The axial thrust acting on the turbocharger rotor is basically generated by the unbalance between turbine wheel gas forces and compressor wheel air forces. It has a significant influence on the friction losses, which reduces the overall efficiency and performance of high-speed turbocharger. Therefore, it’s important to calculate the thrust forces under operating conditions (surge, choke and etc.) in a turbocharger. The purpose of this paper is the development of numerical simulation methods which were verified by experimental results of axial thrust and thermally induced constraint tests of the turbocharger. The first FE model showed the relationship between thrust forces and strains by calculating the strains on specially designed thrust bearing and were compared with test results. And the second one is to identify the thermally induced strains in order to remove the thermal effects from measured strains. With these models, it’s possible to inversely predict the magnitudes of the axial thrust by directly measured strains and temperatures under operating turbocharger.