the
measurement points, the temperature is interpolated.
2 c: Mechanical Simulation
Since no data is available for the heat transfer coefficients for the back wall and
the surfaces of the flow channel, this data has to be determined in an iterative
optimization, in which the error between a measurement and the simulation is
to be minimized. Before an optimization can be started, the heat transfer
coefficient has to be parameterized as a function of temperature. Furthermore,
an objective function for the optimization has to be defined as a mathematical
function. Here, the objective function is to minimize the error between
measured and simulated temperature history at a set of 20 thermocouples at
various positions in the compressor wheel. The optimization of the parameter
values is an iterative and computationally intensive costly trial-and-error
search, which can be performed manually by an engineer or automated by an
optimization algorithm. In the following an automated process is described.
3 a: Measurements
3 b: Parameterization
⎛ ⎛ T − T ⎞n ⎞
α (T ) = α 0 + α1 exp⎜ − ⎜⎜ 0
⎟ ⎟, (3)
⎜ ⎝ TN ⎟⎠ ⎟
⎝ ⎠
Parameter Function
α0 determines the value of α at high temperatures: α(T→∞) = α0
α1 determines the value of α at T = T0: α (T0) = α0 + α1
TN determines the rate of decay of the exponential term
N determines the slope at T = T0
Table 1: Influence of the parameters α0, α1, TN and n on the shape of the heat transfer
coefficient.
Figure 6: Influence of the parameters α0, α1, TN and n on the shape of the heat transfer
coefficient α (left) and heat flux q& (right). The diagrams are normalized.
1 20
F= ∑ Fi .
12 i = 9
(5)
3 d: Optimization Algorithm
( )
find arg min F([α 0 ,α1 , n, TN ]backwall , [α 0 ,α1 , n, TN ] surfaces of the flow channel) . (6)
A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH FOR SIMULATING THE
QUENCHING OF LARGE ALUMINIUM COMPRESSOR WHEELS
T- T0
1
d
0 1 t
Figure 7: Error computation between measurement points [filled circle] and simulation [-
- -]. For each measurement point, the distance d to the next value of the simulation is
computed [<->], where the values of the simulation are linearly interpolated over time t.
4: Optimization Result
Figure 8: Convergence plot of the optimization: The evolution of the error F is plotted
over the iteration counter
In Figure 9, the resulting heat transfer coefficient for the back wall and surfaces
of the flow channel are given. One unexpected result is that the heat transfer
coefficient of the two surfaces back wall and surfaces of the flow channel is
almost identical, especially for normalized temperatures T < 0.4. One would
expect that the different orientation of the two surfaces has a major effect on
the heat transfer as the orientation can promote or hinder the detachment of
steam bubbles and thus influence the heat transfer ii. However, since the heat
transfer values are similar for the two surfaces, the assumption in Section 2b
that the heat transfer coefficient is not dependent on the surface position is
justified.
A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH FOR SIMULATING THE
QUENCHING OF LARGE ALUMINIUM COMPRESSOR WHEELS
Figure 9: Optimized heat transfer coefficient α (left) and heat flux q& (right) for back wall
and surfaces of the flow channel. The diagram shows normalized values.
Figure 10: Contour lines of a typical temperature distribution in the compressor wheel
while quenching. While the thin blades already cooled to environmental temperature, the
core shows still high temperatures.
This is important for predicting the resulting material properties, which depend
on the cooling rate.
T- T0
T- T0
Figure 11: Simulated and measured temperature history at thermocouple 10, 12, 14, and
19. The diagram shows normalized values.
REFERENCES
i
www.abaqus.com
ii
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iii
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2003, download at http://web.mit.edu/lienhard/www/ahtt.html
iv
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v
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