Quote:
Originally Posted by Tesla
To use a Turbo as an alternator would be quite difficult in my opinion,
The main reasons being:
1 / That turbo's are designed to spin from 30,000 & 100,000rpm and hence balancing is critical and any mistakes in setup will result in catastrophic failure, that's why there are specialists that just do turbo's.
2 / People have the misconception that exhaust gasses are just wasted energy, in some ways yes, but they do serve a major function for the engine even after they leave the cylinders. Exhaust designers try to maximise the flow of exhaust gasses down the pipes so the momentum actually creates a suction at the engine end which helps the engine clear the exhaust and draw in fresh air. So if you remove the exhaust, put any restrictions in (turbo) or cool it down too much, the engine will run less efficiently and any energy you extract will be lost through poor engine performance.
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on #1 may I correct something here..
when hooking up such a setup you have a very small pully on the turbo and a very large one on the alternator. so the only part of this setup thats going 100k rpm is the turbo pully. even the belt isn't speeding, so the alternator certainly isn't. also you hook it up to bypass the exhaust gasses when the turbo gets up to a too high speed...
on #2. the racing guys say superchargers waste energy from the engine , and turbos don't, that why ultimately there's more power to be had from a turbo cuz the power driving the turbo would otherwise be wasted, unlike the supercharger. I'd imagine these racing guys usually know their stuff, and if thats true then the turbo alternator idea should be quite sound.