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Instances have occurred where the outer surface of turbocharger fully floating journal bearing bushings have exhibited damage from oil debris resulting in constant tone noise and subsequent warranty claims. This paper studies the effect of oil debris in Turbocharger journal bearings on Subsynchronous NVH. A CFD model is built to study the behavior of oil debris particles with different sizes. It is found that the dominant centrifugal forces prevent larger particles from reaching the inner film while smaller particles travel more easily to the inner film. It is also found that the turbine side is more likely to become damaged from debris than the compressor side bearing due to higher temperatures. A tribology analysis shows that oil debris particles in the outer film will reduce the speed ratio, while oil debris particles in inner film will increase the speed ratio. The tribology analysis also predicts the effects of oil debris on bearing stiffness and damping.

A comprehensive analysis has been performed for floating bearings applied in a turbocharger. It is found that Couette power loss for a full-floating bearing (the floating ring rotates) decreases with increasing inner and outer clearances, while its Poiseuille power loss increases with increasing inner and outer film clearances. In comparison with a semi-floating bearing (the floating ring does not rotate), a full-floating bearing can reduce both Couette and Poiseuille power losses. However, floating bearing is found to have a smaller minimum film thickness for a given dynamic loading from rotor-dynamics. The total power loss reduction for typical full-floating bearings ranges from 13% to 27%, which matches well with some published experimental data. In general, the speed ratio increases with increasing outer film clearance, while it decreases with increasing inner film clearance because of shear stresses on the outer and inner film.