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Altitude and Deration

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  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,569
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    ChrisJ said:

    I don't know about appliances, but it certainly seems to reduce the power output of internal combustion engines. As far as I'm aware, even 2000 feet will have a measurable effect on an engine vs sea level even with the proper mixture.

    And the higher you go, the worse it gets which I believe was the original reason the military started using superchargers on air planes.


    Now maybe that's a bad comparison because you're trying to get X amount of fuel into a combustion chamber, but it does seem similar.


    Good example, turbo diesels run much better at altitude than natural aspirating...
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • Gordy
    Gordy Member Posts: 9,546
    edited October 2017
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    That is correct Chris. Even jet engines have their designed service ceilings.

    The SR 71 was a machine though. Get a chance read about the J 58 engines that powered it, and how they were designed to run in the thinner air at 70 plus thousand feet. The variable inlet spikes, the fuel they burned, the chemical to ignite the fuel in after burner. At Mach 3 plus it was 80% efficient. Some fun research. I won't ruin it all. Sorry for the tangent..........