Thermodynamics Final Project

Problem:
A racing team is attempting to increase the power of their vehicle and have come up with several options.
The first thing they are considering is adding a turbocharger to their existing four-cylinder engine and
have approached us to see the benefits. Another option the racing team is considering is to have one of
our competitors swap their existing engine with a six-cylinder engine, one that produces similar power per
cylinder but is heavier. The last thing the racing team is considering is adding in a supercharger from one
of our competitors to their four-cylinder engine. We want to secure this contract with the racing team and
must show them the benefits of our turbocharger is far greater than what our competitors offer.

Objective:
Demonstrate that our turbocharger will increase the power output of the piston-cylinder engine in a more
efficient and cost effective way than our competitors.

Background:
Turbocharging is a form of technology used to increase the performance output of an engine while
consuming less fuel. This was first achieved by a swiss engineer Alfred Büchi in the early 1900s who was
able to increase the performance of an engine by 40%. This technology was first used to make airplanes
more efficient because before the use of turbos the higher an airplane goes the less power the engine
produces because the air is less dense in higher altitude therefore you can’t burn as much fuel. The use
of turbos was able to regulate this as it allowed for more air to be brought into the system even in high
altitude, which allowed planes to maintain same power output as lower altitude. This was a process called
turbo normalizing which allowed to maintain equivalent intake. The process of turbocharging is to exceed
the normal intake of air. This was used in automotives to increase power output and can also be used to
save more fuel.
The way a turbocharger of a mechanical system works is as followed:
● A turbo has 3 main parts: The Turbine Section - the hotside, outlet; The Compressor section - the
cold side, inlet; The Center Housing - connecting the compressor wheel and the turbine wheel
together.
1. After the explosion in the engine block, exhaust leaves the engine and is guided towards The
Turbine Section of the turbocharger.
2. The exhaust gas spins the turbine wheel inside The Turbine section and then gets expelled from
the car through the regular exhaust piping system.
3. The turbine in The Turbine Section is connected to the turbine in The Compressor Section
through The Center Housing. The turbine in the Compressor Section will now suck in air then
send it to the intercooler
4. The intercooler cools the air by trapping the heat in its fin, this makes the air more compact, then
it sends it to the engine for the combustion process.
5. The compressed, cooled air is in the engine block gets mixed with fuel and ready to be burned.
The process is then repeated.
Analysis:
1) An important thing to recognize with the system as a whole is how energy is being transferred. In a
regular piston cylinder once the combustion process is complete the exhaust gas leaves the system into
the atmosphere and essentially transfers all the energy out of the system. However with a turbocharger
before the exhaust gas leaves the system we can convert some of its energy into Kinetic energy as it
spins the turbine. This causes some of the energy to transfer back into the system as opposed to being
completely transferred out. Since more energy is conserved that means that our system requires less
work to achieve the same output as normal piston cylinder.

2) Following the Work equation, we have:

Comparing the turbo powered & the non turbo powered engine, they both have the same p_1 and v_1
which is the pressure of the air going inside the engine and the volume of the engine block. But for p_2 of
the turbo powered engine, it is greater than the p_2 of the non turbo powered engine due to the fact that
turbo actually compresses the air being taken into the system. Because of this reason, we have came up
with the proof:

This shows that the work by the air from the system with a turbo is greater than the work by the air from
the system without turbo. Therefore, we have proven that, turbo makes a big impact on improving power
output for engines by just forcing in more air to burn fuel faster.

4) The second set of calculations that we can show is how the intercooler increases the pressure of air
going in the engine block (cylinder). The air in this case will be ideal gas, therefore, we have the equation:

We applied the ideal gas law to the intercooler and when the air passes through it, the Temperature of the
air decreases, If the temperature decreases then the volume of the air decreases as well. This further
proven by our research as the molecules of colder air is much closer together than warmer air therefore
the volume of the air decreases. Since the air has less volume you can fill the piston cylinder with more of
it therefore the mass will increase and if mass increases then pressure will also have to increase to
maintain ideal gas law in the piston cylinder.

The air that goes into a regular engine has about the same pressure as the atmosphere which is 101.35
kPa. The air that goes into a turbocharged engine will typically see an increase from the atmosphere
pressure by about 55.2 kPa. Based on this information you can theoretically see a 1.54% increase in
power per piston cylinder.

If we were to state that on a regular piston cylinder the power output is 1 then the turbocharged piston
cylinder will have an output of 1.54. So a 6 cylinder regular engine will produce an output of 6 whereas a
4 cylinder turbocharged engine will have an output of abou 6.18. The 4 cylinder turbocharged engine
produces about 3% more power than the regular 6 cylinder.

This may not seem like much of an increase but in car racing that can be enough to decide who will win.
However that is if you take the power output at face value. There are other factors we need to consider. A
6 cylinder engine will cost more money to purchase and install, which is money that can be used to
buying additional performance parts that will make a difference for the car. Additionally, the 6 cylinder will
be a lot heavier then adding a turbocharger this will result in an increased difference in speed between a
4 cylinder turbocharged car and a regular 6 cylinder car.

Conclusions:
From the calculations and our research info that we have shown above, we have decided that turbo would
be the cheapest though, works the best for this scenario. The turbocharger system does not only
improves the performance of the engine but also allows it to save more fuel by using the exhaust gas.
This does not only help the racing team to save money but also has a positive impact to the environment.
Knowing how an engine works and being able to relate that to thermodynamics, we were able to provide
a better solution to save time and money. As for the bigger picture, in reality, turbos help big companies in
saving their money from building bigger engine, not only that, the amount of resources as well as
materials is always decreased.