Topic: Turbos and Superchargers, how do they work?

[Sly Bob]

Found a cool site that explains the difference between a turbo and supercharger, has some great animations that can be rotated in 3D and explains the premise behind each type.
Even if you know how each works you should check this site out as it's really well done.

https://www.tyroola.com.au/supercharger-vs-turbo/

[TomatoSoup]

Cool!

(Apart from, the perhaps anal fact that, a "supercharger" is any device that increases air induction into an engine.  So a turbo is also really a supercharger )

[Sol Asylum]

There is some aviation history tied into this as well.  Piston engine aircraft suffer power loss due to the decrease in atmospheric pressure as you gain altitude.  One of the ways to counteract this was to add a blower what we now call a super charger, turbos hadn't been invented yet. 

The super chargers of the day being basically an engine driven air pump only added a few psi of pressure and would basically bring the manifold pressure at altitude up to try and equal sea level pressures.  Keep in mind as you gain altitude this becomes harder to do and would be rated at a specific altitude.  They called this process normalizing.  As the compressors improved and were able to boost to greater than sea level pressures it was termed boosted or super charged.  As turbos came along they were classified by how much they could increase the manifold pressure if they only went to sea level numbers it was a turbo normalizer and if it was higher than sea level they were turbo superchargers. 

Now a days we are so used to them being able to boost above 29.92 inHg, and we don't generally take our cars to 30k feet which would make it harder to achieve that number, that we just call them turbo chargers.

[Sly Bob]

Interesting stuff Sol Asylum, didn't realize that.

[ChopTop]

Thanks for posting, even I can understanding it.  SB, I'm going to post this on the BB and credit you for finding and posting it.

[elff]

That is an awesome site. Thanks for Sharing.

[Robotech]

There is some aviation history tied into this as well.  Piston engine aircraft suffer power loss due to the decrease in atmospheric pressure as you gain altitude.  One of the ways to counteract this was to add a blower what we now call a super charger, turbos hadn't been invented yet. 

The super chargers of the day being basically an engine driven air pump only added a few psi of pressure and would basically bring the manifold pressure at altitude up to try and equal sea level pressures.  Keep in mind as you gain altitude this becomes harder to do and would be rated at a specific altitude.  They called this process normalizing.  As the compressors improved and were able to boost to greater than sea level pressures it was termed boosted or super charged.  As turbos came along they were classified by how much they could increase the manifold pressure if they only went to sea level numbers it was a turbo normalizer and if it was higher than sea level they were turbo superchargers. 

Now a days we are so used to them being able to boost above 29.92 inHg, and we don't generally take our cars to 30k feet which would make it harder to achieve that number, that we just call them turbo chargers.

Sol, do you know the approximate timeline to this? I only ask because I know by the 1930s Turbo-superchargers (as I have read them referred) were being introduced in aircraft production. (Specifically, Boeing's YB-17 program.)

[Powermizer]

Thanks for posting this Sly Bob. I think that site is great for someone who has no knowledge of turbos or blowers. I think there is some important things that could have been hit on a little better. I can say I will have my Boy's look at it, because my drawings suck. Lol

[Sol Asylum]

I don't recall if the books I have had dates included.  Its been over 20 years since I read them in A&P school.

[Robotech]

I don't recall if the books I have had dates included.  Its been over 20 years since I read them in A&P school.

LOL No worries. I'm a B-17 nut and that's the only reason I know that little fact. LOL