The widespread trend of pursuing higher efficiencies in radial turbochargers led to the prompting of this work. A 3D-printed model of the static parts of a radial variable geometry turbine, the vaned nozzle, and the volute, was developed. This model was up-scaled from the actual reference turbine to place sensors and characterize the flow around the nozzle vanes, including the tip gap. In this study, a computational model of the scaled-up turbine was carried out to verify the results in two ways. For this model, firstly compared with an already validated CFD turbine model of the real device (which includes a rotor), its operating range was extended to different nozzle positions, and we checked the issues with rotor–stator interactions as well as the influence of elements such as the screws of the turbine stator. After showing results for different nozzle openings, another purpose of the study was to check the effect of varying the clearance over the tip of the stator vanes on the tip leakage flow since the 3D-printed model has variable gap height configurations.

During the last decade, increasingly advanced turbocharger models have been developed for sizing, engine matching and one-dimensional modeling. This work goes further and, instead of using these models for turbocharged engines design or analysis, it implements them in the data acquisition and control system of a turbocharger gas stand. This way, interesting new capabilities arise. The paper shows that there are important synergies between advanced turbocharger gas stand data acquisition and control systems and the modern turbocharger holistic models that have not been deeply exploited until now. They can be summarized as: on-line heat fluxes analysis, in-situ outlier testing points detection, testing time saving and using digital-twin techniques to monitor turbocharger health during testing.

The utilization of automotive engine components for the development of a reverse Brayton cycle is shown in this study. The well-known characteristics of turbochargers and electrical centrifugal compressors commonly used in the automotive industry is a starting point for developing an experimental cycle configuration of a reverse Brayton refrigeration cycle with the ability to achieve up to 115 K after a multi-stage compression with intermediate cooling and a single-stage expansion in a radial turbine using air (R-729) as working fluid. The use of a variable nozzle turbine allows to evaluate the optimum rack position for each operating point, while having control over refrigeration capacity. Studies over the minimum cycle pressure at the inlet of the first stage of compression have been performed to assess the possible benefit of creating vacuum or pressurize the working fluid. A 1 m^3 cooling chamber was attached to the installation to test the ability of cooling different thermal loads working under different operation ways, open or closed cycle, this is, letting the working fluid to interact with the thermal load or cooling it through a heat exchanger. The evaluation of thermodynamic parameters allows to obtain the coefficient of performance (COP) of the installation and the efficiency of each component. The analysis of turbomachinery performance will allow identifying weak points to improve cycle performance, and the coupling model between rotatory machines as well as to adapt the size of the installation to the refrigeration capacity required for different applications.

The utilization of automotive engine components for the development of a reverse Brayton cycle is shown in this study. The well-known characteristics of turbochargers and electrical centrifugal compressors commonly used in the automotive industry is a starting point for developing an experimental cycle configuration of a reverse Brayton refrigeration cycle with the ability to achieve up to 115K after a multi-stage compression with intermediate cooling and a single-stage expansion in a radial turbine using air (R-729) as working fluid. The use of a variable nozzle turbine allows to evaluate the optimum rack position for each operating point, as well as having control over refrigeration capacity. Studies over the minimum cycle pressure at the inlet of the first stage of compression have been performed to assess the possible benefit of creating vacuum or pressurize the working fluid. A 1m3 cooling chamber was attached to the installation to test the ability of cooling different thermal loads working under different operation ways, open or closed cycle, this is, letting the working fluid to interact with the thermal load or cooling it through a heat exchanger. The evaluation of thermodynamic parameters allows to obtain the coefficient of performance (COP) of the installation as well as the efficiency of each component. The analysis of turbomachinery performance will allow identifying weak points to improve cycle performance, and to improve the coupling model between the rotatory machines as well as to adapt the size of the installation to the refrigeration capacity required for different applications.