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Garrett by Honeywell came out with a White Paper related to burst and containment testing and they ran the numbers on the energy a turbine housing must absorb when a GT55 turbine wheel splits apart. It turns out the energy in the bursting of a GT55 turbine wheel is about 55,000J, or double the flywheel energy. That's enough energy to move a Prius the length of a football field!
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| A sectioned view of a GT55 turbine housing. Garrett by Honeywell uses a thick cast section on the perimeter of the turbine housing called the Containment Band. It's thick and beefy to make sure that if a turbine wheel splits into pieces, nothing makes it through the containment band. All of Garrett's compressor and turbine housings are tested to insure they contain all fragments should the wheels decided to explode in an over speed condition. |
This is a video showing an old turbo burst test by Garrett by Honeywell. As you can see, there is a lot of energy in there!
Race cars are sometimes pushed beyond their design limits and parts can break. When they do, there is a lot of energy contained in the spinning parts that is all released at once. Without safety measures, these exploding parts can cause a whole lot of damage and even death. And with that, we leave you with a parting video.
Due to popular request, exploding flywheel and clutch video:
