Advanced Military Diesel Engine Technologies

Diesel engines are attractive for military use because of good fuel economy and ability to use JP8-type fuels. However naturally-aspirated (n.a.) diesel engines have low power density, and small diesel engines are not amenable to turbo-charging. To overcome this disadvantage for weight-sensitive applications such as portable generators (gensets), the use of a novel supercharger is proposed. In Phase I, engine modeling predicted the ability of supercharging with a new variable compression ratio Hansen supercharger to increase power from a small diesel engine by more than 50% while maintaining high fuel economy. This would allow about a 50% reduction in the size and weight of a diesel genset. Phase II will build and test the new supercharger, and construct a supercharged diesel genset to verify the modeling results and demonstrate the above benefits.