Improving the Fuel Economy of Supercharged Engine 2013-32-9118

The paper reviews the experimental development of fuel economy of engine powering the 2012 Formula SAE single seat race car of the University of Sophia. The balance of high power and low fuel consumption is biggest challenge of racing engine. It was found that improving the efficiency of engine by supercharging as a way to achieve that. In order to adapt the supercharger for the engine, the important design points are below:

It was found that intake air blow-by gas at combustion chamber is increased in low engine speed. To improve that, the valve overlap angle was changed to adopt supercharged engine and improve effective compression ratio. Typically the racing engine demands maximum torque for performance but that does not imply that the air fuel ratio should be rich than theoretical. The point is the maximum torque of the engine is proportional to the amount of air intake. Therefore, supercharged engine is possible to increase the supercharging pressure for bigger torque. But the base engine is not prepared for bigger torque, the damage of the engine was considered. In order to avoid engine breakage, the lean air-fuel ratio was used and maximum torque was controlled not to exceed an engine limit. The aim air fuel ratio was change by engine speed to get more flat torque performance, and improved the fuel consumption.