We know that air is necessary for combustion. Combustion is taking place during the working of an automobile engine. Natural Aspiration, Turbo charging and supercharging are various methods of air intake in automobiles that helps for the combustion of fuel in automobiles.
Natural Aspiration
Advantage
- Easy to maintain
- Very reliable
- Instant throttle response
Disadvantage
- The engine won’t be able to perform well in high altitude regions because the atmospheric pressure reduces and engine can’t breathe properly.
Ferrari 812 Superfast, Lamborghini Aventador, Audi R8 are some of the performance cars with naturally aspirated engine.
Turbocharger
It is a forced induction method of air intake in automobiles. Compressed air is given inside the engine for better performance. Engine performs better because the amount of air inside the engine cylinder increases. Air is compressed with the help of a compressor.
Working – Turbocharger have two sections .A turbine section and a compressor section .The turbine and compressor are connected in same shaft, so that compressor can rotate along with turbine. Turbo charger uses exhaust gas to run the turbine. The exhaust gas coming out from the engine passes out through exhaust manifold and guided to the turbine by turbine housing. This exhaust gas impinges on the turbine and rotates it .Then the exhaust gas passes out through exhaust outlet.
Now the compressor will be rotating along with turbine. This compressor compresses the atmospheric air and pushes into the engine .allowing engine to burn more fuel and produce more power.
Nowadays turbochargers are common is automobiles. There are various types of turbochargers.
- Single Turbo
- Twin Turbo
- Twin scroll Turbo
- Variable Geometric Turbo
- Variable Twin Scroll Turbo
Advantage
- Helps small engine to produce more power.
- Increases fuel efficiency
- Helps to down size the engine.
Disadvantage
- The main disadvantage of turbocharger is turbo lag.
- Excessive heat
- Less reliability.
Supercharger
Like turbo charger, supercharger is also used to compress the intake air in automobile. But unlike turbocharger, supercharger uses engine power to run the compressor. The compressor of the supercharger draws the power directly from the crankshaft of the engine. The power is transmitted by a belt, chain or gear. Superchargers can spin at high speeds like 50K to 65K rpm.
Types of superchargers are :
- Roots supercharger
- Twin screw supercharger
- Centrifugal supercharger
Jaguar F type, Jaguar F phase, Shelby GT 500, Dodge Challenger Hellcat are some of the cars with supercharger.
Advantages:
- High power output
- Complete mixing of fuel and air
- Better atomization of fuel
Disadvantages:
- Its less efficient (because it uses engine power for its working)
- Lacks reliability
- High thermal stress
- Increased cooling requirements
If you have any doubt feel free to refer to my tutorial from Pistonized YouTube channel
