Efficiency of the Manifolds of Turbocharged Engines

For many years there has been debate about the most efficient way of turbocharging diesel engines, particularly medium and slow speed ones. There are advocates of pulse charging, pulse converting and constant pressure exhaust systems; these techniques counterbalance the variations of transmission efficiency with turbine efficiency. A major difficulty in assessing the methods has been locating the regions of energy loss in the manifold. This paper describes a wave action method of evaluating the transmission of energy from the cylinder through the exhaust valve, via the pipes and junctions to the turbocharger turbine itself: The losses associated with pulse converted manifolds are compared with idealized manifolds without losses in the manifold junctions.