Internal combustion engine turbocharger drives and controls

Abstract

Abstract Improved drives and controls for an exhaust gas turbocharger for an internal combustion engine in which the turbocharger is primarily driven by exhaust gases from the engine include an auxiliary hydraulic turbine which also has a driving connection to the turbocharger and which receives pressurized fluid from a fixed displacement pump to drive the turbine during certain operating conditions of the engine. The pump is connected to a rotary output shaft of the engine by means of a clutch member which selectively connects and disconnects the pump in response to a preselected operating characteristic of the engine. Such operating characteristic is selected from the group consisting of at least one of the engine speed, oil pressure, air manifold pressure, exhaust manifold pressure, and fueling rate characteristics of the engine. In a specific embodiment, the clutch is disconnected after the engine reaches a predetermined operating speed, as measured by a sensing unit or tachometer responsive directly to engine shaft speed, by sensing the pressure at which fluid is discharged from the pump and which corresponds to the preselected engine speed. In a preferred embodiment, the clutch control is also responsive to one of the operating characteristics of the engine for automatically disengaging the clutch in response to load conditions below a selected predetermined minimum, for example when the engine fuel demand rate is below 80 percent of the demand rate for maximum torque at a particular speed.

Inventors

• 👤 Seamus G Timoney

Bibliographic Details