Blog | Advanced Design Technology

How to Improve Efficiency in a Turbocharger Centrifugal Compressor?

Written by Mehrdad Zangeneh | 05-May-2021 10:27:00

TURBOdesign Suite has many success stories with companies designing highly optimized centrifugal compressors with increased efficiency. Cummins Turbo Technologies Ltd. is one of them.

Cummins Turbo Technologies is a leading designer and manufacturer of turbochargers for diesel and gas-derivative engines above 2.3 litres. Headquartered in the UK with global manufacturing facilities in; Brazil, China, Europe, India and USA along with dedicated technical centres in UK, China and USA. Cummins Turbo Technologies have over 2000 employees globally. The company started as Holset in 1952. In 1973 ownership changed to Cummins Inc (known as Cummins Engine Company Inc at that time). In 2006 Holset Turbochargers changed its name to Cummins Turbo Technologies, an autonomous business unit of Cummins Inc.

Cummins Turbo Technologies has developed advanced turbocharging technologies to enable engine manufacturers to meet strict emissions criteria and engine performance requirements. One of their goal was to improve the efficiency in their turbocharger centrifugal compressors.

Fig 1 - Original on the left, TURBOdesign1 on the left.


Performance Improvement

When looking at the comparison of the measured performance of the new inverse design compressor stage to the conventional design hardware. The performance map over plot revealed that the inverse designed hardware is delivering up to 3% higher efficiency.

This work confirms that in many turbocharger compressor applications higher performance is only possible by using 3D blade profiles. TURBOdesign1 provides the best means of rapidly designing 3D centrifugal compressor blades with superior performance.

Discover how Cummins Turbo Technologies achieved this performance by download the entire case study.