Simulation of containment-tests of fast-spinning rotors by explicit FEM

The objective of Containment Tests is to demonstrate that the housing of a turbocharger is of sound design and capable to satisfactorily contain fractured rotating parts inside the casing. As of yet these tests were carried out on a test bed during the type approval procedure of the turbochargers. On one hand this is very expensive and time consuming and, on the other hand, the comprehension of high-speed deformation processes is restricted as well as the possibilities for measurements and improvements are limited. Due to these reasons containment tests were simulated using the explicit finite element technique, which is implemented in the code LS-DYNA. The results of the simulations which were carried out were used to improve the performance of the turbocharger in containment safety. Regions of high loading of the structure could be identified and improved. For validation purposes a test was carried out on the test bed. The results of this test have shown excellent correspondence to calculation results of the simulation with respect to global and local deformations and the mechanical behaviour of the charger components.