Tesla Turbine As A Replacement For Current Turbine Models: A Proposal

Objective

The main purpose objective of this project proposal is to present a new turbine which is much efficient that any other turbine engines in the real world. This is an attempt to present a model of the turbine which could be applicable for 100% efficiency in the system.

1. This project proposal will be evaluating following questions?
2. Is there any turbine that could be used without blades?
3. Is the turbine could be applicable for achieving approximately 100% efficiency?  

The aim behind this project proposal is to introduce a bladeless turbine engine that would be capable of reaching efficiency up to 100% (or more than 95%).

Eliminate the factor of blade that could result in deficiency for the whole arrangement and replace it with fluid mechanism for providing motion to the disks.

Tesla’s principle could be used for the development of an efficient turbine engine in manner to enhance the productivity and performance of the organization.

An engine can be represented as a machine that consumes fuels and convert it into mechanical energy.  Despite of types of natural resources such as coal, air, water, petroleum, or any other source that could be used to produce energy can be represented as fuel (Manfrida, Pacini & Talluri 2017). At the beginning of the technology era, two types engines were introduced for the social use namely, bladed turbines and piston engines. Bladed turbines were driven by steam that has been generated through heating water or through moving water speed whereas; piston engines were driven by the combustion of gasoline and using the pressure of the gas exhausting (Yost 2015). Both the engines were complicated and time consuming in designing and developing for the application.

A machine is composed of various moving parts and similarly turbine is composed of piston, valves, bearings, rings, cams, and gaskets. Combining so many components will alternatively affect the efficiency of the whole machine. This increases the possibilities of less efficiency in the project however, emphasizing on the efficiency of each components particularly could also result in the overall efficiency of the device. Tesla new engine is composed of bladeless turbines that could use fuel as the energy for being driven and will convert the fluid energy into mechanical energy with much higher efficiency.

Gupta and Khodali (2013) presented their concern on the related topic and presented a paper on the designing and operations of the turbo machines that is based on the same principle of using fluid for the mechanism of energy conversion. It is being reported in the paper that turbo-machines are the devices those are helpful in transferring the energy between the fluid and the rotor including the compressors and the stators (Alrabie et al. 2017). The function of the energy transfer includes the transfer of energy to the rotor from the fluid and followed by this, the compressor transfers the energy to the fluid from the rotor. There are various other designs of turbo-machines that could be applicable for the efficient use of the machines and among them Tesla turbine is the one with highest efficiency rate (Song & Gu 2017). The Tesla turbine uses viscous and adhesion force of the fluid (property of the fluid that sates force of attraction between the molecules) in manner to transfer energy. This machine is all about the boundary layer effect that has been discussed in the below report that allows the disks to get energy transferred by the fluid. Traum, Hadi and Akbar (2017) stated that there is very wide range of the application of Tesla turbines that includes any type of mixing of gas, liquid and solid without making damage to the machine. Another application is that it could be designed in manner to pump both the high viscous and low viscous fluid with less effort and much efficiency (Zahid et al. 2016). There have various practices practiced using this principle that includes pumping the fluids like live fish, fly ash, ethylene glycol, blood, rocks, and many other substances. Pandey et al. (2014) stated that various researchers have presented various researches after the patent presented by Tesla in 1913 that were continuously attempting to effectively apply and improve the configuration of the Tesla turbines in manner to get much efficient machine. There are certain factors that might affect the proper functioning and efficiency of the Tesla machines including number of the disks used in the rotor, their width, gap between two consecutive disks, jet angle at the inlet including its pressure and many more (Schosser et al. 2015).   Holland (2016) stated that Tesla turbines basically functions on two basic principles of the fluids that include Viscosity, Adhesion that are responsible for the mechanism of the conventional energy transfer in tradition turbines (Sharma 2016). Using these principles could be helpful in eliminating the blades that will alternatively presents an efficient output for the machine (Suha & Sengupta 2013). Various name has been provided to this machine because of its multi application and principle those have been stated in the below paragraph.  The most crucial objective for the Tesla turbines can be referred to the unavailability of friction within the conventional senses (Nelkel and Godinho 2015). The turbo-machinery based on Tesla principles are not capable of proving competitive in an application that could be applicable in wide range of different machines have adequate performance and efficiency of the machines. Despite of all the advantages there are certain disadvantages of the application of Tesla turbine and could be stated as: the machine provides a low rotor torque (Hasan & Banzamia 2014). Another disadvantage is that it can be stated as not suitable for the direct exchange for the traditional pumps and turbines without changing the infrastructure suited for the machine it is interacting with (Suha & Sengupta 2017). The machine has remained undeveloped from since 1913 when Tesla had introduced the facts, but the designs are still being improvised by various researchers till this date (Sivaramakrishnan 2017). The proofs related to the efficiency in comparison with the conventional turbines also needs certain more researches it is still questionable for the regular practice in the real life.

Questions

The aim of this experiment is to establish relation between the efficiency of the turbine considering various objectives. These objectives include distance between the turbine disks including the diameter and number of the disks of the turbine. Efficiency of the turbine is related to the efficiency of each objective including the rotational speed, inlet temperature, pressure, angle, and velocity. For achieving the main objective of the project it is necessary to enhance the efficiency of the stator and rotor part.  

Theory:

 

Figure 1: Fluid path of the Tesla turbine

(Source: howstuffWorks, 2017)

Talking about the principle of working, it can be said that fluids have properties like viscosity and adhesion that could be used in transforming energy with much efficiency. These properties are being used in the project of the Tesla turbine in manner to allow the fluid to be transferred from the rotor to the fluid or vice versa. Firstly, it can be stated that as the fluid keep on passing each disks, the property of the fluid (adhesive) results the forces of the molecules of the fluids above the surface of the metal in manner to stick and slow down (Bhambal, Sapate & Sase 2017). Secondly, the molecules of the fluids sticking to the surface of the metal get slowed while colliding with the molecules passing over the surface. Thirdly it can be stated that molecules in result slow down the fluids those are flowing just above them. The fluid’s molecules flowing farther are least affected by the adhesion force of the molecules spread over the disks (Tsoukpoe et al. 2016). In that same moment, another property (viscous) of the fluid works as the resistance and avoid the fluids from getting separated. This whole process result in the generation of the ‘pull’ force which has been transmitted to the disk, that results the disk in manner to move in the same direction as the fluids are moving.

Fluid’s layer that is interacting with the surface of the disk during this process is called boundary layer. This interaction of the solid surface and molecules of the fluid is described as the boundary layer effect (Song, Gu & Li 2017). Because of the boundary layer effect, it can be stated that propelling fluid follows behind the rapid accelerated spiral path alongside the faces of the disks till the fluids reaches a proper exit gate (Fuchs et al. 2015). Based on the theory it can be stated that if these processes are practiced accurately the efficiency of the rotor will be much effective and estimated to be almost 95% or even more.  

Set-up:

There are mainly two components of Tesla turbine that includes rotor and stator. Rotor consist of moving parts with a series of discs mounted over the shaft and each shaft has been made with the openings those have been surrounding the shaft. As shown in figure washers have been used as spacers between the disk and the air resistance and the washer’s thickness has been restricted to 2 to 3 millimeters.

Literature Review

 

Figure 2: Working of Tesla Turbine

(Source: howstuffWorks, 2017)

Another component of the Tesla turbine is the stator that is a stationary part shaped in a hollow cylinder, comprised of the rotor. Both the ends of the stator have implemented bearing for the shafts in manner to provide frictionless working for the shafts. The nozzles have been inserted within the one or two inlets of the stator that will be helpful for the smoothly moving of the shaft either in anti-clockwise or clockwise manner. In manner to allow the turbine efficiently work and maintain the temperature due to the friction, a high pressure fluid has been entering through the nozzles at the inlets of the stators. The fluid movement passes through the disks and enables the rotor disks to move in either manner. Finally, at the last stage, the fluid exits the system through the exhaust ports that has been situated at the centre of the turbine.

Result:

It is being estimated that “the turbine efficiency of the gas Tesla turbine is estimated to be above 60, reaching a maximum of 95 percent”. It is a considerable fact that the cycle efficiency of a turbine is completely different from the turbine efficiency of the engine in which turbine is being used. In this new technology world, jet engines or steam plants are being operated on the turbine engines is about to be estimated to the value of 60% to 70% efficiency. It is a complete different topic from the cycle efficiency of the engines, which have been reported to be 25% and 42%. These values are “limited by any irreversibility to be below the Carnot cycle efficiency.” Tesla has put his claim that the steam version of the device presented by him would be cap[able of achieving 95 percent efficiency. The apparatus and the methods proposed by Tesla for the thermodynamic transformation and propulsion of the fluids including the energy had been exposed in various patents. The efficiency of the thermodynamic can be represented as the measurement of the performance that has been compared to the isentropic case. It is nothing but the ratio of the input with the output considering the ideal behavior of the engine to the actual behavior responding after the completion of the project.  “This can be taken to be the ratio of the ideal change in enthalpy to the real enthalpy for the same change in pressure.” 

Planning:

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Tesla turbine	214 days	Mon 10/30/17	Thu 8/23/18
Project planning and initiation	35 days	Mon 10/30/17	Fri 12/15/17
requirement identification	7 days	Mon 10/30/17	Tue 11/7/17
preparing requirement draft	7 days	Wed 11/8/17	Thu 11/16/17
Research scope analysis	7 days	Fri 11/17/17	Mon 11/27/17
Research objective analysis	7 days	Tue 11/28/17	Wed 12/6/17
Developing research questions	7 days	Thu 12/7/17	Fri 12/15/17
theoretical summary	50 days	Mon 12/18/17	Fri 2/23/18
literature review	15 days	Mon 12/18/17	Fri 1/5/18
Data collection	10 days	Mon 1/8/18	Fri 1/19/18
data analysis	10 days	Mon 1/22/18	Fri 2/2/18
summarizing data related to the topic	15 days	Mon 2/5/18	Fri 2/23/18
practical execution	62 days	Mon 2/26/18	Tue 5/22/18
setting lab for the experiment	20 days	Mon 2/26/18	Fri 3/23/18
collecting parts of the stator and rotor	15 days	Mon 3/26/18	Fri 4/13/18
data collection for the efficiency of each component	19 days	Mon 4/16/18	Thu 5/10/18
collecting overall efficiency	8 days	Fri 5/11/18	Tue 5/22/18
Comparing efficiency final	57 days	Wed 5/23/18	Thu 8/9/18
initiating efficiency comparison with other machines	17 days	Wed 5/23/18	Thu 6/14/18
Cross-checking all the findings	30 days	Fri 6/15/18	Thu 7/26/18
Finalizing both data	10 days	Fri 7/27/18	Thu 8/9/18
Project closure	10 days	Fri 8/10/18	Thu 8/23/18
comparing experimented data and theoretical data	5 days	Fri 8/10/18	Thu 8/16/18
documentation	5 days	Fri 8/17/18	Thu 8/23/18

 

Figure 1: Gannt Chart of the project

(Source: Created by Author)

Conclusion:

Based on the above theories and experiments, it can be concluded that Tesla had introduced the most efficient turbine engine. This could be much effective machine with respect to any machine that is being operated on different fuel and with blades. The rotational speed is also affected by the blades and could result in less efficiency and as the proposed project presents the turbine without blade. This results in increasing the rate of efficiency of the turbine and produces or transforms much efficient energy that could be increased up to 95 percent. There were certain research gaps in the turbine related to the width and thickness of the discs installed within the rotor. Those have revealed in less efficiency for the machine that could be problem, this research’s disks were limited to 2 to 3 millimeters thickness. Various attempts with different configuration had been attempted earlier that resulted in deficiency in the machine however; the configuration presented in this report can be reported as the best approach for having most efficient turbine engine. Presented machine is capable of delivering highest efficient output as the efficiency those were being defined by the blades was completely eliminated. This is a successful project however, using uncertain fuel or fluid could result in the failure of the machine.

Research Goals

Alrabie, M. S., Altamimi, F. N., Altarrgemy, M. H., Hadi, F., Akbar, M. K., & Traum, M. J. 2017, June. Method to Design a Hydro Tesla Turbine for Sensitivity to Varying Laminar Reynolds Number Modulated by Changing Working Fluid Viscosity. In ASME 2017 11th International Conference on Energy Sustainability collocated with the ASME 2017 Power Conference Joint With ICOPE-17, the ASME 2017 15th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, and the ASME 2017 Nuclear Forum (pp. V001T07A004-V001T07A004). American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Bhambal, S., Sapate, A. & Sase, N.P.A., 2017. Design & Development of Tesla Turbine for Waste Pressure Recovery System. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 3(4).

Fuchs, T., Schosser, C., Hain, R. & Kaehler, C., 2015, November. Three-dimensional flow measurements in a tesla turbine rotor. In APS Meeting Abstracts.

Guha, A. & Sengupta, S., 2013. The fluid dynamics of the rotating flow in a Tesla disc turbine. European Journal of Mechanics-B/Fluids, 37, pp.112-123.

Guha, A. & Sengupta, S., 2017. A non-dimensional study of the flow through co-rotating discs and performance optimization of a Tesla disc turbine. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, p.0957650917715148.

Gupta, H.E. & Kodali, S.P., 2013. Design and Operation of Tesla Turbo Machine—A State of the Art Review. Int. J. Adv. Transp. Phenom, 2(1), pp.7-14.

Hasan, A. & Benzamia, A., 2014. Investigating the Impact of Air Temperature on the Performance of a Tesla Turbine-Using CFD Modeling. IJEIR, 3(6), pp.794-802.

Holland, K., 2016. Design, construction and testing of a Tesla Turbine (Doctoral dissertation, Laurentian University of Sudbury).

Manfrida, G., Pacini, L. & Talluri, L., 2017. A revised Tesla Turbine Concept for ORC applications. Energy Procedia, 129, pp.1055-1062.

N’Tsoukpoe, K.E., Azoumah, K.Y., Ramde, E., Fiagbe, A.Y., Neveu, P., Py, X., Gaye, M. & Jourdan, A., 2016. Integrated design and construction of a micro-central tower power plant. Energy for Sustainable Development, 31, pp.1-13.

Neckel, A.L. & Godinho, M., 2015. Influence of geometry on the efficiency of convergent–divergent nozzles applied to Tesla turbines. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 62, pp.131-140.

Pandey, R.J., Pudasaini, S., Dhakal, S., Uprety, R.B. & Neopane, H.P., 2014. Design and Computational Analysis of 1 kW Tesla Turbine. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(11).

Schosser, C. & Pfitzner, M., 2015. A numerical study of the three-dimensional incompressible rotor airflow within a Tesla turbine. In Conference of Modelling Fluid Flow CMFF (pp. 1-4).

Sharma, A., 2016. Design and Development of A Cross Flow Micro Hydro Turbine.

Sivaramakrishnaiah, M., Reddy, Y.S.K. & Reddy, G.S., 2017. Study and Design of Bladeless Tesla Turbine. Mechanics, 12(5), pp.881-889.

Song, J., & Gu, C. W. 2017, June. 1-D Model Analysis of Tesla Turbine for Small Scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) System. In ASME Turbo Expo 2017: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition (pp. V003T28A003-V003T28A003). American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Song, J., Gu, C.W. & Li, X.S., 2017. Performance estimation of Tesla turbine applied in small scale Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system. Applied Thermal Engineering, 110, pp.318-326.

Traum, M. J., Hadi, F., & Akbar, M. K. 2017. Extending “Assessment of Tesla Turbine Performance” Model for Sensitivity-Focused Experimental Design. Journal of Energy Resources Technology, 140(3), 032005.

Yost, C. (2015). MAE 434W March 17, 2015 Learning to Learn Assignment 6: Self Review Questions for each paragraph: What is the main topic of this paragraph? How does this paragraph function in the argument/arrangement of the paper? How is this paragraph connected to the one above? How is this paragraph connected to the one below? 1. Main Topic: Application of humidified air into a Tesla Turbine. Learning.

Zahid, I., Qadir, A., Farooq, M., Zaheer, M.A., Qamar, A. and Zeeshan, H.M.A., 2016. Design and Analysis of Prototype Tesla Turbine for Power Generation Applications. University of Engineering and Technology Taxila. Technical Journal, 21(2), p.33.