Supercharger basics

A supercharger is nothing more than a compressor that compresses air and forces it into the combustion chamber of an engine.

There are two types of superchargers...some are more common than others.

1. Positive displacement - depend on tight meshing of gears to compress air.
2. Dynamic - rely on increasing the air velocity and then exchanging the velocity for pressure by diffusing it or slowing it down. Centrifugal, multi-stage axial flow and pressure wave superchargers are examples.

Superchargers are driven by a bunch of different methods:

1. Direct drive from the crankshaft of the engine using belts, chains or gears
2. exhaust gas turbine such as turbochargers on diesel engines

For more detailed discussion of manufacturers and efficiency of superchargers you can go to the following address:

Supercharger

In a later post, I'll work to demistify how superchargers work and the specifics in how to choose a supercharger.

All for now