Mar 1, 2009 12:00 PM

Truck Writers of North America (TWNA) recently recognized the turbo compounding feature incorporated into the new Detroit Diesel DD15 engine as the top Technical Achievement for 2008. The presentation took place at the annual Technology & Maintenance Council (TMC) meeting in Orlando FL recently.

The Technical Achievement Award trophy itself was presented to Chuck Blake, manager of senior technical sales support for Detroit Diesel.

The turbo compounding system employs a second exhaust turbine downstream of the standard turbocharger. In addition to providing a more efficient source of exhaust back-pressure for the engine's Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system, the secondary turbine's output is hydrodynamically coupled to the engine's drive gears.