Aerothermodynamic Considerations Involved in Turbocharging Four and Two-Cycle Diesel Engines

Abstract The turbocharged engine is, in effect, a compound engine in which the engine itself handles the high-pressure end of both compression and expansion, while the exhaust-turbine-driven compressor takes care of the low-pressure end. The turbocharger pressure ratio determines the division of work between high-pressure and low-pressure components, and the value of this pressure ratio governs, to a large extent, the values of all engine performance variables. In this paper the interrelationships between all of these variables are discussed, and curves are presented giving, numerically, the interdependence, one on the other, of turbocharger pressure ratio, thermal loading, specific fuel consumption, and turbocharger combined efficiency, with and without intercooling. The aerothermodynamic situation of the two-cycle engine is treated separately, with emphasis on the all-important flow-handling ability of the engine. This ability is defined by the concept of the “gas change process merit ratio,” and, by means of a series of curves, the specific engine air flow is given for different merit ratios and different turbocharger combined efficiencies for a range of turbocharger pressure ratios. Finally, for both two-cycle and four-cycle engines, the importance of good matching between engine air consumption characteristics and turbocharger air delivery characteristics is discussed, and as a criterion for this matching the engine operating line, as it appears superimposed on the compressor characteristic curves, is used.