Study on rotational frequency noise in a centrifugal compressor for automobile turbochargers

The rotational frequency noise (also known as the pulsation noise) due to the mistuning of impeller blade rows introduced at the manufacturing stage of the impellers is observed in the small-sized centrifugal compressor for automobile turbochargers. The present paper addresses the elucidation of the generating mechanism and parameter dependency such as the kind and degree of mistuning. In order to analyze numerically the rotational frequency noise due to mistuning, the unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of the whole compressor including volute is executed, and the resultant time history of the pressure is fed into the spectral analysis.