Turbo-Compound Diesel Engines

Abstract

The Diesel Engine is still, despite all claims to the contrary by the protagonists of the gas turbine and of the Stirling engine, the most efficient prime mover at our disposal. Furthermore, unlike the gas turbine which is in difficulty at the lower end of the power spectrum because of inherent aerodynamic losses, and the Stirling engine which would seem to suffer from a severe weight disadvantage, the Diesel engine successfully covers the full automotive spectrum and indeed has been successfully developed in marine form to cover power requirements as high as 60,000 h.p. in a single unit. In this latter form, where it is generally designed as a low speed, uniflow scavenged two stroke engine, it has also achieved astonishingly high efficiencies, in excess of 50%.