Strategy for vibration reduction of a centrifugal turbo blower in a fuel cell electric vehicle based on vibrational power flow analysis

Abstract

A centrifugal turbo blower is one of the important parts used for generating electric power in a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV). The impeller blades of the centrifugal turbo blower must rotate at a high speed to generate electric power. The unbalance and asymmetry of the rotating parts, such as impeller blades, become causes of the heavy vibration of the centrifugal turbo blower. This vibration is transmitted to the chassis frame of the FCEV through vibration isolators and becomes one of the major sources of interior noise in the FCEV. Therefore, the vibration generated from a centrifugal turbo blower should be attenuated properly to reduce the interior noise. To achieve this effectively, quantification of the vibration energy flow through the isolators is necessary, since it gives information on the quantification of the vibrational energy flow from the centrifugal turbo blower to the chassis frame. Information on the vibrational power flow at each vibration isolator identifies the vibration transmission path. In this paper, a simple equation is derived to calculate the vibration power flow through each vibration isolator. With this equation, the vibrational power flow through each isolator is numerically simulated. In this simulation, the vibration generated from the centrifugal turbo blower is predicted using the multi-body dynamic analysis of a three-dimensional model of the centrifugal turbo blower based on computer-aided engineering. These simulated results are confirmed by measurement of the vibration power flow generated from the centrifugal turbo blower in a laboratory.