The Comprex: A New Concept of Diesel Supercharging

Abstract

The Comprex supercharger compresses air by direct transmission of energy from an expanding gas utilizing compression and expansion waves. The name Comprex is a contraction of Compression-Expander. Although the phenomena of nonsteady flow have been studied extensively in connection with explosions, diesel fuel injection, railway airbrakes, water hammer, safety equipment in hydraulic power stations, and so on, the use of these effects in gases is relatively new. This paper deals with the Comprex as applied to supercharging of internal-combustion engines. It explains the principle of operation, describes the design and discusses the particular operational characteristics as a supercharger for a 4-cycle diesel engine. It should be remembered that this is only one of many applications of a broad and unexploited field.