This paper introduces an improved design for pressure wave superchargers used in recreational vehicles (RV) such as motorbikes or snowmobiles equipped with smaller engines. A pressure wave supercharger (PWS), commonly known as Comprex (or Hyprex), is generally used to lower the emissions. Additionally, in comparison to a standard turbocharger (TC) system, a PWS system demonstrates superior torque response behavior. However, a major disadvantage of the Comprex are its high noise emissions and expensive manufacture. For this reason, the goal of this study was to eliminate these shortcomings and to propose a new design for a pressure wave supercharger, which is simple and relatively inexpensive to produce.
In this paper, the conceptual design development of this new type of PWS is presented. The methods used were the evaluation of an existing Comprex’s design and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Though the new concept differed substantially in certain areas in comparison to a standard PWS, the working principle of the new design per se remained the same. Due to the fact, the new PWS will be driven using an electric motor, the main advantage is the reduced inertia of the running gear. While the torque response of the entire engine system remains similar to a system using a standard PWS noise emissions, fuel consumption and CO2-emissions are all reduced.