Effects of Disk Geometry on Strength of a Centrifugal Compressor Impeller for a High Pressure Ratio Turbocharger

High pressure ratio turbocharger technology is widely used to lower fuel consumption, reduce emissions and improve power density of internal combustion engines. The centrifugal compressor is the key component of turbochargers. The reliability of compressor impeller becomes critical with increasing pressure ratio. For extending its maximum rotational speed limits, it is important to improve the impeller’s disk geometry to decease stress. In order to investigate the effects of disk geometric parameters on the strength of a centrifugal compressor impeller, a 3-D finite element analysis (FEA) with various disk geometric parameters was performed in this paper. Subsequently, the impeller’s disk geometry was improved to decrease the maximum stress. The results show that the maximum von Mises equivalent stress in the core of the disk of the improved impeller could be decreased by 19%. Further, the maximum stress of another improved impeller without shaft bore decreases by 50%. That means, the improved impeller can bear higher pressure ratios or use cheaper material with lower ultimate tensile strength.