Ted Holmberg

One way to improve the fuel efficiency of turbocharged internal combustion engines is to reduce the pumping loss, i.e. the work required to induct fresh air into the cylinder and expel the exhaust gasses. This is a challenging system to optimize as turbines are fundamentally steady flow devices with a narrow operating range and piston engines produce an unsteady exhaust flow  over a wide operating range. This project will investigate how the turbine efficiency can be influenced through changing the pulsating exhaust flow by controlling the exhaust valves.