A two-dimensional method for radial turbine volute design

In this work, a new two-dimensional method is presented for turbine volute design. In this method, the continuity equation, energy equation, free vortex equation, and streamline equation are employed to solve the velocity field and to generate the volute profile. The physical model and mathematic solution to the governing equations are described in detail. A new volute for a turbocharger turbine is generated using this method and compared with the original, well-designed baseline volute. Different turbine operating conditions, including equal and unequal admission cases, were studied by CFD to compare turbine aerodynamic performance using the new and baseline volutes. The simulation results show that the efficiency of the new volute is about 0.4%–0.6% higher than the baseline under equal admission conditions. It is found that the improvement in turbine performance is mainly due to the more reasonable A/R distribution, which reduces the losses in the turbine. This work demonstrates that the proposed new method provides an effective way for radial turbine volute design, and can quickly create high performance volutes.