DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUPERCHARGER AND TURBOCHARGER

Many times we have heard that, this car is supercharged or this is turbocharged. When we heard this, one question arises in our mind what
is supercharged and what is turbocharged engine. Which one is  better between them. What are functions of these units. Today we will discuss all these answers and the main differences between them. -

Before discussing about these unit, first we should know about what is charge. When we talk about an engine the charge is used to identify amount of air and fuel mixture sucked into the cylinder during the intake stroke. So the charge is refereed as the mass of air-fuel mixture taken into the cylinder during intake stroke.

When we require more power than we need more charge into the cylinder. There are two ways of increasing charge of an engine. 

1. First one is to increase the engine size or cylinder size, so more air fuel mixture sucked and generate more power.

2. The other one uses a compressor which increase the density of charge and  draws more charge into the cylinder at high pressure so the more mass of air fuel mixture comes into the cylinder which generate more power. 

The second one is more convenient because it uses an smaller size engine to generate same power as the big one. And the other benefit is that this can be implemented in the old cars by adding a compressor unit. Both supercharger and turbocharger are  worked on same principle i.e. by using compressor. Turbocharger and supercharger both compresses the air and forces this compressed air into the engine cylinder. According to the air, large amount of fuel is injected into the cylinder, which produces more power. It is the basic principle of both turbocharger and supercharger. 

The main difference :-

Supercharger :-
Supercharger is an air compressor which is used to increase the power of an engine. Basically supercharger is a rotary compressor which is driven by  the crankshaft through a belt drive. This compressor is connected at the inlet manifold of the engine. As the engine rotate it rotate the supercharger which forces compressed air into cylinder. So the supercharger takes power from crankshaft to drive its compressor.

Turbocharger:-

Turbocharger is basically a combination of a turbine and a rotary compressor. The turbine is connected to the compressor and driven by the hot exhaust gases of the engine. So a turbocharge is a compressor which is driven by exhaust gases of engine which forces the compressed gases into the cylinder. 

So the main difference between supercharger and turbocharger is that supercharger takes power from the engine to drive its compressor whereas turbocharger takes power from exhaust gases to drive its compressor.