Why do turbos need time to “spool up” before they can have a significant power boost?
In: Engineering
Turbos are wheels of shovels in the air intake pipe that hinder the intake air from flowing. Unless they spin fast and forcefully enough to literally press the air into the combustion chamber. The force that drives the wheel is the dynamic pressure of the exhaust gas. At low RPM this pressure is too low to deliver sufficient thrust to the turbo charger. At higher RPM there are more cumbustions per timeframe, thus more exhaust gas in the same volume of the exhaust pipe, and thus more pressure driving the turbo. At some RPM there is a break-even point where the exhaust pressure drives the turbo just right to deliver the amount of air at which the engine would work like without a turbo. Below that the turbo costs power, above that the turbo delivers power.
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