SIMULATION OF SUPERCHARGED AND TURBOCHARGED SMALL SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE 27

SIMULATION OF SUPERCHARGED AND TURBOCHARGED

SMALL SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE
JIŘÍ NAVRÁTIL, MILOŠ POLÁŠEK, OLDŘICH VÍTEK,
JAN MACEK, PAVEL BAUMRUK
ČVUT v Praze / Výzkumné centrum spal. motorů a automobilů Josefa Božka, Technická 4, 166 07 Praha 6;
Tel. +420224352507, Fax. +420224352500, jiri.navratil@fs.cvut.cz

SHRNUTÍ
Zlepšení spotřeby paliva je možné dosáhnout použitím maloobjemového spalovacího motoru. Pro udržení jízd-
ních výkonů je potřeba zajistit patřičný nárůst výkonu přeplňováním.
Článek se zabývá porovnáním dvou možných variant přeplňování malého zážehového motoru. První varian-
tou je tzv. mechanické přeplňování. Dmychadlo objemového typu je spojeno s motorem mechanickou vazbou
s konstantním převodem. Porovnáním několika způsobů regulace s využitím škrtící klapky a obtoku je vybrán
vhodný způsob řízení mechanického přeplňování. Druhou variantou je spojení motoru s turbodmychadlem. Dané
turbodmychadlo není vybaveno proměnlivou geometrii. Regulace je prováděna odpouštěním výfukových plynů
a škrtící klapkou umístěnou za kompresorem.
ABSTRACT
Improvements in fuel consumption can be gained through engine downsizing. It is necessary, however, to provide
a corresponding increase in power to maintain or improve vehicle performance. This increase can be achieved by
supercharging or turbocharging.
This paper deals with comparing two possibilities – supercharging and turbocharging of a small SI–engine.
Supercharging is performed through a mechanical connection between an engine and a supercharger of the Ro-
ots type with a constant gear-ratio transmission. A suitable control system was chosen from several concepts of
throttling and by-passing intake air. Turbocharging uses a small turbocharger without variable geometry. Boost
pressure control is performed by waste-gating exhaust gasses and a throttle valve placed downstream the com-
pressor.
KEYWORDS
Supercharger, turbocharger, waste-gate, by-pass, Roots blower, downsized gasoline engine, knocking, simulation,
optimization

1. INTRODUCTION must be investigated especially at low engine speed

Supercharging or turbocharging may provide engine
downsizing, which reduces relative value of losses
at low engine loads and vehicle weight, decreasing
thus road fuel consumption of a vehicle. By using
suitable motor-management it is also possible to
modulate the required full-load speed curve.
At the other side, the danger of knocking or even
mixture auto-ignition limits the optimum compres-
sion ratio set for the best efficiency. The optimum
combination of compression ratio and spark advance
where knocking takes often part. Driving power
demand of a supercharger or (to lesser extent) the
exhaust back pressure caused by a turbine may com-
pensate for the efficiency advantages from engine
downsizing in strong dependence on the system of
boost pressure control. The importance of it is the
bigger the lower is the engine speed at maximum
torque. Such multi-parametric optimisation cannot
be provided by experiments only because it would
be too time-demanding and too expensive. The
more suitable way is to combine a virtual-engine

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28 JIŘÍ NAVRÁTIL, MILOŠ POLÁŠEK, OLDŘICH VÍTEK, JAN MACEK, PAVEL BAUMRUK
simulation with some basic experiments used for
initial calibration of engine model and finally for
the confirmation of optimum results checking the
vicinity of simulation-predicted optimum matching.
The simulation provides moreover a useful tool for
the comparison of different boost-pressure control
concepts under quasi-steady or rapid change opera-
tion parameters.
The aim of the current paper is to present a com-
parison of potentials at supercharging or turbocharg-
ing of an automotive spark-ignition (SI) engine, us-
able in sub-compact cars.
All models presented here were created in GT-
Power (GTP) software code. GTP is one of the
commercial codes for engine simulation combining
a 1-D approach for manifolds, pipes and ports with
a 0-D one at engine cylinder. The data presented
here were obtained after calibration according to
experiments at a real natural aspirated engine. From
that reason, they have quantitative, not only qualita-
tive significance.
2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW
A 3 cylinder engine was simulated at natural as-
piration and then supercharged or turbocharged in
a virtual reality. The initial calibration consisted
in the use of mechanical efficiency, self-ignition
delay and burning rate duration found during ex-
periments and generalised according to the authors’
methodology (to be published later) to the new
mixture parameters.
Basic engine parameters are described
in the following:
· Swept volume 1.2 dm3
· Nominal power 40 kW / 4 750 rpm
· Maximum torque 105 Nm / 3000 rpm
· 4 valves for each cylinder head.
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Figure 1: Scheme of mechanical supercharging
Obrázek 1: Schéma mechanického přeplňování
Supercharger of the modified (helical gear)
Roots type:
· Eaton M24.
· Turbocharger with waste-gate boost control
· Garrett GT12.
3. PROBLEMS WITH
A SUPERCHARGED AND
TURBOCHARGED ENGINE
There are some important operation limits caused by
the change from a naturally aspirated engine (AE) to
a supercharged/turbocharged one (SE). The knoc-
king and its influence on the optimum compression
ratio has been already mentioned. The best way for
the use of octane offer of a specific fuel is to use
adaptive spark advance control. It was respected du-
ring simulation by maintaining the same safety mar-
gin to the knock limit or admitting the same (small)
knock intensity.
Maximum combustion pressure is boosted by
supercharging to values near to the stress limits of
a crankshaft, bearings or a piston strength. While
an AE has its pmax as a firing pressure well below 6
MPa, the pmax of a SE goes up to 8 MPa. Therefore,
it is necessary to find the best compromise between
compression ratio, spark advance, fuel/air ratio and
boost pressure to maintain a reasonable firing pres-
sure and to avoid knocking. Generally, at the opti-
mum compression ratio the spark advance has to be
significantly retarded compared to an AE.
Exhaust gas temperature upstream of a turbine
or a catalytic converter must be kept below ceratin
limit, as well. A rich mixture has to be used at and
close to the full-load curve to decrease exhaust tem-
peratures. The charge temperature should be as low
as possible using intercooling or internal fuel-va-
porisation cooling if possible to decrease the knock
probability.
4. MECHANICAL SUPERCHARGING
A supercharger represents an apparently cheaper
way to increase engine power. A by-pass is used to
control the supercharger, whereas the engine torque
is controlled by the standard throttle. A mechanical
transmission connects the supercharger to the en-
gine. It has a constant gear ratio (GR). The first task
SIMULATION OF SUPERCHARGED AND TURBOCHARGED SMALL SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE
Figure 2: Maximum combustion pressures
at full-load curve
Obrázek 2: Maximální spalovací tlak
na vnější charakteristice
was to find a suitable GR. A low engine speed (2000
rpm) has been used for its determination to obtain
high torque at low engine speed. A by-pass or an-
other control facility is closed at this low speed and
the maximum pressure demand in conjunction with
Figure 3: Full-load characteristics of supercharged
engine
Obrázek 3: Vnější charakteristika mechanicky přeplňo-
vaného motoru
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29
the reasonable spark advance at good fuel efficiency
indicated the best applicable GR. In optimisation
procedure the GR was gradually increased until the
optimum parameters were reached. The optimal GR
was set to 3.2 in this case, giving the supercharger
a speed of 6400 rpm at an engine speed of 2000
rpm. If the engine speed is higher than 2000 rpm, it
is necessary to use the by-pass or throttling to reduce
boost pressure. The scheme of the engine arrange-
ment is presented in Figure 1.
Setting gear ratio
By-pass is closed
Mt max = 157 Nm
Pe max = 67 kW
The maximum combustion pressure is shown in
Figure 2. Figure 3 shows the full-load characteristics
of the supercharged engine. The throttle is opened
all the time and the by-pass opens stepwise as engi-
ne speed increases.
The increase in engine performance is clearly
visible. The torque increase is about 50% and the
power increase almost 70% compared to an AE.
There is, however, one problem: the exhaust tem-
perature increases to over 1200 K with a stoichio-
metric mixture. This temperature could lead to clo-
se-coupled catalyst damage. One of possible ways
to decrease exhaust temperature is to employ a rich
mixture, in other words to cool in-cylinder mixture
by fuel vaporisation. Thus, the air-fuel ratio changes
from 13.8 at low engine speed to 11.9 for the highest
engine speeds. Extensive fuel enrichment leads to
high specific fuel consumption for all engine speeds
but the temperature decreases to 1200 K. The com-
puted operating points in the compressor efficiency
map are shown in Figure 4. Each point represents an
individual engine speed from the full-load characte-
ristic. The collocation of operating points is around
the maximum compressor efficiency and compres-
sor mass flow corresponds to engine mass flow. The
compressor matches the engine very well.
4.1 POSSIBILITIES OF
SUPERCHARGER CONTROL
The following section compares three possibilities
for boost pressure control using a combination of
throttle and by-pass. The first alternative uses the
throttling upstream the compressor (supercharger)
and the bypassing of compressed air from the com-
pressor outlet back to the compressor inlet. The
30 JIŘÍ NAVRÁTIL, MILOŠ POLÁŠEK, OLDŘICH VÍTEK, JAN MACEK, PAVEL BAUMRUK
scheme is demonstrated in Figure 1.
The next tested variant includes only a throttle.
The throttle is placed at the compressor inlet. For
this variant see Figure 5.
The third alternative shows throttling down-
stream the compressor – see Figure 6.
A constant low load performance is used for
a comparison of these three boost pressure control
options. The intake pressure (right before the inlet
valve) is held at a constant value (p=1 bar) by the
control mechanism. The low load regime is chosen
because there are greater differences between fuel
consumption in this mode than on the full-load
curve and the control system has to regulate much
more to hold the inlet pressure at the required value.
See Figure 7 for a comparison of these three models.
The operating points are drawn on the compressor
efficiency map and they correspond to the chosen
Figure 5: Throttling before supercharger
Obrázek 5: Škrcení před dmychadlem
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Figure 4: Compressor efficiency map
with engine
operating points
Obrázek 4: Mapa účinnosti kompresoru
s pracovními body
speed regimes. The first alternative
(throttling + by-pass) is the most
suitable one. The compressor outlet
pressure for this variant is around 1
bar. The other variants lie above the
first one. In the case of throttling af-
ter the supercharger it was necessary
to enlarge the compressor map to
accommodate the (unrealistic) high-
-pressure ratio associated with a very
poor compressor efficiency, which
was – in a rather optimistic way
– kept at the last measured value for pressure ratio of
3. The curves of specific fuel consumption show the
differences between the tested variants – Figure 8.
A large gap is evident, especially between throttling
downstream the supercharger and the other options.
The combination of throttling with bypassing
(Figure 1) is the optimal variant for managing co-
operation between engine and supercharger. The
choice was based on the comparison of specific fuel
consumption and operating point projection.
5. TURBOCHARGED GASOLINE
ENGINE
1. Maximum Turbo RPM
180 Nm / 74 kW
2. High Performance Engine
170 Nm / 74 kW
Figure 6: Throttling behind supercharger
Obrázek 6: Škrcení za dmychadlem
SIMULATION OF SUPERCHARGED AND TURBOCHARGED SMALL SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE 31

Figure 7: Compressor efficiency map

for choosing applicable type of super-
charger regulation
Obrázek 7: Mapa účinnosti kompre-
soru pro porovnání různých způsobů
regulace

metry. Boost control is ensured by

a waste-gate and a throttle that is
situated downstream the compres-
sor. There is also an intercooler
between the compressor and en-
gine. Figure 9 shows the resulting
scheme of a turbocharged engine.
The engine torque and boost pres-
sure is controlled using co-ordinati-
on between the throttle and the waste gate position.
The waste-gate modulates full-load characteristics
and the throttle continues in engine control just after
the boost pressure demand approaches to an atmos-
pheric one or even goes below it in the low-load en-
gine regimes where the waste-gate is fully opened.
There is also a problem with the high exhaust tem-
perature at the full-load. The enriched mixture
with the spark advance decrease are used to solve
this problem, as well in the case of supercharging.
Figure 8: Comparison of fuel consumptions for three typ- Figure 10 shows the possibility of adjusting the full-
es of supercharger regulation -load curve by using a different waste-gate diame-
Obrázek 8: Porovnání měrných spotřeb paliva pro různé ters at different maximum torque-speed points. The
typy regulace upper curve shows the absolute maximum values of
torque that can be achieved from this engine. The
3. Economic Engine turbocharger RPM is held at the maximum value
140 Nm / 55 kW (around 200 000 rpm). The mixture enrichment to-
gether with a very retarded spark advance leads to
4. Mechanical Supercharging
very high fuel consumption – Figure 11. The second
157 Nm / 67 kW
line displays the torque curve that could be used for
The GT12 turbocharger has been connected to a sports car engine. The fuel consumption is cut
the engine. The turbine does not have variable geo- down at the lower engine speed but at high engine
RPMs the maximum power is main-
tained. The economic engine (third
curve) is achieved by waste-gate
diameter enlargement. The power is
decreased in all engine regimes but
the fuel consumption enhancement
is clear. See Figure 11 for fuel con-

Figure 9: Model of turbocharged en-

gine
Obrázek 9: Model přeplňovaného mo-
toru

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32 JIŘÍ NAVRÁTIL, MILOŠ POLÁŠEK, OLDŘICH VÍTEK, JAN MACEK, PAVEL BAUMRUK

Figure 10: Setting different full-load characteristics using

wastegate diameter
Obrázek 10: Nastavení různých vnějších charakteristik
pomocí vypouštění výfukových plynů

tions. The next step is an investigation of transient

load response of the engine, which is being carried
on just now.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
This work has been supported by the Ministry
of Education of the Czech Republic, Project No.
sumption comparison. The last plotted line shows LN00B073 - Josef Božek Research Centre. This
the full-load curves for mechanical supercharging. help is gratefully appreciated.
Figure 12 presents more information on the REFERENCES
waste-gate diameter for the first variant (maximum
available performance) of the turbocharged engine. [1] Morel, T. et al. (2000): GT-Power User’s Manu-
This figure contains a chart of the opening diameter al, Gamma Technologies Inc. Westmont IL 2000
representing the waste-gate free cross-section. The [2] Vítek O., Navrátil J.: Combination of 0-D
waste-gate also opens at the lowest engine RPMs. Combustion Engine Simulation with 1-D Fluid
This means the loss-making control must switch on Dynamics – Tuned Manifold Systems and
too early. Optimally the waste-gate is closed at low Variable Valve Timing. In: CD-ROM Fisita 2002
engine speed and it opens at high speeds (at full-load Proceedings, Paper Code F02V263
curve). Therefore, from it follows that it would be
better to use a turbine with larger flow area, which
was not available in the time of these simulation
calculations. This will provide better efficiency and Figure 11: Engine fuel consumption for different types of
lower fuel consumption for all variants.hh full-load characteristics
Obrázek 11: Měrné spotřeby paliva pro různé rychlostní
6. CONCLUSION
charaktirstiky
This study was carried out to compare two types
of supercharging and to select their optimal means
of control. For mechanical supercharging the com-
bination of throttle (downstream a supercharger)
and a by-pass according to Figure 1 was selected.
Mechanical supercharging can effectively increase
engine performance but high fuel consumption is its
major disadvantage. On the other hand, turbocharg-
ing increases the power extensively with lower fuel
consumption. In this case, it could probably be bet-
ter to use a slightly larger flow-area turbine to avoid
loss-making waste-gate control.
The study proved the possibilities of simula-
tion for complicated tasks of motor- management
at supercharged/turbocharged engines. The unpub-
lished results of comparison with some experiments
are promising concerning the precision of predic-
Figure 12: Waste-gate diameter for full-load curve
Obrázek 12: Otevření obtokového ventilu na vnější cha-
rakterstice

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