A supercharger is an air compressor that increases the pressure or density of air supplied to an internal combustion engine. This gives each intake cycle of the engine more oxygen, letting it burn more fuel and do more work, thus increasing the power output.
Power for the supercharger can be provided mechanically by means of a belt, shaft, or chain connected to the engine’s crankshaft.
Common usage restricts the term supercharger to mechanically driven units; when power is instead provided by a turbine powered by exhaust gas, a supercharger is known as a turbocharger or just a turbo – or in the past a turbosupercharger.
Superchargers increase intake by compressing air above atmospheric pressure, without creating a vacuum. This forces more air into the engine, providing a “boost.” With the additional air in the boost, more fuel can be added to the charge, and the power of the engine is increased.
Fundamentally, superchargers work as air compressors. A belt or chain connects the engine’s crankshaft to the supercharger rotor, providing the power necessary for the compressor to run.
The Roots supercharger works through a pair of rotors that blow air at a high speed into the intake port. As the port then contains a greater quantity of air, it becomes compressed. In turn, this enables a higher quantity of fuel to be injected into the combustion chamber (and thus greater power to be generated).
There are four main categories of superchargers for automotive use:
A centrifugal supercharger is a specialized type of supercharger that makes use of centrifugal force in order to increase the manifold air pressure, MAP. An increased MAP allows the engine to burn more fuel, which results in increased power output.
Centrifugal superchargers are generally attached to the front of the engine via a belt-drive or gear-drive from the engine’s crankshaft.
The centrifugal supercharger is used in many applications including, but not limited to, automotive, truck, marine, aircraft, motorcycles, and UTVs.
There are two types of Centrifugal superchargers:
Root’s type contains two rotors of epicycloid shape. The rotors are of equal size inter-meshed & are mounted and keyed on 2 different shafts. Anyone shaft is powered by the engine via a V-belt or gear train(depending on the distance). Each rotor can have 2 or more 2 lobes depending upon the requirement. The air enters through the inlet & gets trapped on its way to the outlet. As a result, pressure at the outlet would be greater than the inlet.
A twin-screw supercharger operates by pulling air through a pair of meshing lobes that resemble a set of worm gears. Like the Roots supercharger, the air inside a twin-screw supercharger is trapped in pockets created by the rotor lobes.
But a twin-screw supercharger compresses the air inside the rotor housing. That’s because the rotors have a conical taper, which means the air pockets decrease in size as air moves from the fill side to the discharge side. As the air pockets shrink, the air is squeezed into a smaller space.
This makes twin-screw superchargers more efficient, but they cost more because the screw-type rotors require more precision in the manufacturing process. Some types of twin-screw superchargers sit above the engine like the Roots supercharger.
They also make a lot of noise. The compressed air exiting the discharge outlet creates a whine or whistle that must be subdued with noise suppression techniques.
A number of vanes are mounted on the drum of the supercharger. These vanes are pushed outwards via pre-compressed springs. This arrangement helps the vane to stay in contact with the inner surface of the body.
Now due to eccentric rotation, the space between two vanes is more at the inlet & less at the oulet. In this way, the quantity of air that enters the inlet decreases its volume on its way to oulet. A decrease in volume results in an increment of the pressure of air. Thus the mixture obtained at the outlet is at a higher pressure than at the inlet.
A supercharger is an air compressor that increases the pressure or density of air supplied to an internal combustion engine. This gives each intake cycle of the engine more oxygen, letting it burn more fuel and do more work, thus increasing the power output.
Superchargers increase intake by compressing air above atmospheric pressure, without creating a vacuum. This forces more air into the engine, providing a “boost.” With the additional air in the boost, more fuel can be added to the charge, and the power of the engine is increased.
There are four main categories of superchargers for automotive use:
A supercharger is an air compressor that increases the pressure or density of air supplied to an internal combustion engine. This gives each intake cycle of the engine more oxygen, letting it burn more fuel and do more work, thus increasing the power output.
While the turbo’s primary drawback is boost lag, the supercharger’s is efficiency. Because a supercharger uses the engine’s own power to spin itself, it siphons power—more and more of it as the engine revs climb. Supercharged engines tend to be less fuel-efficient for this reason.
Most Superchargers use per-kWh billing, meaning you will be billed for each kWh of electricity used to charge your battery. The pricing per-kWh is different at each Supercharging location, but it’s typically around $0.25 per kWh.
Expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to $7500 for an aftermarket supercharger kit. This will depend on the type of engine you have. You can use comparison websites to look at several prices. Some of these sites will include information from local auto parts stores as well.
Can you turbocharge or supercharge any car engine? Yes, you can, you can add an aftermarket supercharger system to a car but mind you! it can be insanely expensive and possibly not a wise investment if you are thinking to plonk a supercharger into an economy hatch or a c-segment sedan.
A turbocharger works with the exhaust system and can potentially give you gains of 70-150 horsepower. A supercharger is connected directly to the engine intake and could provide an extra 50-100 horsepower.
A twin charging system combines a supercharger and turbocharger in a complementary arrangement, with the intent of one component’s advantage compensating for the other component’s disadvantage. There are two common types of twin charger systems: series and parallel.
Superchargers provide a significant raw power advantage over turbochargers and are easy to install, but they’re expensive and increasingly less common than turbochargers.
A turbo is more efficient than a supercharger since your engine does not need to work harder to power the turbo. Because a turbo is not connected directly to the engine, it can spin much faster than a supercharger.
Superchargers increase intake by compressing air above atmospheric pressure without creating a vacuum. This forces more air into the engine, providing a boost. With the additional air, more fuel can be added to the charge, and the power of the engine is increased.
There are three main categories of superchargers for automotive use:
While the turbo’s primary drawback is boost lag, the supercharger’s is efficiency. Because a supercharger uses the engine’s own power to spin itself, it siphons power more and more of it as the engine revs climb. Supercharged engines tend to be less fuel-efficient for this reason.
By compressing air that’s then fed directly into an engine’s combustion chamber, a supercharger can turn an otherwise mundane vehicle into a speed demon. Muscle cars like the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger have supercharged models sitting at the very top of their prodigious performance lineups.
The average supercharger cost of $0.25 per KW also applies to Model 3. A full recharge to about 250 miles of range costs approximately $22.00. More typically, a half charge (150 miles of range) would cost about $11.00. Cost varies based on the region of the country and local electricity rates.
Disadvantages of supercharging
Here a centrifugal supercharger is a winner, operating with superior efficiency over a positive displacement supercharger particularly at higher boost levels. This means that for the same boost pressure the intake air will be cooler with a centrifugal supercharger and we can expect more power.
