Development of a Supercharger for Small, Heavy Fuel Engines

The OSD is seeking devices to increase the intake air flow and pressure to small engines in order to increase their power density and fuel efficiency, specifically for unmanned applications. Such unmanned systems require high efficiency and highly reliable power sources operating at near continuous duty cycle. By increasing the power density of these engines, they can be used in a larger variety of applications under various operating conditions. This includes high altitude flight for aircraft systems and extreme environmental conditions for ground-based and naval surface and subsurface systems. In this proposal, Mainstream presents a Phase I program to design, fabricate, and test a supercharger suitable for use in small heavy fuel engines. Mainstream will performance-test the device on its own 4-hp engine. This accelerated development program will validate the concept experimentally in Phase I. The Phase II program can therefore focus on the integration and long-term testing on OSD’s specific engine application.