Compressor BPF noise reduction for an automotive turbocharger

차량용 터보차져의 컴프레서 BPF 소음 저감

Automotive turbochargers have become common in gasoline engines as well as diesel engines. They are excellent devices to effectively increase fuel efficiency and power of the engines, but they unfortunately cause several noise problems. The noises are classified into mechanical noises induced from movement of a rotating shaft and aerodynamic noises by air flow in turbochargers. The mechanical noises are whine and howling noises, and the aerodynamic noises are BPF (blade-passing frequency), pulsation, surge, some special frequency noises. These noises are bothering passengers because their levels are higher or their frequencies are clearly separated from engine or vehicle noises. The noise investigated in this paper is a BPF noise induced by compressor wheels, whose frequency is the multiplication of the number of compressor wheel blades and its rotational speed. The noise is strongly dependent upon the geometry of wheels and the number of blades. This study tried to apply a groove close to the inlet side of compressor wheels in order to reduce the BPF noise. The groove has successfully reduced the noise of narrow band frequency of a turbocharger. It shows that the groove could reduce the wide band frequency noise, the compressor BPF noise with a best shape of the groove.