Cross-Boosting Turbocharger System for Engine Cylinder Banks
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional turbocharged engines face a mismatch between engine demands and turbocharger output due to varying exhaust temperatures, limiting the operational range of advanced combustion strategies as the boosting performance is directly related to combustion conditions.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a cross-boosting system with two turbochargers, each serving a separate cylinder bank, allowing independent operation of combustion modes and boosting levels across banks, with exhaust gases from one bank driving the turbine of the other bank's turbocharger, enabling flexible engine operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single turbocharger serves a single cylinder bank, then the boosting performance is directly related to combustion conditions, but this limits the operational range of advanced combustion strategies due to mismatch between engine demands and turbocharger output
Solution Approach 1:
The engine is divided into two separate cylinder banks, each served by its own dedicated turbocharger. This segmentation allows each turbocharger to be independently optimized for its specific cylinder bank's combustion characteristics and boosting requirements, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity by distributing the system into manageable independent units.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a cross-boosting dimension where turbochargers can operate in multiple modes: traditional single-bank service mode and cross-boosting mode where a turbocharger serves both its own bank and another bank. This dimensional expansion in operational flexibility allows the system to adapt to various combustion strategies without being constrained by a fixed one-to-one turbocharger-to-bank assignment.
2Power
If exhaust temperatures are low and turbine output is low, then the engine requires high boost, but conventional single turbocharger systems cannot provide this mismatched boosting capability
Solution Approach 1:
The cross-boosting system acts as an intermediary mechanism that allows a turbocharger with high exhaust temperature output to provide boosting to a cylinder bank with low exhaust temperature conditions. The system mediates between the surplus boosting capacity of one bank and the deficit of another, enabling flexible power distribution regardless of individual exhaust temperature conditions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the turbocharger's boosting performance is directly related to combustion conditions, then the system is simple, but this limits the possible operation range of advanced combustion strategies
Solution Approach 1:
The turbocharger system is made dynamic by enabling variable operational modes. Each turbocharger can dynamically switch between serving its own cylinder bank, serving another bank through cross-boosting, or combining both functions. This dynamic reconfigurability allows the system to adapt to different combustion strategies based on real-time engine conditions, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity through controlled flexibility.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach decouples combustion from boosting, enabling operation of cylinder banks in different modes with varying boost requirements, enhancing the engine's operational flexibility and efficiency by optimizing boosting power according to specific engine conditions.
Implementation Method 1
Engine exhaust drives the turbine, which in turn drives the compressor
Implementation Method 2
a turbocharger's boosting performance is directly related to the engine's combustion
Data Source
AI summary
An internal combustion engine having two “banks” of cylinders, the “banks” being defined by cross-connection to different turbochargers. The exhaust from one bank of cylinders goes to a first turbocharger, and the exhaust from the other bank of cylinders goes to a second turbocharger. However, the compressed air delivered from the turbochargers is cross-connected to the cylinder banks. This allows a cylinder bank to be boosted with a turbocharger whose compressed air output does not necessarily match the exhaust energy of that cylinder bank.