Aerodynamic preliminary design optimization of a centrifugal compressor turbocharger based on one-dimensional mean-line model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is the development of a new turbocharger compressor is a challenging task particularly when both wider operating range and higher efficiency are required. However, the cumbersome design effort and the inherent calculus burden can be significantly reduced by using appropriate design optimization approaches as an alternative to conventional design techniques. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an optimization-based preliminary-design (OPD) approach based on a judicious coupling between evolutionary optimization techniques and a modified one-dimensional mean-line model. Two optimization strategies are considered. The first one is mono-objective and is solved using genetic algorithms. The second one is multi-objective and it is handled using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II. The proposed approach constitutes an automatic search process to select the geometrical parameters of the compressor, ensuring the most common requirements of the preliminary-design phase, with a minimum involvement of the designer. Findings The obtained numerical results demonstrate that the proposed tool can rapidly produce nearly optimal designs as an excellent basis for further refinement in the phase by using more complex analysis methods such as computational fluid dynamics and meta-modeling. Originality/value This paper outlines a new fast OBPD approach for centrifugal compressor turbochargers. The proposal adopts an inverse design method and consists of two main phases: a formulation phase and a solution phase. The complexity of the formulated problem is reduced by using a sensitivity analysis. The solution phase requires to link, in an automatic way, three processes, namely, optimization, design and analysis.