Creating reliable turbocharger compressors for the small car
Bangladeshi doctoral student Md Shams E Tabriz receiving his award for work of outstanding achievement from Zokey Ahad, the Assistant High Commissioner for Bangladesh
Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:39:00 BST
Doctoral student seeks the more resilient, longer-lasting turbocharger compressors for the average family and small car
A UNIVERSITY of Huddersfield researcher has embarked on research that will contribute to the development of more resilient, longer-lasting turbocharger compressors for the average family and small car.
Bangladeshi doctoral student Md Shams E Tabriz will develop his project through the University’s recently-launched Turbocharger Research Institute using their latest state-of-the-art test equipment.
The results of the work will be of major importance to the automotive industry where the choice of the material for manufacturing turbocharger compressors is a vital issue.
“At present, the turbocharger compressors in top of the range ‘super’ cars are mainly produced using titanium,” says Tabriz, “which is stronger than steel and corrosion resistant, yet very expensive. In contrast, the compressors in your average, reasonably-priced cars are made of aluminium alloy, which is considerably less expensive, but lacks the durability of titanium.”
Although it is over 100 years since turbochargers were developed and they have been used by the automotive industry for over 70 years, there has been little or no standard test methodology for testing the effect of low cycle fatigue of the compressors.
Low cycle fatigue is the term given by material scientists for the measurement of progressive and localised structural damage of a material that is subjected to cyclic repetitions.
Research and investigations to date have solicited different results in a lab or virtual environment for finite element analysis (FEA) tests than have been found in field results. Tabriz hopes that his new standard test methodology will bridge that gap and satisfy both field tests and FEA results.
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Pictured right: Tabriz with Professor John Allport who leads the Turbocharger Research Institute
Tabriz has been one of the most successful students to come to the University of Huddersfield from Bangladesh.
Originally, undertaking a foundation degree at the University of Huddersfield’s International Study Centre, where he scored the highest marks, he went on to study for his BEng in Mechanical Engineering at Huddersfield and was also the inaugural President of the Bangladeshi Students Society.
Tabriz completed his degree in 2013, scoring very high marks for many of his assignments and spending a paid placement year with the UK arm of General Motors, which he earned after a lengthy and competitive assessment process.
Tabriz completed his degree in June scoring one of the highest marks of this year’s graduates of 85%, which earned him one of the University’s Chancellor’s Prizes for outstanding performance. During his degree he spent a paid-placement year with the UK arm of General Motors, which he earned after a lengthy and competitive assessment process.
