Turbo charged5/20/2023 ![]() If you compress a gas, you make it hotter (that's why aīicycle pump warms up when you start inflating your tires). It's mounted inside the car's air intake so, as it spins, it drawsĪir into the car and forces it into the cylinders. Since it's sitting on the same shaft as the turbine, it spins too. The second fan is called the compressor and, (technically called the center hub rotating assembly or CHRA) The fan blades, they rotate and the shaft they're connected to One of these fans, called the turbine, sits in theĮxhaust stream from the cylinders. Or gas pumps) sitting on the same metal shaft so that both spin around How does turbocharging work in practice? A turbocharger is effectively two little air fans (also called impellers Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center (NASA-GRC). Photo: The essence of a turbocharger: two gas fans (a turbine and a compressor) mounted on a single shaft. That's usually a disadvantage: where a turbocharger is powered by waste energy in the exhaust, a supercharger actually steals energy from the car's own power source (the crankshaft), which is generally unhelpful. A supercharger (or "mechanically driven supercharger" to give it its full name) is very similar to a turbocharger, but instead of being driven by exhaust gases using a turbine, it's powered from the car's spinning crankshaft. Is another way of saying "more energy per second"). That's why a turbocharged car can produce more power (which (and oxygen) into the cylinders, allowing them to burn more fuel each This spins an air compressor that pushes extra air It uses the exhaust gas toĭrive a turbine. ![]() This is the bit that pushes the air into the engine to The hot air leaves, it roars past a turbine (a bit like a veryĬompact metal windmill) that drives the compressor (air pump) at the front Where it burns with fuel, and then blasts hot air out of the back. Jet engine sucks in cold air at the front, squeezes it into a chamber If you know how a jet engine works, you're halfway to understanding a car's turbocharger. A turbocharger is a simple, relatively cheap, extraīit of kit that can get more power from the same engine! Turbocharger, which forces more air into the cylinders each second so Typically have eight and twelve cylinders instead of the four or sixĬylinders in a conventional family car. One way to make a car go faster is to add more cylinders. More cylinders you have and the bigger they are, the more fuel theĬar can burn each second and (theoretically at least) the faster it The amount of powerĪ car can produce is directly related to how fast it burns fuel. When the piston pushes back in, it pumps the waste airĪnd fuel mixture out of the cylinder as exhaust. That drives a piston out, turning the shafts and gears that spin theĬar's wheels. Air entersĮach cylinder, mixes with fuel, and burns to make a small explosion Delcore courtesy of US Navy.Ĭar engines make power by burning fuel in sturdy metal cans called cylinders. The one you see here is a Garrett GT2871R, just about to be fitted to the engine of a Pontiac G8. ![]() Photo: A typical automobile turbocharger uses a pair of snail-shaped fans, like this. Wouldn't it be neat if the engineĬould harness that waste power somehow to make the car go faster? The exhaust isĪ mixture of hot gases pumping out at speed and all the energy itĬontains-the heat and the motion (kinetic energy)-is disappearing uselessly into the atmosphere. It's obvious exhaust fumes cause air pollution, but it's much lessĪpparent that they're wasting energy at the same time. Have you ever watched cars buzzing past you with sooty fumes streaming from their tailpipe? Advantages and disadvantages of turbochargers.
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