Supercharging and Turbocharging of I.C.

E
The power output of an engine depends upon the amount of air inducted per unit time and the
thermal efficiency of the engine.

Three possible methods utilized to increase the air consumption of an engine are as
follows:

 Increasing the piston displacement: This increases the size and weight of the engine, and
introduces additional cooling problems.
 Running the engine at higher speeds: This results in increased mechanical friction losses
and imposes greater inertia stresses on engine parts.
 Increasing the density of the charge: This allows a greater mass of the charge to be
inducted into the same volume.

The method of increasing the air capacity of an engine is known as supercharging. The
device used to increase the air density is known as supercharger.
What is the supercharger?
Supercharger is a blower or a compressor that provides charge at high density to the
engine.
Supercharger job:
For ground installations, it is used to produce a gain in the power output of the engine.
For aircraft installations, in addition to produce a gain in the power output at sea level, it also
enables the engine to maintain a higher power output as altitude is increased.

Supercharging SI Engines:
Supercharging in SI engine is employed in aircraft and racing car engines. Apart from
increasing the volumetric efficiency of the engine, supercharging results in an increase in the
intake temperature of the engine.
This reduces the ignition delay and increases the flame speed. Both these effects result in a
greater tendency to knock. For this reason, the supercharged petrol engines employ lower
compression ratios.

Supercharging CI Engines:
In case of CI engines, supercharging does not result in any combustion problem, rather it
improves combustion.
Increase of pressure and temperature of the inducted air reduces ignition delay, and
hence the rate of pressure rise results in a better, quieter and smoother combustion.
Supercharging Methods
Mechanical Supercharger: In this case, blower is driven by the engine crankshaft. The blower
is usually a positive displacement type that runs at the engine speed. This allows quick
response to the throttle change.
 Types of mechanical supercharger

The roots blower: The two rotors are connected by gears. The working principles are as follows.
Air trapped in the recesses between the rotor lobes and the housing is carried toward the delivery
port without change in volume. As these recesses open to the delivery line, since the suction side
is closed, the trapped air is suddenly compressed by the backflow from the higher-pressure
delivery line. Roots blowers produce small pressure ratios (about 1.2).

The advantage of the roots blower is that its performance range is not limited by surge and
choking as is the centrifugal compressor. It also simple in construction and runs with the same
engine speed so it does not need complicated power transmission system.
Its disadvantages are its high noise level, low efficiency and large size.
Types of mechanical supercharger
Screw Compressor

Screw Compressor

Lysholm Screw Compressor

Types of mechanical supercharger

Screw compressors:
Advantages: High values of volumetric and isentropic efficiency are achieved.
Disadvantages:
 It must be precision machined to achieve close tolerances between rotating and stationary
elements for satisfactory operation.
 Lysholm screw compressor has a complex shape of the screw and so it is difficult in
manufacturing
 They run at speeds between 3000 and 30,000 rev/min so it needs a gear arrangement
achieving high speed.
 It is usually necessary to cool the rotors internally.
 Types of mechanical supercharger

A centrifugal compressor
Advantages: . It produces high mass flow rates at the relatively low pressure ratios (up to about
3.5) required by the engine.
Disadvantages: It is a single stage radial flow device. If two stages of compression is needed, the
unit must be doubled and fastened in series.
It must operate at high angular speed for achieving good efficiency and hence it needs a geer
arrangement to operate at this speed.
It is therefore much better suited to direct coupling with the exhaust-driven turbine of the
turbocharger than to mechanical coupling through a gearbox to the engine for mechanical
supercharging.
2- Turbocharger: The blower/compressor and the turbine are mounted on the same shaft.
The compressor is run by the turbine, and the turbine, in turn, is run by the exhaust gases.
Suprchnrging and turboeharging configuration (a) Mechanical supercharger, (b)
turbocharging, (c) engine driven compressor and turbocharger, (d) two-stage turbocharging,
(e)turbocharging with turbocompounding (f) turbocharger with intercooler
Turbocharger lag
 One of the main problems with turbochargers is that they do not provide an immediate power
boost when you step on the gas. It takes a second for the turbine to get up to speed before
boost is produced. This results in a feeling of lag when you step on the gas, and then the car
lunges ahead when the turbo gets moving.
 One way to decrease turbo lag is to reduce the inertia of the rotating parts, mainly by reducing
their weight. This allows the turbine and compressor to accelerate quickly, and start providing
boost earlier.

Use of After-coolers/Intercoolers
 In the process of raising the input air pressure, supercharger also raises the inlet air
temperature by compressive heating. This is undesirable in SI engines.
 If the temperature at the start of the compression stroke is higher, all temperatures in the rest
of the cycle will also be higher. This causes self-ignition of the gasoline and so this causes
engine knock.
 To avoid this, many superchargers are equipped with an aftercooler that cools the compressed
air to a lower temperature. The aftercooler can be either an air-to-air heat exchanger or an air-
to-liquid heat exchanger.
After-coolers/Intercoolers
 The temperature drop through an aftercooler is usually expressed in terms of effectiveness.
 The effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the measured temperature drop to the maximum
possible temperature drop that would bring the cooled fluid to the coolant temperature.
T1  T2

T1  Tw
where, T1 is the entrance stagnation temperature . T2 is the exit stagnation temperature
Tw is the coolant entrance temperature  is the cooler effectiveness

 Obviously, an effectiveness of unity would require an infinitely large cooler.

 An effectiveness of 0.6 to 0.8 usually keeps cooler size within reasonable limits.
 The use of cooler inevitable involves a pressure loss. A well designed cooler will involve a loss of 2-3 %
of the entering absolute pressure.
 Air-cooled aftercoolers are used in aircraft , while water-cooled aftercoolers are attractive
 for marine and stationary installations where there is an abundance of water.
 Effects of aftercooler effectiveness on
air density with different pressure
ratios
Use of After-coolers
 The aftercoolers are not needed on superchargers used in CI engines, because there is no
concerns about engine knock.
 Aftercoolers are costly and takes up space in the engine compartment. For these reasons,
superchargers on some automobiles do not have aftercoolers. These engines usually have
reduced compression ratios to avoid problems of self-ignition.
 Two-stage Supercharger

A single stage supercharger becomes large in size and weight for high altitude planes. Two stage
superchargers are, therefore, used for high altitude aircraft. Two superchargers are used in series,
and the charge is compressed in two stages. Such an arrangement produces the necessary
compression without the excessive size or speed of the impeller that would be required for a
single stage supercharger of same capacity.
It also provides a convenient arrangement for the use of an intercooler between the stages to
assist in keeping the temperature of the charge from exceeding the detonation limits due to
compression. One typical arrangement of a two-stage supercharger is shown. At low altitudes,
only the main stage
(B) is used and the air enters through the main stage air inlet. At some altitude, where the main
stage no longer has sufficient capacity to provide the mass of air required, the auxiliary stage is
cut in, main stage air inlet is closed, and the air is inducted through the auxiliary air inlet.

The auxiliary supercharger then compresses the air, which passes through the intercooler
where its temperature is reduced, and then flows into main stage compressor where it is
compressed further.
The auxiliary stage sometimes may be two-speed, and the installation is known as a two-
stage, two-speed supercharger.
 Turbo-supercharger

A turbocharger or turbo-supercharger is often used for high altitude aircraft.

The two-stage system in which the auxiliary stage is driven by energy remaining in the
exhaust gas.
At low altitudes, the auxiliary stage is not used and the exhaust gases are passed to the
atmosphere through an open blast gate. When it becomes necessary to use the auxiliary
stage (A) at higher altitude, the blast gate is closed forcing the exhaust gases to pass
through a turbine wheel, which in turn drives the auxiliary stage. This stage is thus a
variable speed supercharger whose capacity is increased by increasing the flow of the
exhaust gases through the turbine by reducing the blast gate opening. When the blast
gate is fully closed, the maximum capacity of the supercharger can be obtained.
Supercharger and turbocharger analysis
 Performance curve of the compressor

 On a compressor map, the compressor pressure

ratio is on the y-axis and the compressor airflow is
on the x-axis
 The oval-shaped contours are lines of equal
compressor efficiency.
 Typical values range from 0.5 to 0.8.
 The other set of contours are lines of equal
compressor speed.
 The speeds of compressors are measured in tens of
thousands of revolutions per minute.
 The surge line on the last figure marks the region
where the constant-speed contours begin to slope
downward with increasing airflow. It can be shown
 that operation of a compressor to the left of the
surge line is very unstable and results in air surges
between the compressor and the intake manifold.
 Performance curve of the turbine

 This turbine map’s flow rate is on the y-axis,

 while the turbine speed is on the x-axis of
the two contour lines plotted, one is for
contours of constant turbine efficiency. The
other is for contours of constant pressure
ratio across the turbine.
 The turbine pressure ratio is defined as:
Pr = P3 / P4
 The flow rates through the compressor and
turbine are related through the fuel-air ratio
of the engine. On a mass basis, the exhaust
flow rate out of the engine must be equal to
the sum of the air and fuel flow rates into the
engine.
 The turbine flow rate is related to the air or
compressor flow rate as: mex /mair = 1 + F/A