Design and Analysis of Lightweight Automotive Component for Turbocharger Units

Nowadays global warming in parallel with air pollution is a significant problem. One of the major causes is the conventional fuel-powered automobile. This study focuses on reducing global warming caused by automobiles. This paper presents the results of redesign and analysis of piping component of a turbocharger unit from a new material in order to reduce the weight and unify the component from only one material. The existing component is composed of three different parts and materials. With the new design, in addition to the lightweight property, the component is designed in such a way that two separate parts of existing design are unified in a single part which simplifies the assembly of the component to the turbocharger unit. The design starts with choosing the convenient material to satisfy the necessary service conditions such as high temperature and pressure. Two different materials are considered for the analyses which are aluminium alloy and PA66+PA6-HI glass fiber reinforced plastic matrix composite material. Firstly, finite element analyses were performed by using a commercial software. The results of the finite element analyses showed that both materials showed resistance to tensile load of 4000 N and pressure of 0.4 MPa at 22°C. However, if two separate parts were unified with a single part made of aluminium alloy, this component would fail under pressure of 0.4 MPa at 150°C and 210°C, while the component made of PA66+PA6-HI glass fiber reinforced plastic matrix composite material resisted the pressure at higher temperatures. Tensile tests under 4000 N and pressure tests under 0.4 MPa at temperatures of 22°C, 150°C and 210°C were carried out on the component produced by PA66+PA6-HI glass fiber reinforced plastic matrix composite material. The same results were observed with those obtained by the finite element analyses. The design with the composite material satisfies both the mechanical and lightweight considerations.