Application of Porous Material as Heat Storage Medium to a Turbocharged Gasoline Engine

Porous materials, which have large surface areas, have been used for heat storage. However, porous Si-SiC material, as heat storage medium to be applied to a turbocharged gasoline engine has not been investigated extensively. In this study, porous Si-SiC material was used in the upstream of the turbine as heat storage medium and a model was thereby developed for further study. Substrate surface area and substrate volume of Si-SiC were calculated for structure model calibration. Following these calculations and test results, the pressure loss and thermal model were validated. Results show that the weaken exhaust gas pulsation amplitude by porous Si-SiC leads to better turbine performance and BSFC in steady engine condition for a turbocharged gasoline engine. In addition, its transient operation response needs to be improved under transient engine conditions. Hence the possibility of improving the transient response is investigated with characteristics of porous Si-SiC material. It was observed that less time was required for the engine to reach the target torque in transient conditions.