Axial turbine wheel
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorsVaclav Kares, Jeffrey A. Lotterman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A turbocharger including a turbine wheel having a hub-to-tip ratio of no more than 60% and blades with a high turning angle, a turbine housing forming an inwardly spiraling primary-scroll passageway that significantly converges to produce highly accelerated airflow into the turbine at high circumferential angles, and a two-sided parallel compressor. The compressor and turbine each produce substantially no axial force, allowing the use of minimal axial thrust bearings.
Claims29
A turbocharger configured to receive an exhaust gas stream from an engine configured to operate over a range of standard operating conditions, and to compress input air into a pressurized air stream, comprising:
- a housing including a turbine housing;
- and
- a rotor configured to rotate within the housing along an axis of rotor rotation, the rotor including an axial turbine wheel, a compressor wheel, and a shaft extending along the axis of rotor rotation and connecting the turbine wheel to the compressor wheel;
- wherein the turbine wheel is configured with a hub, and with a plurality of axial turbine blades configured to drive the rotor in rotation around the axis of rotor rotation when the turbocharger receives the exhaust gas stream from the engine, the blades having an axially upstream edge, an axially downstream edge, a hub end, and a tip end opposite the hub end, the trailing edge being characterized by a radius at the hub end and a radius of the tip end;
- wherein the compressor wheel is configured to compress the input air into the pressurized air stream when the rotor is driven in rotation around the axis of rotor rotation by the turbine wheel;
- wherein the turbine housing forms an inwardly spiraling turbine primary-scroll passageway that turns in an axial direction;
- and
- wherein the radius at the hub end of the turbine wheel trailing edge is no more than 60% of the radius of the tip end of the turbine wheel trailing edge.
A turbocharger turbine wheel for use in a turbocharger configured to receive an exhaust gas stream from an engine configured to operate over a range of standard operating conditions, and to compress input air into a pressurized air stream, comprising:
- a hub;
- and
- a plurality of axial turbine blades configured to drive the rotor in rotation around the axis of rotor rotation when the turbocharger receives the exhaust gas stream from the engine, the blades having an axially upstream edge, an axially downstream edge, a hub end, and a tip end opposite the hub end, the trailing edge being characterized by a radius at the hub end and a radius of the tip end;
- wherein the radius at the hub end of the turbine wheel trailing edge is no more than 60% of the radius of the tip end of the turbine wheel trailing edge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.