Many people must have heard about a turbo charger whereas majority of us use it in talks to sound cool. We all are familiar to its feature which improves the engine performance. So everyone must be curious to know about what is it exactly and how it works? A word ‘turbo charger’ is the abbreviation of the ‘turbine driven supercharger’. In the easy terms, it is a simple pump which propels more air into the engine, as an alternative to the engine that sucks in air on its own.
It is to help the engine for getting more air for combustion and to enhance the competence of the engine. The turbo charger increases fuel consumption by enhancing combustion. Increased amount of power reduces the fuel efficiency. Therefore, the turbo charger is employed generally in sports and high performance cars. Also it is more in use with diesel engines where requirement to increase the power of the engine is high to produce improved power to weight ratios.
Power to weight ratio illustration with an example:
If we consider a car having weight 1000 kg which delivers 150 horse power, so 150 hp/ton is the power to weight ratio. By employing the turbo charger on a diesel engine, the ratio can be increased and therefore the vehicle will be enabled to carry heavier loads. In this way the turbo charger is being a key component in modern goods vehicles and other huge vehicles.
Thus, the turbo charger essentially is a complex mechanical miracle that is implanted with ICs and monitored by computers to do all that it performs. Approximately, if we could really respect the performance of the turbo charger, we would be surprised on its simplicity. It is simply a pair of turbines that have fins in reverse directions at each ends of a shaft. Either end is linked to the exhaust of the engine that turns a turbine, so the other turbine which is placed at the other end of the shaft is located formerly to the inlet manifold to fetch in more air into the engine. Therefore its intake has been determined by the engine’s exhausts.
Occasionally, this results in a delay to start the turbocharger. Similar to all other embellishments to the engine, the turbo charger also has advantages and disadvantages. It is conversely an alternative that someone can select depending on the type of car that anybody can wish for. Many of us are remained divided between both segments of cars, first which are efficient and second which are powerful. Taking into account the scenario of cars in India, we will be fool if we will not observe that the economic and small cars can get a better opportunity to survive and be successful here rather than those better in performance and power.
Therefore, the basic difference between these cars would be the use of the turbo charger and the additional aesthetic modifications. The turbo charger is a wonderful example of machinery that as an attachment has helped refine, re-engineer and enhance the performance of the engine which has in it not experienced many variations which were not suitable.