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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2007-01-4235

Applying Ball Bearings to the Series

Turbochargers for the Caterpillar®
Heavy-Duty On-Highway Truck Engines
Robert C. Griffith and Seth E. Slaughter
Caterpillar Inc.

Peter E. Mavrosakis
Honeywell Turbo Technologies

Commercial Vehicle Engineering

Congress and Exhibition
Rosemont, Illinois
October 30-November 1, 2007

400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-0790 Web: www.sae.org
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2007-01-4235

Applying Ball Bearings to the Series Turbochargers for the

Caterpillar® Heavy-Duty On-Highway Truck Engines
Robert C. Griffith and Seth E. Slaughter
Caterpillar Inc.

Peter E. Mavrosakis
Honeywell Turbo Technologies

Copyright © 2007 SAE International

ABSTRACT through the turbocharger, and has proven more robust

to contaminated and/or marginal lubricant conditions.
Fuel is a significant portion of the operating cost for an
on-highway diesel engine and fuel economy is important INTRODUCTION
to the economics of shipping most goods in North
America. Cat“ ACERT• engine technology is no Caterpillar’s relationship with Honeywell Turbo
exception. Ball bearings have been applied to the series Technologies began back in the 1950’s. Caterpillar
turbochargers for the Caterpillar heavy-duty, on-highway began experimenting with turbochargers in the early
diesel truck engines in order to reduce mechanical loss 1950’s to increase the power density of the diesel
for improved efficiency and lower fuel consumption. engines for their earthmoving equipment. Caterpillar
was not satisfied with the turbochargers available at the
Over many years of turbocharger development, much time, so they approached Cliff Garrett about developing
effort has been put into improving the aerodynamic a turbocharger. These discussions led to a commitment
efficiency of the compressor and turbine stages. Over by Garrett to develop an experimental turbocharger for
the same span of time, the mechanical bearing losses of Caterpillar. Following the development period,
a turbocharger have not experienced a significant Caterpillar ordered 5000 T15 turbochargers for their D9
reduction in power consumption. Most turbochargers tractor in August 1954. This represented the largest
continue to use conventional hydrodynamic radial and single purchase order in the world for a turbocharger at
thrust bearings to support the rotor. While these that time. In September 1954, Garrett made the
conventional bearings provide a low cost solution, they decision to break off a new group within the Aerospace
do create significant mechanical loss. The challenge Gas Turbine group. AiResearch Industrial Division was
was to develop a cost effective solution that would make created to design and manufacture turbochargers. This
a step change in mechanical efficiency without partnership continues with the application of the ball
sacrificing reliability or durability. bearing turbochargers to Caterpillar engines.

By replacing a sliding action with a rolling action, angular Ball bearings have been applied to the series
contact ball bearings were developed to accomplish that turbochargers of the heavy-duty, on-highway engines in
goal. Honeywell Turbo Technologies (HTT) has order to improve efficiency and reduce the fuel
successfully adapted their field proven Aerospace consumption. As the boost pressure of the diesel
product into the high volume automotive marketplace. engine increases, the effect of the overall turbocharging
Caterpillar and HTT have partnered to apply ball bearing system efficiency on engine fuel consumption also
technology for the first time in the North American on- increases. Fuel consumption is an important critical
highway truck market. customer requirement since it represents a very
significant portion of the operating cost for an on-
Reliability is also a critical customer requirement that highway truck. Therefore, the efficiency of the series
cannot be sacrificed when introducing a new product. A turbocharging system (see Fig. 1) utilized on these truck
truck that is down for repair is not generating revenue. engines needs to be continually improved in order to
Fortunately, the ball bearing system also offers the satisfy customer expectations. Honeywell Turbo
opportunity for improving the robustness of the Technologies (HTT) ball bearing technology has made a
turbocharger. The ball bearing system provides higher significant contribution toward meeting the aggressive
load capacity, improved rotordynamics, reduced oil flow
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fuel consumption targets set forth for the 2007 engine eliminates the need to have separate radial and axial
product. bearings, as has been the case with the conventional
journal bearing systems used in turbochargers for many
The advantages associated with low friction bearings are years. The ball bearing has a squeeze film damper
well known to a multitude of varied industries. High between the outer race and the center housing. The
speed applications with DN values well in excess of one squeeze film provides the damping necessary for rotor
million came on the scene with the development of high dynamic stability. Figure 2 shows a cross section of a
speed dental hand pieces in the 1950’s. Honeywell ball bearing turbocharger center housing and rotor
Aerospace applications, including cabin air pressure and assembly.
gas turbine engine turbo machinery, soon followed.
Much of this technical expertise has been pulled into the
turbocharger application; however, there is undoubtedly
uniqueness to the turbocharger application.

Figure 2: HTT Ball Bearing Cartridge

Fig. 1: Series Turbocharging System POWER LOSS AND MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY

The application of ABEC tolerance grade 7-9 bearing In order to optimize the bearing design with an eye
and materials technology to the high volume automotive toward minimizing the power consumed by the bearing
market has long since been cost/price prohibitive. system, a bench rig was developed. Using the
Added to this are unique application demands such as fundamental power balance equation for a turbocharger
rapid rotor accelerations, highly cyclic operating speed, of Pt = Pc + Pbrg, the Pbrg can be isolated and
constantly fluctuating axial loading and high operating accurately measured.
temperatures all combine to create a hostile operating
environment for the bearing. For the correct value The compressor power term is managed by full blade
proposition to be realized, the development and removal of the compressor, leaving only the hub portion
application of the technology to the Caterpillar 2007 on- of the wheel remaining. The result is that the
highway truck diesel engine required concurrent compressor power is reduced to solely windage losses.
engineering between Honeywell and Caterpillar. Leaving the hub portion of the wheel in tact allows the
rotor to maintain similar rotordynamic characteristics.
This paper will discuss many significant aspects of the With the compressor power reduced to windage losses
development and validation that has gone into applying and maintained as a constant throughout the test series,
ball bearings to the turbochargers for these engines. an accurate measurement of the power absorbed by the
This will include aspects of the turbocharger design, turbine reflects the power consumption of the bearing
mechanical efficiency, engine application, engine and shaft seal systems.
performance, turbocharger validation and system
validation. The enthalpy change across the turbine stage was used
to measure the power absorbed by the turbine. Figure 3
TURBOCHARGER DESIGN shows the schematic and figures 4 and 5 show the test
lab photos of the bench rig.
Honeywell Turbo Technologies built on lessons learned
developing ball bearings for their aerospace products to
design the ball bearing system for their turbocharger
applications. Honeywell’s ball bearing ‘cartridge’
technology brings together a pair of angular contact ball
bearings onto a common outer race. The cartridge
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The power loss from the enthalpy change across the

turbine stage can be expressed as:

Pt = 0.02358 * Cp * W * (T1t – T2t)

Figure 3: Power Loss Test Rig Schematic

Figure 6: Bearing Power Loss with Increasing Rotor

Speed

The power test rig was also used to optimize the oil
supply to the turbocharger. The oil supply to the ball
bearings needs to be high enough to provide adequate
lubrication, damping and cooling to deliver the required
life, but low enough that there is not too much power
consumption. Power consumption as a function of oil
flow to the bearing system was also evaluated and the
information used to establish engine oil supply
requirements for the turbocharger.
Figure 4: Power Test Rig, Compressor End
The reduction in power consumed by the bearing shows
up as an increase in the turbine efficiency for the
turbocharger. Since turbine efficiency is determined by
using the measured compressor work to represent the
actual turbine work, the mechanical loss of the bearing
and seal system is included in the turbine efficiency
calculation. The plot in Figure 7 shows a comparison of
the turbine efficiency for a turbocharger with
conventional journal bearings and with ball bearings.

Figure 5: Power Test Rig, Side

A heater is used to keep the air from icing in the turbine

discharge. The air and oil supply temperatures are
maintained at the same constant temperature. This
minimizes the heat transfer in and out of the system.
Thermal blankets further insulate the system. The
mixer, straightener, and a full thermocouple array enable
accurate temperature measurements of the gas. The
Figure 7: Turbine Efficiency Comparison
end result, when proper stability controls are achieved,
is a test rig capable of power measurement with an
accuracy and repeatability to the hundredth of a The comparison shows that the turbine efficiency is
horsepower. improved more at lower expansion ratios than at higher
expansion ratios. This is because the power consumed
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by the bearing system is a higher percentage of the total translates into an average fuel savings of between $850
shaft power delivered to the compressor at lower and $1125 per year. (This is based on 125,000 miles
expansion ratios. per year at 6 miles per gallon and $2.70 per gallon
average.)
ENGINE APPLICATION
Another advantage of ball bearings is the improvement
The Caterpillar heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines in transient response. The reduced mechanical loss
utilize two turbochargers in series to deliver the boost provides two benefits. The turbocharger idles at a
pressure required of these engines. The series higher speed; therefore, it doesn’t have as far to
turbocharging system makes an ideal application for ball accelerate when the load demand increases. Also, the
bearings. Each turbocharger in the system operates at turbocharger accelerates faster since less power is
a relatively low expansion ratio compared with the consumed overcoming the bearing losses. Past testing
typical single stage turbocharger used on commercial with ball bearing turbochargers has shown a 15% to
diesel engines. Since the pressure ratio and operating 25% reduction in the time to reach 85% of maximum
speed are lower, the mechanical loss represents a load at low engine speeds. Improved transient
greater percentage of the total shaft power of the response allows for lower particulate emissions during
turbocharger. For this reason, reducing the mechanical the rapid load and speed changes that occur in the on-
loss by replacing the current hydrodynamic bearing highway truck application.
system with a ball bearing system has a greater impact
on the turbocharger efficiency. VALIDATION

The fuel consumption of the engine with the series OIL SUPPLY OPTIMIZATION
turbocharging system is impacted more by the efficiency
of the turbocharging system. As boost pressure is The lubricating oil in the ball bearing turbocharger
increased the percentage improvement in fuel performs a variety of functions. The two major functions
consumption for the same increase in turbocharging of the oil are to provide, and continuously refresh, the
system efficiency also increases. volume needed for the squeeze film damper and the
effective conduction of heat out of the bearings.

The squeeze film damper acts in a hydrodynamic

fashion whereby it builds the pressure field in response
to the velocity of the bearing outer race relative to the
bearing housing. The hydrodynamics of the squeeze
film provides the damping required to control the rotor
orbit. An adequate supply of oil must be provided to the
squeeze film that meets its pumping requirements.

The heat transfer out of the ball bearing requires a

volume of oil flow commensurate with the heat inputs
and the heat generated internally from the mechanical
loss. The heat inputs are from both aerodynamic
stages. The compressor stage is heated via the
Figure 8: Effect of Turbocharger Efficiency on Engine compression of the air. The turbine stage is heated via
Fuel Consumption its intimate contact with the engine’s exhaust manifold
and gas flow. The heat generated internally from the
This is the reason that the ball bearing provides greater mechanical loss is significantly reduced with the ball
value for engines with series turbocharging. The bearing compared to the conventional journal bearings.
improvement in fuel consumption is actually
compounded with the series turbocharging system. The development of the ball bearing must include the
optimization of its oil flow rate requirements. A metering
ENGINE PERFORMANCE orifice at the oil inlet serves this purpose. It can be seen
in figure 9 that the oil flow rate of the ball bearing was
The reduction in mechanical losses was the major significantly reduced compared to the equivalently sized
contributor to improving the overall efficiency of the conventional journal bearing turbocharger. The
turbocharging system for the 2007 engine product. conventional journal bearings are a hydrodynamic
Other improvements were made to the turbochargers to bearing which requires higher flow rate to develop an
improve the aerodynamic efficiency, however, the ball adequate film thickness in the bearing compared to the
bearings accounted for the majority of the 4 to 6 points lubricant flow required for the rolling contact between the
improvement in the overall efficiency of the stages. This balls and races of the ball bearing. Aside from the direct
improvement provided a 1.5% to 2.0% reduction in the benefit of reducing the overall demand on the engines’
fuel consumption for the 2007 engine product. This oil pump; the lower oil flow rate of the ball bearing
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turbocharger decreases the risk of oil leakage across of the engine. This operating environment is quite
the shaft seals. different than the applications within the aerospace
market, which are greatly mitigated by relatively better
filtration and cleanliness standards throughout the
product life cycle. The bearings in the turbocharger
experience a harsher operating environment, which
often reduces the life of the bearing system.

Contaminated lube testing of ball bearings was

undertaken to determine their tolerance to contaminated
oil supply. Simultaneous testing was conducted with the
conventional journal bearing system. Both
turbochargers were tested with a common contaminated
oil supply. The testing was carried out such that test
results can be extrapolated to known field performance
and warranty exposure.

Efforts were made to analyze the physical properties of

Figure 9: Oil Flow Rate Comparison the oil from different engines at or beyond their
recommended oil change interval. Solid particles
The interruption/starvation of lubricating oil to the present in the engine oil are highly correlated with
turbocharger is a condition that the bearing system must abrasive wear of the turbocharger bearings. Soot, a
be designed to handle, albeit, on a very infrequent basis. byproduct of diesel combustion, is a common
Again, comparisons were made to the conventional contaminant present in the engine oil that has been
journal bearing product. In this test, the engine was shown to cause significant wear. Wear metals from the
operated at an idle, no load condition. The engine and metal or abrasive contaminates ingested
turbochargers oil supply was obtained from a remote oil during engine maintenance or repair can also contribute
stand. With the turbochargers oil supply turned off to bearing wear. Two methods were used to evaluate
completely, a time measurement to failure was recorded. these types of particles in the engine oil during
It can be seen in figure 10 that the time to failure was operation. Soot levels were documented using the
significantly increased when compared to the Thermal Gravimetric Analysis method and particle
equivalently sized conventional journal bearing counts of the oil were made using the Particle
turbocharger. Resuspension method.

This analysis of the physical properties of used engine

oil enabled the definition of a contamination “recipe”,
primarily in the form of silicon oxides, that replicated
known field component wear but at an accelerated rate.
The end results were test conditions that would produce
a full lifecycle of wear on the product at a dramatically
accelerated rate. Outputs from the testing that were
used as gages of resistance to contaminated lube
included:

x Rotordynamic degradation (orbit increase)

x Wear measurements on critical components

x Time to hard failure

Figure 10: Marginal Lubrication Comparison
The rotordynamic degradation between conventional
CONTAMINATED LUBRICANT EVALUATION journal bearings and ball bearings can be seen in the
Figures 11 and 12 at the start of contaminated lube
The turbocharger’s oil supply and the engine’s oil supply testing and up to 6 hours test duration. These Lissajous
are one and the same. The contamination of the diesel plots are generated by using two proximity probes
engine’s oil supply has and will continue to be a highly located 90 degrees apart and observing the radial
variable set of operating conditions. Contaminates in displacement of a precision ground target at the
the oil result from engine wear, combustion byproducts compressor wheel nose. It was concluded that the
and foreign materials introduced during engine conventional bearing system reached its maximum
maintenance or repair. The variation in oil condition is radial eccentricity at six hours test time. At this level of
the result of differences in duty cycle, oil change interval eccentricity, rotating wheel to stationary housing contact
and cleanliness practices during maintenance or repair is imminent and by typical progression of excessive
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wheel to housing contact in turbomachinery, hard failure million miles. Of these, 50 trucks had over 3000 hours,
is imminent. By comparison, the ball bearing system and one truck had over 8000 hours operation. The
maintained a relatively tight eccentricity. majority of these engines were eventually replaced with
line built production engines and sent back to Caterpillar
for extensive tear down analysis. The returned
3
0 hours jb
turbochargers were tested on gas stands and did not
2 hours jb exhibit any noticeable performance decreases. Upon
2 3 hours jb tear down the bearings were also found to be in very
4 hours jb
5 hours jb
good shape, exhibiting only the smallest signs of wear
1 on some of the highest hour units.

-3 -2 -1
0
0 1 2 3
Additionally Caterpillar and Honeywell have run several
of their own accelerated validation tests on engines in
-1
the lab. Caterpillar has completed over 8,500 hours of
operation on engine durability cycle testing with ball
-2
bearing turbochargers, or the equivalent of over 450,000
miles. In addition, Caterpillar has also completed over
-3
3,000 hours of their proprietary probe cycle testing,
where engines run well in excess of their maximum
power ratings and at extreme operating conditions.
Figure 11: Rotordynamic Degradation from Journal Honeywell has also completed 3,000 plus hours of their
Bearing Accelerated Testing with Contaminated Lube own proprietary on engine durability tests. Recognizing
the risk associated with changing a bearing system,
Honeywell came up with a new test that operates the
3 turbocharger at speeds dramatically above the normal
0 hours bb
2 hours bb
operating speeds specifically to test the new ball
2 3 hours bb bearings. To date Honeywell has completed 2,000
4 hours bb
5 hours bb
hours on this new test.
1

0
Through all of this testing there have been two
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
turbocharger failures that were directly attributed to the
-1 bearing. Both of these resulted from bearings that did
not conform to the dimensional requirements.
-2

-3
CONCLUSIONS

The development of the ball bearing turbocharger has

demonstrated its value in meeting the critical customer
Figure 12: Rotordynamic Degradation from Ball Bearing requirements for the diesel engine in the heavy-duty, on-
Accelerated Testing with Contaminated Lube highway truck engine market. The increased customer
value compared to the conventional journal bearings is
Wear measurements of various components as well as the result of:
test time to hard failure are not shown for brevity. In
total, the test work supports the conclusion that the x Improved fuel consumption resulting from
contaminated lube resistance (life) of the ball bearing increased turbocharging efficiency,
system can be increased by up to a factor of 6X as
compared to the conventional journal bearing system. x Reduced repair frequency and increased life
resulting from improved rotordynamics and
ENGINE SYSTEM TESTING resistance to marginal or contaminated
lubricant.
Caterpillar’s 2007 engine program has been using
turbochargers with ball bearings since March of 2005. In In addition to the value to the business brought by
the summer of 2005, engines with ball bearing enhancing customer value, the ball bearing also brings
turbochargers were released to truck manufacturers for value by:
their own validation. In addition, Caterpillar has its own
fleet of vehicles that operate in particularly grueling x Reducing warranty cost through improved
circumstances. Some have gone into the artic circle; reliability,
others climb Pike’s Peak and other mountains, while still
others spend the summer months in Death Valley. Prior x Reduced emissions by improving transient
to production, all of these trucks with ball bearing response.
turbochargers have amassed over 300,000 hours or 15
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DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS

DN: A definition of rotor speed that is independent of

the bearing size. It is defined as the product of the
bearing bore (mm) and the rotor speed (rpm).

AFBMA/ABEC Tolerances & Geometric Accuracy:

Figure 13: Added Value from Ball Bearing Design An acronym for Anti-Friction Bearing Manufacturers
Association/Annular Bearing Engineers Committee. The
The HTT ball bearing turbocharger provided an excellent accuracy of the bearing becoming higher as the integer
match for the series turbocharging system on the ABEC number becomes higher.
Caterpillar heavy-duty, on-highway truck engines and
delivered increased customer value. Lissajous Orbits: A 2D pattern of the dynamic radial
displacement of the centerline shaft axis of a rotor,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS whereby a determination of the rotor stability can be
interpreted.
The authors would like to thank Mr. Nathan Theiss who
has significantly contributed to the studies discussed in Pt: Turbine Power (hp)
this paper. Also, thanks to the many colleagues who
have promoted the technology to a production viable Pc: Compressor Power (hp)
bearing system suitable for the high volume automotive
and heavy-duty on-highway markets. Pbrg: Bearing System and Shaft Seal Power (hp)

CONTACT Cp: Specific Heat at Constant Pressure for Air (Btu/lb.-

°R)
Robert C. Griffith
Technical Steward Tt1: Turbine Inlet Temperature (°R)
Engine Air Systems COE
Caterpillar Inc. Tt2: Turbine Outlet Temperature (°R)
P.O. Box 600
Mossville, IL 61552-0600 W: Mass Air Flow (lb./min.)