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Oil-Free Turbocharger Demonstration

Objective To apply recent enabling technology advances in foil bearings, solid lubricant coatings and analytical modeling to design, fabricate and test an Oil-Free heavy-duty class diesel engine turbocharger. Configuration 150 hp turbocharger 95,000 rpm operation 1 lbm/s flow 2 Journal Foil Bearings 2 Thrust Foil Bearings NASA PS304 Coating Rigid Rotor Test Parameters Maximum Turbine Inlet Temperature, 1,200°F Over 5 Hours of Operating Time

Oil-Free Turbocharger Demonstration Model

Contractor & Subcontractor Involvement

• Diesel Engine Mfg. - Caterpillar, Inc.
• Turbocharger Mfg. - Borg-Warner Automotive (formerly Schwitzer)
• Foil Bearing Mfg. - Mohawk Innovative Technology, Inc.

An Oil-Free Turbocharger solves all of these problems and offers potential for performance and emissions improvements

Improved overall efficiencies compared to oil lubricated bearings (e.g., 60%)

Reports

• Rotordynamics and Design Methods of an Oil-Free Turbocharger, NASA CR-1999-208689, January 1999
• Oil-Free Turbocharger Demonstration Paves Way to Gas Turbine Engine Applications, Heshmat, et al, ASME 2000-GT-620, May 2000

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