IC engine supercharging and exhaust gas recirculation using jet compressor

Supercharging is a process which is used to improve the performance of an engine by increasing the specific power output whereas exhaust gas recirculation reduces the NOx produced by engine because of supercharging. In a conventional engine, supercharger functions as a compressor for the forced induction of the charge taking mechanical power from the engine crankshaft. In this study, supercharging is achieved using a jet compressor. In the jet compressor, the exhaust gas is used as the motive stream and the atmospheric air as the propelled stream. When high pressure motive stream from the engine exhaust is expanded in the nozzle, a low pressure is created at the nozzle exit. Due to this low pressure, atmospheric air is sucked into the expansion chamber of the compressor, where it is mixed and pressurized with the motive stream. The pressure of the mixed stream is further increased in the diverging section of the jet compressor. A percentage volume of the pressurized air mixture is then inducted back into the engine as supercharged air and the balance is let out as exhaust. This process not only saves the mechanical power required for supercharging but also dilutes the constituents of the engine exhaust gas thereby reducing the emission and the noise level generated from the engine exhaust. The geometrical design parameters of the jet compressor were obtained by solving the governing equations using the method of constant rate of momentum change. Using the theoretical design parameters of the jet compressor, a computational fluid dynamics analysis using FLUENT software was made to evaluate the performance of the jet compressor for the application of supercharging an IC engine. This evaluation turned out to be an efficient diagnostic tool for determining performance optimization and design of the jet compressor. A jet compressor was also fabricated for the application of supercharging and its performance was studied.