Received May 6, 2021, accepted July 1, 2021, date of publication July 9, 2021, date of current version July 23,

2021.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3095919

Investigation on Sealing Performance and

Power Consumption of a Novel Centrifugal
Pump Type Oil Flinger for Turbocharger
KE YAN , FEI CHEN, ZHIQIANG GUO, AND YONGSHENG ZHU
Key Laboratory of Education Ministry for Modern Design and Rotor-Bearing System, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Corresponding author: Ke Yan (yanke@mail.xjtu.edu.cn)
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 52022077.

ABSTRACT Energy efficient conversion and saving technologies have increasingly become areas of fierce
competition among countries all over the world. As a vehicle power multiplier, the turbocharger advances the
power output of the engine, but also increases the power consumption due to oil leakage, which aggravates
the fuel energy consumption. This work aims to investigate the sealing performance and power consumption
of the proposed novel centrifugal pump type oil flinger (CPTOF) to suppress the oil leakage and reduce the
power consumption of turbocharger, thereby saving fuel energy. First, the flow characteristics of CPTOF and
traditional oil flinger were compared based on the established oil-air flow numerical model. Then, the effects
of oil slinging hole number Z , diameter dh and inclination angle α on pumping air performance and power
consumption of CPTOF were analyzed. Finally, the structural parameters of CPTOF were optimized using
the orthogonal table L9 (34 ) and the results were verified through experiment. Results showed that the oil
leakage of sealing structure was effectively prevented by the pumping air effect. Moreover, Z , α and dh also
had significant effects on the sealing performance and the power consumption, and the degree of influence
raised in turn. The CPTOF with Z = 16, dh = 1.80 mm and α = 0◦ had the optimum working efficiency,
resulting in the average pressure drop being extended to 107 kPa and the power consumption being reduced
by 33.05%.

INDEX TERMS Centrifugal pump type oil flinger, turbocharger, pumping air effect, power consumption.

NOMENCLATURE k thermal conductivity (W/m. ·K−1 )

UPPERCASE LETTERS n rotation speed (r/min)
A, B annular area p pressure (Pa)
−
→ q̇ volume heating rate per unit mass (W)
M resistance moment vector (N. ·m)
P power consumption (W) t time (s)
Q turbine flow (kg/s) u ,v, w velocity components (m/s)
R range value x, y, z direction
S quality source item (kg/m3 . ·s−1 )
SUBSCRIPTS
T temperature
c critical point
V velocity (m/s)
h oil slinging hole
Z number of oil slinging hole
i inner surface of oil flinger
−
→ − → − →
LOWER CASE LETTERS
i , j , k vector direction
d diameter of oil flinger (mm) m medium surface of oil flinger
e internal energy (J) o outer surface of oil flinger
f mass force (m/s2 )
GREEK ALPHABETS
The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and α inclination angle (◦ )
approving it for publication was Xiaosong Hu . υ viscosity (N/m2 . ·s−1 )

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
VOLUME 9, 2021 101115
 K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger
ρ density (kg/m3 )
τ shear stress (Pa)
∇ Hamiltonian operator
I. INTRODUCTION
Oil flinger is a critical part of sealing structure inside tur-
bocharger, which is essential to assist turbocharger to advance
the engine output power and decrease the fuel energy con-
sumption [1]–[3]. However, oil leakage of turbocharger is
easily induced due to the insufficient sealing performance of
oil flinger, which increases the fuel consumption of engine.
For example, the investigation of Gao et al. indicated that
up to about 10% of fuel energy in engine was consumed
by turbocharger [4]. After reforming original turbocharger,
the fuel energy of 1–5% was saved in different driving
cycles [5]. In addition, the relevant data pointed out that
more than 60% of the turbocharger failures were caused
by leakage [6], [7]. Therefore, solving leakage problem has
become one of keys to advance the reliability of turbocharger
and engine output power. Meanwhile, it is also capable of
reducing fuel consumption and pollutant emissions, thereby
effectively promotes the sustainable development and envi-
ronment protection of society [8], [9].
Aiming at the oil leakage of turbocharger, the oil flingers
displayed in Figure 1(a) and (b) were designed by Ou and
Zhang et al., respectively, [10], [11]. Among them, as shown
in Figure 1(a), the oil slinging plate is added in the radial
direction of oil flinger to throw out the lubricating oil in
time. In Figure 1(b), the outer surface of oil flinger is devised
into a stepped structure with a gradually expanding outer
diameter to increase the difficulty of lubricating oil outflow.
In Figure 1(c), He et al. designed diversion groove on the
back plate to reduce the oil leakage from the end face of
turbocharger [12]. Experimental results demonstrated that the
pressure difference between the two ends of sealing struc-
ture was expanded to 7 kPa under the action of diversion
groove, which effectively improved the sealing performance.
Reienkamp et al. devised a deflection component and a
lubricating oil collection channel on turbocharger sealing
structure [13]. During the operation of turbocharger, the
lubricating oil that is centrifugally dispersed by the slinger
element is deflected by the deflection part and is conducted
in the opposite direction to the seals. Then, the collec-
tion channel prevents lubricating oil, centrifugally dispersed
from the slinger element, from flowing back into the seal
region. Grabowska invented a novel oil flinger that has a
flinger flange and from which extends a sleeve portion [14].
A plurality of spiral vane segments are circumferentially
spaced about the flinger flange to prevent the leakage of
lubricating oil.
However, the aforementioned structural design is only
based on theoretical analysis, and the influence of sealing
structure on leakage flow is unable to be investigated visually.
Thus, combining simulate and experiment to analyze the
characteristics of leakage flow inside turbocharger chamber
becomes a critical technical way to guide the sealing structure
101116
FIGURE 1. (a) and (b) are the oil flingers designed by Ou and Zhang
et al. [10], [11]. (c) Sealing structure with diversion groove [12].
design. The study of flow characteristics between leakage
flow and main flow conducted by Giboni et al. indicated that
the leakage flow deteriorated the flow field in turbine, result-
ing in the unstable operation of turbine [15]. It is necessary to
seriously take into account the leakage flow in the design or
optimization of turbomachinery. Furthermore, the importance
of the exploration of leakage flow was further highlighted by
the investigation of Vakili et al. [16]. They designed a novel
labyrinth sealing structure based on the simulation analysis of
the flow characteristics of leakage flow inside turbocharger,
which reduced the leakage flow by 19%. Moreover, the flow
path, the flow characteristics and the pressure distribution
of leakage flow in sealing structure were deeply studied by
Ramachandran et al. relying on the constructed oil phase and
oil and air two-phase turbocharger models [17]. The mutual
authentication of simulation and experiment demonstrated
that the simulation approach was able to predict the leakage
flow within engineering accuracy and guided the design of
low-leakage turbocharger.
Above-mentioned investigations indicate that the opti-
mized design of sealing structure and the flow characteristics
of leakage flow have been probed by many scholars
using experiment, simulation or visualization technology
to enhance the sealing performance of sealing structure,
advance the output power of engine, and reduce the energy
consumption of turbocharger. Nevertheless, the numerous
designs of oil flingers are mainly aimed at reinforcing the
oil slinging performance. Whether the pressure field at both
ends of sealing structure is able to be adjusted by these
designs to fundamentally solve the oil leakage problem is
rarely reported. In addition, the investigation of energy con-
sumption is mostly focused on the whole turbocharger, and
there is a lack of study on individual sealing device or sealing
part. It is not conducive to quantifying the impact of various
components on the power consumption of turbocharger.
Taking into account the current deficiencies in design and
investigation of oil flinger, a novel CPTOF was proposed
inspired by the working principle of centrifugal pump to
overcome the oil leakage of turbocharger from the mech-
anism. In principle, the air inside sealing ring is pumped
away to improve the pressure distribution between the inner
side of sealing ring and the compressor back plate through
the pumping action of CPTOF. Ultimately, the leakage of
lubricating oil is inhibited from the mechanism of oil leakage.
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K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger

FIGURE 3. Turbocharger oil leakage mechanism and flow path of

lubrication oil.

FIGURE 2. The flowchart of investigation.

Thereinto, the investigation flowchart is demonstrated

in Figure 2. Firstly, in order to deeply explore the sealing
performance of CPTOF, an oil-air flow numerical model
of CPTOF was established based on the multiple reference
coordinate system. The flow characteristics of the model were FIGURE 4. (a) The structure of CPTOF. (b) The structure of traditional oil
simulated and compared with traditional oil flinger. Secondly, flinger.

the effects of Z , dh and α on the pumping air performance and

the power consumption of CPTOF were investigated based TABLE 1. Structure parameters of oil flinger.

on the flow field characteristics analysis and orthogonal table.

Finally, the centrifugal pump type turbocharger oil leakage
test bench was built to verify the influence of Z , dh and α on
the sealing performance of turbocharger.

II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL

A. STRUCTURE DESIGN AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE
As shown in Figure 3, the compressor end of turbocharger is follows [18]–[21]:
mainly composed of a compressor impeller, a turbine shaft,
∂ρ ∂(ρu) ∂(ρv) ∂(ρw)
a compressor back plate, an oil flinger and a sealing ring. Continuity : + + + =0 (1)
Usually, the main cause of oil leakage is that the pressure p1 ∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z
inside sealing ring is greater than the pressure p2 on the back It is modified as follows using Hamiltonian operator:
of compressor impeller and the pressure difference generated ∂ρ
is higher than the flow resistance of lubricating oil. The + ∇ · (ρV ) = 0 (2)
∂t
leaked path is highlighted in Figure 3. In order to prevent
the leakage of lubricating oil, the CPTOF was presented where u, v, w are velocity components in the direction of x,
based on the above analysis of oil leakage mechanism. The y and z, respectively. t, ρ and ∇ represent time, density and
structure and design parameters of CPTOF are demonstrated Hamiltonian operator, respectively. V is the velocity vector,
in Figure 4(a) and Table 1, respectively. Compared with V = uEi + vEj + wk.
E
traditional oil flinger highlighted in Figure 4(b), some oil ∂ (ρu) ∂p ∂τxx ∂τyx ∂τzx
+ ∇ · (ρuV ) = − + + + + ρfx
slinging holes and a concave annular structure were designed ∂t ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂z
into the CPTOF. Relying on the pumping action induced (3)
by the interaction between concave annular groove and oil
slinging hole, the p2 gradually becomes larger than p1 with Momentum:
the operation of CPTOF. ∂ (ρv) ∂p ∂τxy ∂τyy ∂τzy
+ ∇ · (ρvV ) = − + + + + ρfy
∂t ∂y ∂x ∂y ∂z
B. GOVERNING EQUATIONS (4)
The performance investigation of CPTOF includes the anal- ∂ (ρw) ∂p ∂τxz ∂τyz ∂τzz
+ ∇ · (ρwV ) = − + + + + ρfz
ysis of velocity field, pressure field and power consump- ∂t ∂z ∂x ∂y ∂z
tion. The governing equations involved are presented as (5)

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 K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger

where p represents the pressure on the infinitesimal body.

τij is the shear stress acting on the plane j direction perpendic-
ular to i axis and it is related to the time change rate of fluid
cluster shear deformation. fx, fy and fz are all unit mass force.
Energy:
∂ V2 V2
     
ρ e+ +∇ · ρ e+
∂t 2 2
∂ ∂T
 
= ρ q̇ + k
∂x ∂x FIGURE 5. (a) Discretization of fluid domain constructed by the
∂ ∂T ∂ ∂T ∂ (up) ∂ (vp) ∂ (wp)
   
CPTOF-compressor back plate. (b) Schematic diagram of boundary
+ k + k − − − condition setting for the fluid domain.
∂y ∂y ∂z ∂z ∂x ∂y ∂z
∂ (uτxx ) ∂ uτyx ∂ (uτzx ) ∂ vτxy ∂ vτyy




TABLE 2. Working condition and air parameters.
+ + + + +
∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x ∂y
∂ vτzy ∂ (wτxz ) ∂ wτyz ∂ (wτzz )



+ + + + + ρfV (6)
∂y ∂x ∂y ∂z
where e represents internal energy, q̇ is the volume heating
rate per unit mass and k is the thermal conductivity.
TABLE 3. Oil parameters.
C. MULTIPHASE FLOW MODEL
In multiphase flow analysis, the concepts of primary and
secondary phases are generally involved. Commonly, the pri-
mary phase is a continuous medium and a major compo-
nent of the fluid. The secondary phase is a minority phase
pressure outlet and normal pressure outlet, respectively. The
dispersed in the main phase [22], [23]. For the sake of
above-mentioned pressure values and corresponding speeds
investigating the multiphase flow, Volume of Fluent (VOF)
are depicted in Table 2. In addition, the main phase and the
model, Mixture model and Eulerian model are developed
secondary phase in fluid domain were set to air and lubri-
and integrated in Fluent software. Owing to the prominently
cating oil according to the actual working environment [27].
advantages over other models during tracking the fluid flow
The air and oil parameters are collected in Table 2 and
process [24]–[26], the VOF model was utilized to calculate
Table 3, respectively. The fluid flow was assumed to reach
the oil-air flow characteristics of CPTOF. Thereinto, the vol-
fully developed condition and fluid was considered as incom-
ume fractions of oil phase and air phase in each unit are rep-
pressible [28]. The k-ε model was employed to calculate the
resented using αoil and αair , respectively. αoil = 0 means that
flow of oil and air taking into account the turbulent effect on
there is no lubricant in calculation unit. 0 < αoil < 1 indicates
the fluid flow [29]–[31]. The continuity, speed and energy
that the volume fraction of lubricating oil in calculation unit
residual thresholds were modified to 1 × 10−6 during calcu-
is αoil . αair = 1 represents that calculation unit is filled with
lation. When inlet net flux is less than 0.20% of inlet flow,
lubricating oil. αoil + αair = 1 expresses that oil and air are
the results are considered to have converged and the iterative
conserved in calculation unit. For each phase, the continuity
calculation of computer is stopped [32]. The calculation result
equations are shown as follows:
was independent of the grid.
∂
(αoil ρoil ) + ∇ · (αoil ρoil Evoil ) = Sαoil (7)
∂t III. CENTRIFUGAL PUMP TYPE TURBOCHARGER OIL
∂
(αair ρair ) + ∇ · (αair ρair Evair ) = Sαair (8) LEAKAGE TEST BENCH
∂t Figure 6(a) shows the centrifugal pump type turbocharger
where ρoil and ρair represent the density of lubricating oil and oil leakage test bench and its parameters are summarized
air, respectively. Sαoil and Sαair are the quality source items in Table 4. The working principle of the test bench is
of lubricating oil and air, respectively. described in Figure 6(b). Among them, the compressor
impeller was replaced by an equivalent wheel. The turbine
D. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS SETTING shaft was driven to run by filling high temperature gas in
Figure 5(a) shows the discretization of fluid domain con- the turbine end. The pressure difference between the inside
structed by the CPTOF-compressor back plate. Owing to and outside of the test bench was controlled by means of
the complexity of geometry structure shown in Figure 5(b), air injection-pressurization. The critical oil leakage pressure
the fluid domain was discretized by unstructured grid method. of the sealing structure was detected by observing whether
In order to obtain more accurate results of oil-air flow char- there was oil leakage on compressor back plate in real time
acteristics, the leakage port and outlet were set as negative to analyze the service performance of CPTOF. Additionally,

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K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger

FIGURE 6. (a) Centrifugal pump type turbocharger oil leakage test bench.
(b) The principle of centrifugal pump type turbocharger oil leakage test
bench.

TABLE 4. Parameters of centrifugal pump type turbocharger oil leakage

test bench.
FIGURE 7. (a) and (b) are the lubricating oil volume fraction and pressure
distribution inside the fluid domain of traditional oil flinger, respectively.
(c) and (d) are the lubricating oil volume fraction and pressure
distribution inside the flow field of CPTOF, respectively.

in order to observe oil leakage conveniently, the compressor

casing was removed.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. PERFORMANCE COMPARISON BETWEEN CPTOF AND
TRADITIONAL OIL FLINGER
Figure 7(a) and (b) show the oil phase volume fraction and
pressure distribution inside the fluid domain of traditional oil
flinger under the working conditions of case 2, respectively.
It can be noted from Figure 7(a) that a certain amount of
leaked lubricating oil adheres to the leakage port. In particu-
lar, as shown in the annular area A, the farther away from the
leakage port, the more leaked lubricating oil is distributed.
In Figure 7(b), the pressure near the leakage port shown in
the annular area B is close to the set leakage pressure, which
indicates that the pressure difference causing the leakage of
lubricating oil is not able to be changed by traditional oil
flinger. Therefore, it can be inferred that although traditional
oil flinger has an oil slinging effect, the lubricating oil leakage
is unable to be fundamentally prevented. Figure 7(c) and (d)
display the oil phase volume fraction and pressure distribu-
tion inside the flow field of CPTOF, respectively. It can be
seen from Figure 7(c) that the lubricating oil leaked from
the outer edge of oil slinging hole is thrown away from the
shafting when CPTOF is working. In Figure 7(d), the pressure
at the root of CPTOF is significantly reduced, which can be
further revealed by the airflow flowing from the outside to
inside in fluid domain. As a result, the CPTOF not only has
the effect of oil slinging, but also capable of suppressing the
leakage of lubricating oil by changing the pressure field.
For the sake of further probing the effect of CPTOF on
the improvement of pressure in fluid domain, the middle
diameter air pressure of leakage port annular surface under
FIGURE 8. The middle diameter air pressure of leakage port annular
surface under different cases: (a) case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3, (d) case 4.
different cases was extracted and the results are depicted
in Figure 8. It is clearly seen that except for the case 4,
the middle diameter air pressure in other cases all presents
a S-shaped distribution. In particular, the middle diameter air
pressure is lower than the set external pressure when CPTOF
runs for more than 0.008 s, which prevents the leakage of
lubricating oil. In Figure 8(d), the middle diameter air pres-
sure is not remarkably changed, which is attributed to the
insufficient pumping air effect of CPTOF under low-speed
operating conditions. Therefore, the leakage port pressure is
basically equal to the set oil leakage pressure, resulting in the
obvious oil leakage at the compressor end.
Since the pumping air effect of CPTOF was obviously
affected by speed, the pumping air volume and velocity in oil
slinging hole at different speeds were investigated in detail
and the results are shown in Figure 9. It can be found from
Figure 9 that the pumping air performance of CPTOF gradu-
ally advances with increasing speed. The pumping air volume

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 K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger
FIGURE 9. The pumping air performance of CPTOF under different speeds.
TABLE 5. The orthogonal table of the structural parameters of CPTOF.
and velocity reach 0.25 g/s and 84 m/s at 90,000 r/min,
respectively. Conversely, the pumping air volume in oil sling-
ing hole is approximately 0 due to the weak pumping air effect
of CPTOF at 10,000 r/min.
B. EFFECT OF STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS OF OIL
SLINGING HOLE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CPTOF
The aformentioned analysis showed that the lubricating oil
leakage in sealing structure was capable of being effec-
tively suppressed through the regulation of pressure field by
CPTOF. For the purpose of further optimizing the structure
of CPTOF, the influences of Z , dh and α on pumping air per-
formance of CPTOF were analyzed based on the constructed
orthogonal table L9 (34 ) shown in Table 5. Because only three
factors Z , dh and α were considered in this paper, the fourth
column of the orthogonal table L9 (34 ) was omitted. Each of
the factors above-mentioned has three levels. The boundary
conditions were set according to case 1.
Figure 10 displays the pressure distribution of the flow
field in the cross-section of oil slinging hole. It can be noted
from Figure 10 that the maximum pressure at the edge of oil
slinging hole is about 150 kPa, which is significantly higher
than the internal pressure of 60 kPa. The superior pressure
control ability of CPTOF is exhibited again. The greater the
pressure difference between edge area and internal area of
oil slinging hole or the larger the pressure distribution area
shown in red, the stronger the ability to prevent the leakage
of lubricating oil. Since the pressure zone highlighted in red
inside Figure 10(f) is the largest compared with other pressure
fields, it is inferred that the CPTOF with Z = 16, dh =
1.80 mm and α = 0◦ has the optimum capacity of suppressing
oil leakage. Additionally, there is an area where the high
101120
FIGURE 10. The flow field pressure distribution in the cross-section of oil
slinging hole: (a)–(i) are the simulation models 1, 6, 8, 2, 4, 9, 3, 5, and 7,
respectively.
TABLE 6. The average pressure drop extreme values of the annular
surface of leakage port.
pressure and low pressure zones coexist in each of simulation
models, which is attributed to the air cyclone effect induced
by the high-speed pumped air.
Further, the annular surface pressure of leakage port was
extracted and plotted in Figure 11(a). It can be seen from
Figure 11(a) that the pressure has remarkable differences,
reflecting the Z , dh and α have notable impact on the working
performance of CPTOF. Figure 11(b) shows the pumping air
performance of CPTOF with different structural parameters
from the perspective of average pressure drop. Results indi-
cated that the simulation model 9 had a maximum average
pressure drop of 107 kPa, which was 101.89% higher than
simulation model 1. Therefore, it can be concluded that the
simulation model 9 was optimal and the result was also
consistent with the above inference. Meanwhile, as shown
in Table 6, Rdh > Rα > RN demonstrated that the dh had the
greatest influence on the performance of CPTOF, followed by
the Z and the α.
C. EFFECT OF STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS OF OIL
SLINGING HOLE ON THE POWER CONSUMPTION OF
CPTOF
Compared with traditional oil flinger, the CPTOF has incom-
parable advantages in regulating the pressure field at both
ends of sealing structure. Yet the friction between CPTOF and
surrounding fluid is inevitably increased due to the additional
oil slinging hole and then enables the consumption of useful
work to be raised. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize
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K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger
FIGURE 11. (a) The annular surface pressure of leakage port. (b) The
average pressure drop of annular surface of leakage port.
FIGURE 12. The power consumption of different simulation models.
the structural parameters of oil slinging hole in order to
minimize the power consumption of CPTOF. Typically, the
power consumption of CPTOF during high-speed rotation
was calculated according to the following formula [33]:
−
→ the increase of dh , which indicates that the dh remarkably
πMn
P=
30
−
→ Section IV. B, it is estimated that when dh is enlarged to
where P is power consumption, M is the resistance moment
vector.
Figure 12 displays the power consumption of different
simulation models. It can be noted that the simulation model 9
has the minimum power consumption of 395 W, which was
reduced by 33.05% compared with simulation model 1. The
structural parameters of CPTOF corresponding to the low-
est power consumption was also matched to the optimal
results in Section IV. B. The oil and air were pumped more
smoothly through the optimized oil slinging hole, result-
ing in a reduction in the interaction between CPTOF and
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TABLE 7. Sealing performance experiment of CPTOF.
surrounding fluid, which was responsible for the decrease of
power consumption.
V. SEALING PERFORMANCE EXPERIMENT OF CPTOF
According to the test bench shown in Figure 6, the sealing per-
formance of CPTOFs under different structural parameters
was experimented to verify the above optimization results.
Nevertheless, the CPTOFs with Z = 12, dh = 1–1.50 mm and
α = 0–13◦ were only adopted in the experiment due to the
restriction of test conditions. During the validation process,
the factors such as oil supply pressure and oil temperature
were strictly controlled. As shown in Table 7, the critical
oil leakage pressure pc of sealing structure is 1.50 kPa at
1,000 r/min. Since the sealing ring was close to the end
surface of CPTOF, the 1.50 kPa demonstrated that the CPTOF
had almost no sealing effect. The centrifugal pump type
turbocharger only relied on the end surface of sealing ring
to achieve seal. As the speed increased to 3,000 r/min and
5,000 r/min, the pc was advanced to 8 kPa and 18 kPa,
respectively. The improved pressure showed that the excellent
performance of CPTOF depended largely on the rotational
speed.
In order to display the influence of dh on pc more intu-
itively, the speed was set to 1,000 r/min. It is clearly seen
from Table 7 that the pc is raised to 1.50 kPa from 1 kPa with
improves the pressure difference between the both ends of
(9)
the sealing structure. Combined with the investigation in
1.80 mm, the pc is capable of being further reinforced and
the more excellent oil slinging and pumping air effect are
possessed to CPTOF. Moreover, Table 7 demonstrates the
effect of α on pc . As the α increased from 0◦ to 13◦ , the pc
decreased from 18 kPa to 3 kPa, which was reduced by
83.33%. Thus, the CPTOF had the optimum performance
when α = 0◦ .
VI. CONCLUSION
Aiming at the oil leakage problem of turbocharger, a novel
CPTOF was presented based on the oil leakage mechanism
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 K. Yan et al.: Investigation on Sealing Performance and Power Consumption of Novel CPTOF for Turbocharger
analysis and inspired by the working principle of centrifugal
pump. The pumping air effect of CPTOF was used to reduce
the pressure inside sealing ring to restrict the outflow of
lubricating oil and decrease power consumption of oil flinger.
Firstly, an oil and air two-phase flow numerical model of
CPTOF was established based on the multiple reference coor-
dinate system. Secondly, the flow characteristics of CPTOF
were investigated and compared with traditional oil flinger.
The influences of Z , dh and α on the sealing performance
and power consumption of CPTOF were studied. Finally,
the sealing performance of CPTOFs with different structural
parameters was verified by experiment. Several results of the
present investigation are listed in the following:
(1) Compared with traditional oil flinger, the oil leakage
of sealing structure was effectively prevented because the
pressure inside sealing ring was reduced by the pumping air
effect of CPTOF. Nevertheless, the sealing performance of
CPTOF was remarkably affected by speed. With the increase
of speed, the pumping air volume and velocity in oil slinging
hole gradually raised. When speed boosted to 90,000 r/min,
the pumping air volume and velocity were reached 84 m/s and
0.25 g/s, respectively.
(2) Z , α and dh had significant effects on the sealing
performance of CPTOF and the degree of influence raised
in turn. Based on simulation, orthogonal analysis and related
experimental verification, the CPTOF with Z = 16, dh =
1.80 mm and α = 0◦ had the optimum working efficiency,
which enabled the average pressure drop in turbocharger to
be enlarged to 107 kPa.
(3) The friction between CPTOF and surrounding fluid
was notably increased due to the additional oil slinging hole
structure and then raised the power loss of CPTOF. Through
the optimization of structural parameters, the CPTOF with
Z = 16, dh = 1.80 mm and α = 0◦ had a minimum power
consumption of 395 W, which was decreased by 33.05%.
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KE YAN received the Ph.D. degree from Shandong
University, in 2012.
From 2014 to 2015, he was a Postdoctoral Fel-
low with Concordia University. He is currently a
Professor and the Ph.D. Tutor with the School of
Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong Univer-
sity. He has authored more than 20 high-level aca-
demic journals articles and conference papers. His
current research interests include high temperature
and oil resistant design of new generation of aero
engine bearing, design of high-temperature resistant quantum dot sensors,
mechanism of intelligent porous materials and aerospace oil bearing tech-
nology, lubrication design and applied technology of extremely high-speed
bearings, and turbocharger seal design. He received the honorary title of
the first outstanding young talents of colleges and universities in Shaanxi
Province, in 2017. In addition, he has led and participated in several national
projects and corporate programs.
VOLUME 9, 2021
FEI CHEN received the B.Eng. degree from Jinan
University, in 2019. He is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree with the School of Mechanical Engi-
neering, Xi’an Jiaotong University.
His research interests include ceramic material
strengthening and toughening technology, and tur-
bocharger sealing performance investigation.
ZHIQIANG GUO received the B.Eng. degree from
Xi’an Jiaotong University, in 2020.
From 2017 to 2020, his research interests
include the simulation of the flow field inside
turbocharger cavity and the study of turbocharger
leakage mechanism.
YONGSHENG ZHU received the Ph.D. degree
from Xi’an Jiaotong University, in 2003.
From 2003 to 2004 and 2004 to 2005, he was
a Researcher and a Postdoctoral Fellow with the
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute
of Technology. He is currently a Professor and a
Ph.D. Tutor with the School of Mechanical Engi-
neering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He is mainly
involved in the research of theoretical calculation
and operation status monitoring of bearing and
rotor bearing systems. He has authored more than 60 journal articles and
conference papers. He has led and participated in several national projects
and corporate programs.
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