Specific turbocharger parameters are necessary to develop and match model based control strategies in the air path of a turbocharged engine. These parameters describe the turbocharger performance and are obtained from measurements on manufacturers’ standard test benches under steady state conditions and without taking into account the heat transfer between the components of the turbocharger or between the turbocharger and the surroundings. The latter falsifies the measured turbocharger efficiency which can be referred as “apparent efficiency”. The efficiency is a key parameter of the model based controls. Thus, the apparent efficiency increases the uncertainties (mismatching) and slows down the matching process considerably.

Due to the mismatching, manufacturers’ parameters themselves need to be calibrated. The calibration occurs on the basis of on-board measurements and offline analyses. However, this calibration procedure is not axiomatic and the results remain typical for a certain turbocharger and engine combination. Hence, it is usually not possible to apply the results when the same turbocharger should be matched with another engine.

A physically based scaling method has already been introduced in previous publications in order to obtain the “real” from the “apparent” efficiency, [1]. This work aims to show on the basis of a concrete example how the implementation of this method counteracts the mismatching without any further measurements. As a result, the matching process can be accelerated and enhanced. The reusability of the results leads to faster processes and lower costs.

• Publisher-DOI