You Can’t Fathom the G-Forces Inside a Turbo
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One. Million. G’s. You simply cannot fathom the g-forces that a turbocharger wheel experiences. Turbo maker BorgWarner tells me their smallest turbo can spin up to 324,000 RPM, with a compressor wheel diameter of 30mm. Some quick math tells us the outer edge of the compressor wheel is traveling at speed of over 500 m/s, or 1100 miles per hour. So, what about g-forces? Well, if you’re a little particle on the outer edge of this compressor wheel, traveling at 500 m/s at a distance of 15 mm from the center of the turbo, we know a = V^2/r, divide that by gravity, and you get 1.7 MILLION G’s!! To give you an idea of how absurd this is, untrained humans will commonly pass out entirely when subjected to just 5 g’s for a sustained duration. That’s why turbine and compressor wheels use high-strength alloys and are balanced to ridiculous tolerances—because once spinning, the internal tensile stresses are so high they’d rip most things apart. Subscribe to Engineering Explained for more videos!
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