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The Influence of Exhaust Backpressure Upon the Turbocharger’s Boost Pressure

Chapter · November 2016

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-27276-4_34

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Levente Kocsis Dan Moldovanu

Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca
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 THE INFLUENCE OF EXHAUST BACKPRESSURE UPON THE
TURBOCHARGER‘S BOOST PRESSURE

1
Kocsis, Levente-Botond, 1Moldovanu, Dan*, 1Băldean, Doru-Laurean
1
Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania

ABSTRACT
The authors present their studies that were conducted in order to analyze the behavior of the turbocharger of
a compression ignition engine while the exhaust was obstructed at different levels to simulate the influence
of different levels of exhaust backpressure upon the charging device. The goal was to measure in what way
and to what extent is the behavior of the turbocharger influenced by the backpressure caused by a flap,
introduced in the exhaust line of the analyzed engine. Tests were carried out on a four cylinder 1.9 dm3
turbocharged Diesel engine fitted to an active dyno. A special flap in the exhaust line, operated by PUMA
Open was used to simulate different backpressure values from 0 up to 570 mbar additional pressure. During
the test, at each engine speed power, torque, fuel consumption, intake pressure, room pressure, intake
pressure and temperature before and after turbocharger was measured and stored.
The results of the investigations show a clear dependence of the exhaust backpressure related to
turbocharger performances. Exhaust lines can be tuned for certain engine speed domains which are
given by the internal combustion engine’s destination.

KEYWORDS – turbocharged engine, backpressure, boost pressure, engine speed

INTRODUCTION
Engine exhaust backpressure is defined as the exhaust gas pressure that is produced by the engine to
overcome the hydraulic resistance of the exhaust system in order to discharge the gases into the atmosphere.
At increased backpressure levels, the engine has to compress the exhaust gases to a higher pressure which
involves additional mechanical work and/or less energy extracted by the exhaust turbine which will affect intake
manifold boost pressure. The increased exhaust temperature can result in overheating of exhaust valves and the
turbine. An increase in NOx emissions is also possible due to the increase of engine load (Kesgin 2005).
Turbochargers typically use engine lubricating oil as their lubricating and cooling medium. Excessive exhaust
pressures can increase the likelihood of failure of turbocharger seals, resulting in oil leakage into the exhaust
system. VERT recommended back pressure limits are given for a range of engines sizes (Mayer 2004).
Peter Hield concludes in his main findings (Hield 2011) that by raising the backpressure in the exhaust,
the pressure ratios across the turbocharger compressor and turbine decreases, reducing the mass flow of
air through these components and thus the air available to the engine. He also states that the compressor
and turbine operating points describe distorted ellipses approximately centered on the steady state
operating point, this being due to the inertia of the rotor. The shapes of the orbits follow the shapes of
the compressor and turbine maps, and the distortion becomes increasingly pronounced as the amplitude
of the fluctuations in the exhaust increases (Watson and Janota 1982).
One of the main conclusion of his study is that exhaust gas temperature increases significantly with
increasing back pressure due to the increased power required (to overcome the additional pumping
work) and the reduced air flow (Grunwald 1980). In addition, imposed back pressure fluctuations cause
large exhaust temperature fluctuations, which further increases the maximum temperature and also
induces thermal cycling. These effects lead to increased wear and reduced reliability, and can cause
thermal failures (Heywood 1988).
In case of operating steady state, the pressures at the inlet and outlet of the compressor and turbine
versus backpressure will take the shape shown in figure 1.
 3.5

Fig. 1. Pressure curves operating

Pressure [bar]

2.5
steady state (Hield 2011)
2 compressor inlet;
compressor outlet;
turbine inlet;
1.5
turbine outlet.

0.5
1 1.5 2 2.5
Back pressure [bar]

The important quantity in Figure 1 for both the compressor and the turbine is the pressure ratio, which
decreases in both cases. The reduced turbine pressure ratio means that less power can be extracted from
the flow, resulting reduced temperature difference and reduced mass flow. This then means that the
power provided to the compressor will be reduced, reducing the increase in gas pressure across the
compressor, further reducing the mass flow through the engine.

OBJECTIVES
The main goal was to measure and analyze in what way and to what extent is the behavior of the
turbocharger influenced by the value of backpressure caused by a flap, introduced in the exhaust line of
the analyzed engine, which can simulate the backpressure caused by exhaust line geometry.

METHODOLOGY
Tests were carried out in the new test facility of the Technical University of Cluj Napoca,
commissioned with the latest generation test equipment. Equipment used includes a four cylinder 1.9
dm3 turbocharged Diesel engine (AWM code) fitted to an active dyno (figure 2).

Turbocharger

Coupling shaft
Exhaust line

Dynamometer Backpressure flap

governor

Fig.2. Experimental setup

In order to be able to quantify the net difference in performance, the mufflers, which induced a total
backpressure of about 400mbar at its highest point, were separated from the exhaust. To control the
throttle an AVL THA 100 was used, while fuel conditioning and metering was done by AVL’s 735 and
753 units. The pressure sensors used were AVL pressure transducers (figure 3), with ranges from 0.25
to 6 bar absolute pressure, their characteristics being shown in Table 1.

Table 1
Technical data for APT100 pressure transducers
Parameter Value
Typ. Total Error Band (TEB): 0,35 % F.S. at 0° …
+60°C
Rise time: approx. 1ms; 10% …
90% PN
Long term stability in service: Typ. 0,1% F.S. in 18
months at 25°C
Ambient temperature: -40° … +120°C
Temperature of the medium: -40° … +120°C
Output Signal: 4 to 20 mA
Electrical connection: DIN 43650-A (IP65)
Pressure connection: G 1/4 inch female
Protective class: IP 65 according to DIN
40050
Supply: 9 to 32 V DC
Fig. 3. Pressure transducers

The whole test room was air conditioned, having a quasi-static room temperature. Each equipment,
sensor and the engine itself was controlled by the PUMA Open main operating system. A special flap
in the exhaust line (figure 4), operated by PUMA Open was used to simulate different backpressure
values from 0 up to 570 mbar additional pressure. This was the highest recorded backpressure value
before malfunction of the test rig appeared. The unit is used to set the exhaust backpressure of
combustion engines up to a power of 400 kW, with operating temperature up to a maximum of 650°C.
The exhaust gas pressure was adjusted during full load operation of the actual tested engine.

Fig.4. Backpressure control Fig. 5. Pressure loss characteristics, depending on flap angle and exhaust
flap (Zagorski 2003) flow rate (Zagorski 2003)
In order to assure repeatability of the power test, a test cycle was conceived. This cycle included 10
measurements at different engine speeds according to the engine’s specification of idle speed,
maximum torque speed, maximum power speed and maximum speed of the engine. During the test, at
each engine speed power, torque, fuel consumption, intake pressure, room pressure, intake pressure and
temperature before and after turbocharger was measured and stored. The measured data was then
processed with specialized software and interpreted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The current study was limited to steady state operation, to avoid the simultaneous change of multiple
parameters such as EGR rate, thermal inertia of different systems, etc. Furthermore, the study is not
able to give an answer on how will the performance of the turbocharger be affected when any of the
exhaust emissions reducing equipment is positioned upstream or downstream of the turbocharger.
As one would predict, measured backpressure rises as flap angle gets closer to 90°, but backpressure
value is also a function of engine speed and gas flow, that is why, as it can be seen in figure 6, the
shape of backpressure curve is influenced by torque curve. At peak engine torque injected fuel quantity
per cycle reaches maximum level, resulting in high gas flow values, while after reaching peak power
(at 3100 rpm), ECU lowers fuel supply value resulting in lower mass flow values and lower
backpressure values as well.

800 220

700 p@Flap 0%
p@ Flap 10%
170
600 p@ Flap 20%
p@ Flap 30%
Exhaust pressure [mbar]

p@ Flap 40%

Engine torque [Nm]

500
p@ Flap 50% 120
p@ Flap 60%
400 p@ Flap 65%
Torque
70
300

200
20
100

0 -30
1400 1650 1900 2150 2400 2650 2900 3150 3400
Engine speed [rpm]
Fig. 6. Backpressure versus flap angle

By the turbocharger view of point the results of the investigations show a clear dependence between the
exhaust backpressure and turbocharger performances. However, this is not a linear variation.
Compressor outlet pressure rises until peak torque is reached, then the wastegate valve maintains the
pressure qvasi-constant up to peak power point.
 1150

1050
Compressor outlet pressure [mbar]

950

850
comp p 0%
comp p 10%
750 comp p 20%
comp p 30%
comp p 40%
comp p 50%
650 comp p 60%
comp p 65%

550
1400 1900 2400 2900 3400
Engine speed [rpm]
Fig. 7. Compressor outlet pressure versus engine speed, depending on flap angle

While with no initial backpressure in the exhaust line the boost pressure curve raises constantly (figure
7), almost linear up to the maximum torque speed, adding some backpressure introduces a deflection
from the initial curve, lowering the boost pressures with 8% at most, for a backpressure greater with
50% then initial. In this engine speed range, when the backpressure was further raised up to 250% of
the initial value, behavior of the turbocharger changed and two inflection points appeared (figure 8).
Boost pressure was beginning at a lower value, but then was growing rapidly and for 100 rpm it was
higher than with no initial backpressure. It was swinging back again and became lower than the
reference boost pressure, so that it had culminated in greater values again, at maximum torque speed,
where wastegate was beginning to open. Up to 2600 rpm boost pressure was somewhat greater for
backpressures up to 10% higher than reference and up to the maximum power engine speed all pressure
curves except one were tending to meet in one point. The boost pressure curve belonging to the highest
backpressure reached at this point a value 2% less than all the other.
 1200

1150

1100
Compressor outlet pressure [mbar]

1050

1000

950
comp p 0%
comp p 10%
900 comp p 20%
comp p 30%
comp p 40%
850
comp p 50%
comp p 60%
800 comp p 65%

750
1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
Engine speed [rpm]
Fig.8. Compressor outlet pressure restricted to a narrow engine speed domain

Conclusions
Although boost pressure in the studied points and conditions did not have values all the way lower or
greater than the reference, it can be stated that backpressure influences turbocharger performance at a
great extent. The investigations reveal that exhaust lines can be tuned for certain engine speed domains
which are given by the internal combustion engine’s destination.

References:

1. Grünwald, B., Teoria – Construcţia şi Calculul Motoarelor pentru Autovehicule Rutiere, Editura
Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1980
2. Heywood, J.B., Internal combustion engine fundamentals, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1988
3. Hield, P., The effect of back pressure on the operation of a Diesel engine, Maritime Platforms
Divisions, Defence Science and Technology Organisation, 2011
4. Kesgin, U., Effect of turbocharging system on the performance of a natural gas engine, Energy
Conversion and Management Vol 46, 2005, pp.11-32
5. Mayer, A., “Number-based Emission Limits, VERT-DPF-Verification Procedure and
Experience with 8,000 Retrofits”, VERT, Switzerland, 2004
6. Watson, N., Janota, M., Turbocharging the Internal Combustion Engine, The Macmillan Press
Ltd, Houndmills, 1982
7. Zagorski, Ch., AVL AT1619 5490M00B Exhaust Back Pressure Unit, AVL Operating Manual,
2003

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