Application of supercharging to engines

In the most general terms possible, superchargers can be considered as a means of achieving complex thermodynamic cycles. This category includes all systems that combine various types of machines (volumetric or kinetic) with an engine (volumetric or kinetic) to enhance the latter's performance. For the sake of completeness, any thermal components (coolers, exchangers, auxiliary combustion chamber) used to cool or heat the gases involved in the thermodynamic cycle must also be taken into account.

A classification of these systems can be established:

• depending on the nature of the machines they use;

• depending on the type of connection between these machines: mechanical (kinematic) or fluidic.

As the number of possible systems meeting these definitions is virtually unlimited, we will limit ourselves to describing the best-known systems.