In a previous issue, i discussed how electricity can be generated by steam at temperatures lower than the boiling point of water by using a vacuum system. The investigation yielded a design capable of generating 300 w under conditions of 20 m head and 2. Recognizing the great need, ti set out to develop a turbine which would meet those criterion. Master of arts mechanical engineering, may 2011, 80 pp. In the tesla turbine, the smooth disks spin to generate energy fig. Teslas new engine was a bladeless turbine, which would still use a fluid as the vehicle of energy, but would be much more efficient in converting the fluid energy into motion.
That invention was a turbine, known today as the tesla turbine, the boundary layer turbine or the flat disk turbine. Hard drive platter tesla turbine hacked gadgets diy tech blog. While conventional turbines have been extensively researched and tested, tesla and boundary layer type turbines have not. All motive fluid or gas must act to be converted to mechanical energy the rotation of the shaft. The tesla turbine is an original expander working on the principle of torque transmission by wall shear stress. Instead of using windpowered blades to rotate a shaft and generator, the tesla inspired design consists of an. It is not intended to be used for prolonged periods or to be permanently used. Aug 31, 2008 this is a modified tesla turbine from. Tesla turbine design and the theory of operation of an. This analysis allows a parametric study of turbine performance based on several nondimensional parameters. The tesla turbine is made of acrylic and aluminium. In a wind turbine, the wind the fluid causes the blades to rotate. With the turbine platters and spacers complete, i turned a shaft from round stock.
That invention was a turbine, known today as the tesla turbine, the boundary layer turbine or the flatdisk turbine. The desiderata in an ideal turbine group themselves under the heads of the theoretical and the mechanical. Popular mechanics magazine december 1911 the tesla turbine e. The bladeless wind turbine is completely enclosed in a relatively small compact unit. Design and develop a compact, portable tesla turbine for use as a small scale electrical power. The use of disk turbine for lowpower residential use or urban applications must have a lower cost than competing solar technologies, since wind turbine technology in urban sites have been. The turbine still has a standard a 14 bsp threaded connector for both the inlet and outlet pipes.
Tesla s pumps and motors were unique in that they only used discs, and took advantage of the boundary layer effect. Back issue ordering back issues are available for donation. Revin up the tesla cd turbine ii with magnetic disc pack. The principle demonstrated for air expanders at lab scale has some attractive features when applied to orc expanders. If you do use the turbine for this function, use at your own risk. Front cover, you will notice the exhaust ports have been completely covered and extended to a. A preliminary design of a tesla turbine for pico hydro applications has been undertaken employing rices analytical method. A tesla disc turbine and a flexible test rig have been designed and manufactured, and experimental results are presented. Design and operation of tesla turbo machine a state of the. After the experiment the tesla turbine will be used as an educational instrument. I have built tesla turbines using disks made of 6061 aluminum and others with disks made of 304 stainless steel. Previous work tesla turbine was patented by nikola tesla in 1903. Diy tesla turbine from a hard disk the green optimistic.
The blades in turn rotate a generator, which converts the rotational energy into electricity. Almost any metal or other materials like plastic can be used, but stainless steel is my preferred material. So, when jet of fluid passes through the disk,dueto adhesion the disk will rotate. Tesla intended to use his turbine to propel aircraft, in geothermal power plants, in cars instead of pistons, for vacuum. The tesla turbine, build your own tesla turbine motor from creative science. Interestingly, using the word turbine to describe tesla s invention seems a bit misleading. Operation of the tesla engine depends upon two wellknown properties of fluids.
The tesla turbine is also known as the boundarylayer turbine, cohesiontype turbine, and prandtllayer turbine after ludwig prandtl because it uses the boundarylayer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine. The tesla cd turbine is a disc type turbine made from cd discs, cd spindle, a nozzle, neodymium magnets, and glue. The theory of operation of a tesla turbine relies on boundary layer effects, which makes for good efficiency for the tesla turbine. A theory of tesla disc turbines article in proceedings of the institution of mechanical engineers part a journal of power and energy 2265.
Thats because most people think of a turbine as a shaft with blades like fan blades attached to it. The turbine, invented by nikola tesla, which is based on a new principle. Complete optimization of tesla turbine performance is beyond the scope of this paper. Jul 19, 2017 this tesla turbine design use 10inch saw blades with 200 teeth to build this 30 blade turbine.
Build a 15,000 rpm tesla turbine using hard drive platters to build a turbine like this, you need some dead hard drives, some stock material aluminum, acrylic, a milling machine with a rotary table, and a lathe with a 4 jaw chuck. An analysis of the performance and efficiency of the disc turbine is. Here is a picture of all of the parts and tools needed for the construction of your turbine. Tesla turbine torque modeling for construction of a dynamometer and turbine. The tesla turbine is a nonconventional promising technology that is yet to be fully researched and optimized. In 2006 christopher brewer and lavina 06 patented a conical turbine design, which is the optimized design of the traditional tesla bladeless turbine. The turbine comes with a 3 phase generator and 3 x 20 watt bulbs so that a load can be drawn, this generates 60 watts. Instead of using windpowered blades to rotate a shaft and generator, the teslainspired design consists of. Not only does a tesla turbine provide a very high power to size ratio, it can be used as a compressor or pump. The fuller wind turbine the fuller wind turbine, developed in new hampshire, usa by solar aero, has only one rotating part the turbinedriveshaft.
The use of diskturbine for lowpower residential use or urban applications must have a lower cost than competing solar technologies, since wind turbine technology in urban sites have been. This tesla cd turbine is based on the tesla turbine, which was invented by nikola tesla in the early 1900s. The inside diameter of both the platters and spacers is. D department of mechanical engineering, sveris college of engineering, pandharpur, solapur, india email. He also concentrated on the disk with ceramic and catalyst coatings.
This document summarizes the development of an integral perturbation solution of the equations governing momentum transport in microchannels between disks of multiple disk drag turbines such as the tesla turbine. Contrary to popular belief, he didnt invent the bladeless turbine, but he took the basic concept, first patented in europe in 1832, and made several improvements. Design and computational analysis of 1 kw tesla turbine. Boundary layer tesla turbine page stanford university. The hybrid tesla pelton wheel turbine is similar to the tesla turbine, except for its discs, that are all or in part replaced by the new discs that have characteristics of the pelton wheel. Tesla used steam on his test machines, and the model featured here would probably be run on compressed air, but the gas turbine principle can also be used. Jun 01, 2015 disk spacing is varied as a power function of radius, and turbine performance is analyzed across the turbine range of 1 mm to 400 mm diameter. We are talking about water turbine so the materials, of which is the turbine going to. The tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by nikola tesla in 19. Mar 10, 2017 almost any metal or other materials like plastic can be used, but stainless steel is my preferred material. The tesla disc turbine paperback january 1, 2001 by w. Nomenclature b spacing between disks m r o rotor radius. It consists simply of multiple shaft mounted disks suspended upon bearings which position the rotor system within a cylindrical casing.
This document summarizes the development of an integral perturbation solution of the equations governing momentum transport in microchannels between disks of multipledisk drag turbines such as the tesla turbine. The turbine will be designed for these main functions. Obviously, from the above criterion, the turbine has been the major bottleneck to economical geothermal energy until this time. This view shows one complete high pressure unit, with the steam throttle above, and below it the reversing valve and the compact turbine. Disk spacing is varied as a power function of radius, and turbine performance is analyzed across the turbine range of 1 mm to 400 mm diameter. Fluid exists through holes near the center of each disk and downwards out of the turbine. Tesla turbine is designed as a prototype towards experimental verification of effectiveness and speed measure. Tesla turbine bladeless disk turbine page 1 of 7 the second set of platters had radial arcs cut in them such that the inside edge of the radial cutout is close to the outside diameter of the spacers that i removed from the hard drive. Interestingly, using the word turbine to describe teslas invention seems a bit misleading.
Unique tesla turbine design tesla on the tesla turbine such a machine is a thermodynamic transformer of an activity surpassing by far that of any other prime mover, it being demonstrated in practice that each single disk of the rotor is capable of performing as much work as a whole bucketwheel. Nikola teslas disk turbine, which is said to approach the ideal rotary heat engine, can be viewed as an inexpensive alternative to the bladed turbine. It has be upgraded with carbon fiber fibre discs and ceramic bearings. Using this approach, constant power density designs are specified that perform at better than 35% mechanical efficiency for the entire range. The tesla turbine has the trait of being in an installation normally working with a mixture of steam and products of combustion and in which the exhaust heat is used to provide steam which is supplied to the turbine, providing a valve governing the supply of such last mentioned steam so that the pressures and temperatures can be adjusted to the optimum working conditions. The pros and cons of tesla turbines are discussed in this article, as are those of the tesla pump. In operation, a tesla turbine is simply a turbomachine which is reasonably efficient at a fairly high rotational speed, dependent on several factors, including gap between the discs and disc diameter, but not too efficient to get moving.
Fluid entering through the inlets spirals inwards between disks, transferring power to the rotor shaft. Tesla s new engine was a bladeless turbine, which would still use a fluid as the vehicle of energy, but would be much more efficient in converting the fluid energy into motion. Tesla turbine bladeless disk turbine page 1 of 7 building a. Build a 15,000 rpm tesla turbine using hard drive platters to build a turbine like this, you need some dead hard drives, some stock material aluminum, acrylic, a milling machine with a. As the turbine is scaled down, the roughening of the disks. More recently, figure 1 left power generation concept.
A regular blade turbine operates by transferring kinetic energy from the moving fluid to the turbine fan blades. Tesla turbine, viscous turbine, hydro turbine, power mems, microscale turbine. After several months of research and concept development, ti designed and built four turbine configurations and four subsequent. Why do some people say that tesla turbines dont work. The design of a 1 kw tesla turbine was carried using iterative process for head and discharge for main dimensions of the turbine.
Pdf development of tesla turbine for green energy applications. Design and fabrication of cmscale tesla turbines eecs at. May 07, 2010 the bladeless wind turbine is completely enclosed in a relatively small compact unit. This tesla turbine design use 10inch saw blades with 200 teeth to build this 30 blade turbine. In 2010, solar aero received a patent for this turbine, which is based on the tesla design. Nikola tesla s disk turbine, which is said to approach the ideal rotary heat engine, can be viewed as an inexpensive alternative to the bladed turbine. In this paper,the development is carried out to determine disc size, disk gap and number of disc base on theoretical calculation of tesla turbine.
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