CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Tesla turbine, a bladeless turbine, was patented by thefamous scientist Nikola Tesla (1856
1943) in 1913. Up to now, a major stumbling block in its commercial use has been its low
efficiency and certain other operational difficulties. However, there has been a resurgence of
research interest in this type of turbines because they have several advantages and hence may
be appropriately developed and used in certain niche application areas. In this article, an
analytical theory has been developed for predicting the performance of Tesla turbines, which
agree well with experimental results. The Tesla turbine is also known as disc turbine because
the rotor of this turbine is formed by a series of flat, parallel, co-rotating discs, which are
closelyspaced and attached to a central shaft. The working fluid is injected nearly tangentially
to the rotor by means of inlet nozzle. The injected fluid, which passes through the narrow
gaps between the discs, approaches spirally towards the exhaust port located at the centreof
each disc. The viscous drag force, produced due to the relative velocity between the rotor and
the working fluid, causes the rotor to rotate. There is a housing surrounding the rotor, with a
small radial and axial clearance.
Tesla turbine has several important advantages: it is easy to manufacture, maintain and
balance the turbine, and it has high power to weight ratio, low cost, significant reduction in
emissions and noise level, a simple configuration which means an inexpensive motor. Tesla
turbine can generate power for a variety of working media like Newtonian fluids, non-
Newtonian fluids, mixed fluids, particle laden two phase flows (many aspects of two-phase
flow. This turbine has self-cleaning nature due the centrifugal force field. This makes it
possible to operate the turbine in case of non-conventional fuels like biomass which produce
solid particles. It also suggests that this bladeless turbine can be well suited to generate power
in geothermal power stations.Tesla turbo-machinery can also be used as a compressor by
modifying the housing and powering the rotor from an external source. Moreover, it can
operate either in the clockwise or anticlockwise direction. However, a Tesla disc turbine has
not yet been used commercially due to its low efficiency and other operational
difficulties.Further research and modification of Tesla turbine were temporarily suppressed
after the invention of gas turbine which was much more efficient than Tesla turbine. From
1950 onwards both theoretical and experimental research on Tesla turbine, Tesla pump, Tesla
fan and Tesla compressor has been regenerated.Quite a number of analytical models for
theconventional configuration of Tesla turbine have been developed. Among all these
approaches available in the literature, bulk parameter analysis, truncated series substitution
methodology, integral method,and finite difference solutions are worth mentioning. Solutions
are mainly available for incompressible flows although there are some papers containing
solutions for compressible flows.
After the success of Whittle and von Ohain, the gas turbine became the centerpoint of
research and development and the understanding of its performance and optimization has
reached quite a mature stage. The understanding of the performance of Tesla turbines is not
nearly as thorough. The present authors would argue that the development of a reliable and
comprehensive (and yet simple, if possible, for practical engineering use) mathematical
theory is an important step towards developing the necessary understanding of the fluid
dynamics of the Tesla disc turbine. The objective of the present work is to formulate a
mathematical theory for a Tesla turbine, developed in the appropriate cylindrical co-ordinate
system. The geometric and flow configuration for the present study is chosen to be the same
as that given in Lemma et al.because they provide data from their recent experiments which
can be used to verify the mathematical model and for the claimed superiority in its
performance. Their experimental results show that this particular configuration of Tesla
turbine has an isentropic efficiency of about 1825% which is achieved by Musing rotor with
only nine discs (diameter 0.05 m) and compressed air as the working fluid. More details
about the configuration are discussed later. Deamet al.25 have attempted to develop a simple
analytical model for the configuration given in Lemma et al., considering incompressible and
one dimensional flow. A limitation of their theory is the absence of the radial flow feature.
Moreover, their theory can only predict the no-loss maximum efficiency of the turbine
(assuming the fluid is flown through a duct with uniform cross section between a pressure
reservoir and the atmosphere). In their theory25 the no-loss maximum efficiency is attainable
when the rotor velocity is equal to the velocity of the working fluid. This, however, does not
happen in reality because, if there is no relative velocity between the disc-rotor and the
working fluid, the viscousdrag force will be zero and in consequence, there will be no power
output. The scope of the present work is to develop an analytical model for a more realistic
case considering three-dimensional flow and consequences of the viscous drag force. The
model can compute the three-dimensional variation of the radial velocity, tangential velocity
and pressure of the fluid in the flow passages within the rotating discs. Differential equations
as well as closed-form analytical relations have been derived. The present mathematical
model can predict torque, power output and efficiency over a wide range of rotational speed
of the rotor.

Scope and Existing Technologies

However, a Tesla disc turbine has not yet been used commercially due to its low efficiency
and other operational difficulties. Further research and modificationof Tesla turbine were
temporarily suppressed after the invention of gas turbine which was much more efficient than
Tesla turbine. From 1950 onwards both theoretical and experimental research on Tesla
turbine, Tesla pump, Tesla fan and Tesla compressor has been regenerated. Quite a number of
analytical models for the conventional configuration of Tesla turbine have been developed.
Among all these approaches available in the literature, bulk parameter analysis, truncated
series substitution methodology, integral method,and finite difference solutions are worth
mentioning. Solutions are mainly available for incompressible flows although there are some
papers containing solutions for compressible flows.Currently the field of micro-turbine is an
active research area; the bladeless Tesla turbine because of its simplicity and robustness of
structure, low cost and comparatively better operation at high rpm may become a suitable
candidate for this application. For this to happen the efficiency of the Tesla turbine, however,
has to be improved. Researchers are attempting to achieve this by modification of the
configuration of the conventional Tesla turbines.
Shortly after Tesla had presented his turbine design, Allis-Chalmers
Manufacturing Company built three modelswith diameters of five feet and
500 kW capacities. They operated at 3600 rpm and reached a maximum
capacity of 38% mechanical efficiency. Significant warping of the disks
was witnessed. The project was stopped at this time with the main
objections being the high rotational speeds and the lack of robustness of
the disks (North, 1969). In 1977, a 10-month pilot generation project had
been conducted using the Tesla turbine design for the use in a hot salt-
water mixture resource in Imperial Valley, CA, USA. The sub-surface
turbine operated 24 hours per day. At the end of the investigation the
turbine was dismantled and inspected for damage or wear due to
particulate matter in the effluent. It was found that erosion was minimal
and no repair or replacement of components was required (Jacobson,
1991). The Tesla turbine concept has recently been adapted to wind
turbines. The design includes an airfoil shaped spacer near the perimeter
of the disk to induce lift and add further torque to the rotating shaft
(Fuller, 2010).
 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE SURVEY

2.1 Design and Operation of Tesla Turbo machine - A state of the art
Review

Turbomachines are machines that transfer energy between a rotor and a fluid, including both
turbines and compressors. While a turbine transfers energy from a fluid to a rotor, a
compressor transfers energy from a rotor to a fluid. Many different designs of turbomachines
are in use of which Tesla turbomachine is one, whose design is different from conventional
designs. A Tesla turbomachine utilizes the viscous shear forces of a fluid (boundary layer
effect) passing near a disk on an axle to transmit torque to and from the fluid. Tesla
turbomachines have found wide ranging applications that include handling of mixtures of
solids, liquids and gases without damaging the machine. It can be designed to efficiently
pump highly viscous fluids as well as low viscous fluids. It has been used to pump fluids
including ethylene glycol, fly ash, blood, rocks, live fish and many other substances. This
paper attempts to present the outcomes of research carried out by various researchers during
the last four decades. A summary of the modeling, simulation, and experimental procedures
used to understand Tesla machines is presented. The performance of Tesla machines is found
to be influenced by a number of parameters including width of disks, the number of disks,
gap between disks, jet angle at inlet, inlet pressure, load applied, Mach number, Reynolds
number. The paper also outlines the results of investigations performed by the researchers and
further identifies the deficiencies, which can serve as a future direction to research in this
field.
Turbomachine applications have several alternatives, each of which emanates to help build
the world of power. One of these ideas was put forward by Nikola Tesla, through his patent
on The Tesla turbine in 1913, which he referred to as a bladeless turbine or friction turbine.
The principle of Tesla turbine comes from two main rudiments of physics: Adhesion and
Viscosity, instead of the conventional energy transfer mechanism in traditional turbines. It is
referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid
impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine. The Tesla turbine is also known as
the boundary layer turbine, cohesion-type turbine, and Prandtl layer turbine (after Ludwig
Prandtl). If a similar set of disks and housing with an involute shape (versus circular for the
turbine) are used, the device can be used as a pump. The important point of this Tesla turbine
invention is that the turbine does not use friction in the conventional sense; rather it avoids it,
and uses adhesion (the Coand effect) and viscosity instead. It utilizes the boundary layer
effect on the disc blades. Tesla turbine comprises of a multiple-disk rotor contained in a
housing provided with nozzles to supply high-speed moving fluid that is nearly tangential to
the rotor. The fluid flows spirally inward and finally exhausts from the rotor through holes or
slots in the disks near the shaft as shown in Figure 1. The fluid drags on the disk by means of
viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the fluid. In the process, the fluid slows
down and adds energy to the disks, thereby causing the rotation of rotor before it spirals into
the center exhaust. As a pump or compressor, fluid enters the rotor through holes near the
shaft, flows spirally outward, and exhausts from the rotor into a diffuser as. In this
configuration (when used as a pump) a motor is attached to the shaft causing rotation of the
multiple-disk rotor. The fluid enters near the center, takes the energy from the disks, and then
exits at the periphery.
 Figure 1
After the initial focus on the new invention in the beginning of 20th century, very little
research went into understanding Tesla turbines until the revival of interest in the 1950s. With
the development and availability of computing facilities people started working on using
simulation studies to better understand the behavior of these machines. Many attempts have
been made to commercialize these machines, but have found little success mainly owing to
the small overall efficiencies due to considerable losses in the nozzles when used as turbines
and the diffuser or volute when used as pumps. Most designs of Tesla turbomachinery are
based on intuition and simple calculations or empirical experience, and much work needs to
be done in studying these losses with well defined scientific procedures in achieving
optimized nozzle and diffuser designs.

2.2Tesla Turbine for Pico Hydro Applications

Rural electrification is needed to improve the livelihoods of individuals that are locatedwhere
centralized power grids do not reach. Pico hydro, hydro systems of 5 kW capacity orless, can
address this need at relatively low cost and with virtually no negative environmentalor social
impacts. An alternative and less complex design for a pico hydro generator rotor,proposed by
Nikola Tesla, uses the viscosity of fluids to efficiently transfer the fluid energyto the rotor,
resulting in useable work. Numerous analytical and experimental investigationshave been
performed to characterize the flow within the Tesla turbine design. It has beenfound that
efficiencies reported by Tesla have not been reproduced by others. Inefficiencies are often
attributed to the losses due to flows through the nozzle and outlet. Tesla turbineswill not be
considered competitive in the general market until efficiencies surpass that ofconventional
designs and power densities can be improved. That said, the relatively simpledesign of the
Tesla turbine lends itself well to small scale power projects since it can be
easilymanufactured and maintained locally. Debris in water sources is a significant concern
insmall scale hydro systems. The disk rotors are not sensitive to abrasion and can continue
toperform under these types of flows. A preliminary design of a Tesla turbine for pico
hydroapplications has been undertaken employing Rices analytical method. The
investigationyielded a design capable of generating 300 W under conditions of 20 m head and
2.5 L/sflow. The efficiency of the preliminary turbine design was near 80% but it is believed
thatthe bulk of efficiency losses will be found in inlet and exhaust flows, which are
notconsidered in this analysis. Challenges remain for the application of Tesla turbines to
picohydro generation.
Hydro power is driven by extracting the potential energy from water over a height difference.
The energy in thewater is converted to mechanical energy and can be used directly or
converted again into electrical energy by means of a generator. The term head, H, is the
measure of pressure in the water. It refers to the actual height difference the water travels.
Power, P is the energy converted over time or the rate of work being done.
The power that can be extracted from the water can be calculated with the following formula:
P=QH g
where is efficiency, Q is total volumetric flow, is density, and g is gravity.
Different types of turbines can be selected to best suit given heads and flows. Two main
families of turbinesinclude impulse and reaction type turbines.

Impulse turbines - Pressurized water is converted to high-speed water jets that transfer the
kinetic energy by impacting the turbine blades or buckets causing rotation. Since the water jet
acts in the open, the casing essentially acts as a splash guard. Examples of impulse turbines
include Pelton wheel, Turgo wheel and Michell-Banki(crossflow) turbines.
Reaction turbines
Water flow is directed to create a pressure difference across the blades to create lift to rotate
the turbine. Examples of reaction turbines include Kaplan and Francis turbines.

Tesla Turbine-
For the application of pico hydro, several designs can beutilized. Common
designs incorporate mechanisms such as pistons, paddles, vanes, and
blades. An unconventional design was patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913
with the objective to develop a turbine with lower complexity, cost,
andmaintenance requirements than conventional mechanisms. Within the
literature, the Tesla turbine has been commonly referred as a boundary
layer, multiple-disk, friction, or shear force turbine (Rice, 2003). The
design consists of several, closely-spaced rigid disks set in parallel on a
shaft. The co-rotating disks are centred and locked to the shaft. Located
near the centre of the disks are orifices that allow forfluid exhaust in the
axial direction. The disk-shaft assembly isset onbearings and enclosed
within a cylindrical casing. An inlet into the casing is directed
approximately tangentially.
 Figure 2
The working fluid enters the chamber through the inlet in the tangential
direction and flows along the surface ofthe disk through the disk spacings.
The flow path spirals towards the centre orifices, then exits axially through
the outlet. Due to viscosity, the fluid adheres to the disks with the no-slip
condition occurring directly adjacent to the disk surface and a velocity
gradient forming throughout the working medium away from the surface.
Through this phenomenon, some of the fluid energy is converted to
mechanical work, causing the disks and shaft to rotate.

2.3 Experimental Investigation of Tesla Turbine and its Underlying

Theory

Nikola Tesla is widely known for his outstandingachievements in generation transmission and
utilization of power. The object of this paper is to experimentally verify one such method of
extracting electrical power from fluid energy; devised by Tesla in his 1913 patent; known as
Tesla Turbine. It is to be noted that almost no work has been done using water as the working
fluid for the turbine so an attempt to reconstruct the turbine as per Nikola Teslas patent has
been made with positive results obtained by generation of useful electrical power using water
as the medium which provides a new outlook towards our understanding of the turbines and
the ways by which mechanical energy of the motive fluid can be converted into useful
electrical output.

Intriguingly, the term turbine can be deluding inexplaining Teslas innovation as it tends to
create an image of something mounted on a shaft with fan-like blades. With the advent of
20th century two types of turbines were developed to harness the fuel/fluid energy and they
were the bladed turbines driven by moving water or steam from a head and the piston
engines driven by pressurized gases produced from combustion of the fuel. The former being
a rotaryengineand the latter a reciprocating engine had one thing in common difficult and
time consuming construction plus maintenance. Nikola teslas bladeless turbine built on
entirely different mode of operation was a turning point in this regard. The turbine is the first
of its kind to utilize the boundary layer effect of the propelling fluid over the rotor discs along
with the fluid properties of adhesion and viscosity. The objective of this project is to construct
the working model of a turbine based on Teslas patent and investigate the theoretical basis of
this turbine and its possible application in rural electrificationby independent installation or as
a hybrid.
According to the 1913 patent of Nikola Tesla; the workingfluid enters the chamber through
the inlet in the tangential direction and flows along the surface of the disk through the disk
spacing. The flow path spirals towards the centre orifices, then exits axially through the
outlet. Due to fluid properties of viscosity and adhesion it adheres to the disks with the no-
slip condition occurring directly adjacent to the disk surface and a boundary layer velocity
gradient forming throughout the working medium away from the surface. As fluid slows
down and adds energy to the discs, it spirals to the centre due to pressure and velocity, where
exhaust is. As disks commence to rotate and their speed increases, fluid now travels in longer
spiral paths because of larger centrifugal force. Fluid used can be steam or a mixed fluid
(products of combustion). Through this phenomenon, some of the fluid energy is converted to
mechanical work, causing the disks and shaft to rotate. Openings are cut out at the central
portion of the discs and these communicate directly with exhaust ports formed in the side of
the casing. In a pump, centrifugal force assists in expulsion of fluid. On the contrary, in a
turbine centrifugal force opposes fluid flow that moves towards centre.

2.4DESIGN OF A BLADELESS WIND TURBINE

Turbines that would provide a quiet, safe, simple and efficient alternative to our supposedly
advanced bladed turbine aircraft engines are the need of the hour. One such turbine called the
bladeless turbine that poses to be the ideal replacement for the conventional turbines was
successfully designed. The design of such an unconventional turbine was conceived
considering the catastrophic effects that conventional turbines may have on the machines they
are incorporated. The turbine is designed in such a way that the blades of a conventional
turbine are replaced by a series of flat, parallel, co-rotating discs spaced along a shaft. The
discs are used to eliminate the expansion losses that are incurred in conventional turbines and
also to reduce noise considerably at high RPMs. Furthermore, the design of the turbine
ensures that the turbine rotates at high RPMs with total safety unlike a conventional turbine
which explodes under failure due to fatigue. The engines making use of these bladeless
turbines can run efficiently on any fuel, from sawdust to hydrogen. Bladeless turbines are
also the greenest turbines with almost nil harmful effects on the environment. Another major
advantage of this design is that this turbine has only one moving part, thereby reducing the
vibrations to a minimum. Overall this design aims at bringing out a new age turbine with
improved performance that can provide an engine that is economic, eco- friendly and reliable
as the expensive, complicated and wear prone transmission is eliminated.
In 1913 Nikola Tesla patented a bladeless centripetal flow turbine called the
Tesla turbine. It is referred to as a bladeless turbine. The turbine is also known as the
boundary layer turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect for its operation unlike a
conventional turbine where a fluid impinging upon the blades drives it. Bioengineering
researchers have referred to it as a multiple disccentrifugalpump.The performance of Tesla
turbine is found to be influenced by a number of parameters including width of discs,
number of discs, gap between discs, jet angle at inlet, inlet pressure, load applied, Mach
number and Reynoldss number.
Tesla in his patent argued that for high efficiency devices changes in velocity and direction
should be gradual. Tesla sought to design a device where the fluid was allowed to follow its
natural path with minimal disturbance, both to increase efficiency and to reduce cost and
complexity in the device. He pointed out several important factors affecting performance,
including that increasing size and speed increases the efficiency, as does decreasing the disc
spacing. He also mentions that centrifugal pressure gradients, increasing with the square of
velocity, prevent the device from running away to high speeds and thus preventing the device
from damage. Conventional turbines suffer a major drawback in practical applications
because of their low efficiencies. Their efficiency is lowered by the use of moving blades to
generate shaft power. Thus failure of a single blade results in inadequate expansion which
directly affects the overall efficiency of the turbine. On the contrary Tesla turbine consists of
a set of smooth disks, with nozzles applying a moving gas to the edge of the disc. The gases
drag on the disc by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the gas. As the
gas slows and adds energy to the discs, it spirals into the center exhaust and causes rotation of
the discs.Thus minimizing the expansion losses and increasing the efficiency of the prime
mover.

2.5Design and Computational Analysis of 1KW Tesla Turbine

Conventional turbines are mostly reaction and impulse type or both. Often technical
challenge faced by conventional turbines in Himalaya is erosion by sediment. Financial
feasibility of power plants is depended upon innovations to prevent erosion of mechanical
equipments or alternatives which better handle these conditions. Tesla turbine is an
unconventional turbine that uses fluid properties such as boundary layer and adhesion of fluid
on series of smooth disks keyed to a shaft. It has been garnering interest as Pico turbine
where local communities could manage such stations in low capital. It provides a simple
design which can be produced locally and maintained at low cost. It can be useful in plants
for pumping of water and other viscous fluids. Tesla Turbine pump has been used as a blood
pump. Due to its uniqueness it has its own clich uses giving importance to identify the scope
of use of Tesla Turbine in Nepal. This paper is presented in context of research project at
Kathmandu University to understand working of Tesla Turbine. For this design and
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of 1 kW tesla turbine was carried out. The
models thus created were used for computational analysis. The proposed uses of Tesla
Turbine in Nepal have been suggested.
Tesla Turbine is a bladeless turbine consists of a series of discs with nozzle through
which gas or liquid enters towards the edge of the disc. Momentum transfer between fluid
and disc takes place due to fluid properties of viscosity and adhesion. Discs and washers, that
separate discs, are fitted on a sleeve, threaded at the end and nuts are used to hold thick end-
plates together. The sleeve has a hole that fits tightly on the shaft. Openings are cut out
around center of the discs to communicate with exhaust ports formed in the side of the
casing. Hence tesla turbine is described as a multi disc; shear force or boundary layer turbo
machinery that works with compressible and incompressible fluid. Fluid enters radially and
exits axially through the ports. Tesla turbine has advantages of ease of production, versatility
and low maintenance. Fluid used can be steam or water. It is unaffected by sediment erosion
due to lack of vanes. A challenge related to Tesla turbine is low efficiency. Tesla turbine
claims high rotor efficiency for optimum design, but experimentally many difficulties has
been found to achieve high efficiencies in nozzles and rotors. The design of a 1 kW Tesla
turbine was carried using iterative process for head and discharge for main dimensions of the
turbine.
 CHAPTER 3
HISTORY
One of the inventions that the engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla conceived was
the Tesla disk turbine. With this device he proposed to make an useful and efficient handle of
the energy especially on electric generation, fluid power and engines field. Therefore, the
Tesla turbine also called and denoted in literature as Tesla turbomachines, multiple-disk,
shear, shear force or boundary layer turbomachinery, is a rotatory fluids machine that works
with compressible and incompressible fluid. The direction of the fluid flows in the radial and
tangential direction, forming spirals streamwise and operates principally on the laminar
regime. He referred to it as a thermodynamic converter in his original patented.
More over of conceiving the Tesla turbine, Nikola Tesla provided an useful design for other
machines operating the principle of the Tesla disk. Examples of these machines are an air
compressor, an air motor engine, a vacuum exhauster or vacuum pump. These machines use
the Tesla method of fluid propulsion that is based on two basic principals of physics of the
fluids: adhesion and viscosity. These types of turbomachinery can be applied as liquid
pumps, liquid or vapor or gas turbines, and gas compressors.
st
On October 21 , 1909 Nikola Tesla filled a patent for a pump, which uses smooth
th
rotating disks inside a volute casing. In the patent (which he received May 6 , 1913, U.S.
Patent No.1,061,142) Tesla began by pointing out the benefits of a smooth transition of
energy:
"In the practical application of mechanical power based on the use of fluid as the vehicle of
energy, it has been demonstrated that, in order to attain the highest economy, the changes in
velocity and direction of movement of the fluid should be as gradual as possible."
The Tesla turbine invention was discussed in the semitechnical press at the time of
the invention. What Tesla claims in his patents was a high efficiency due to the form of
energy transfer, based on the assumption that a highest economy will be attained when the
changes in velocity and direction of the movement of the fluid is as gradual as possible. This
can be accomplished causing the propelling fluid moving in natural paths or streamlines of
least resistance, free from constraints and disturbances caused by vanes or intricate devices in
common turbomachinery, and changing the fluid velocity and direction of movement by
imperceptible degrees.
Besides, the employment of the usual devices for deriving energy from a fluid, such a pistons,
paddles, naves and blades, necessarily introduces numerous limitations, constraints and adds
to the complication, cost of production and maintenance of the machines.The idea of Tesla,
was to incorporate this turbine to the Wandercliff project where he expected to deliver a low
cost energy for popular use. Then, his first prototypes were big in size, and the success for
high power was not achieved; the Allis Chalmers Company also bet for this design and built a
friction turbine, and later ceased their tests because of the low efficiency obtained for big
sizes and early problem with the materials .
 Figure 3 American patent No. 1,061,206 of Tesla turbine

The Tesla turbine is also known as disc turbine because the rotor of this turbine is formed
by a series of flat, parallel, co-rotating discs, which are closely spaced and attached to a
central shaft. The working fluid is injected nearly tangentially to the rotor by means of inlet
nozzle. The injected fluid, which passes through the narrow gaps between the discs,
approaches spirally towards the exhaust port located at the centre of each disc. The viscous
drag force, produced due to the relative velocity between the rotor and the working fluid,
causes the rotor to rotate. There is a housing surrounding the rotor, with a small radial and
axial clearance.
Tesla turbine has several important advantages: it is easy to manufacture, maintain
and balance the turbine, and it has high power to weight ratio, low cost, significant reduction
in emissions and noise level, a simple configuration which means an inexpensive motor. Tesla
turbine can generate power for a variety of working media like Newtonian fluids, non-
Newtonian fluids, mixed fluids, particle laden twophase flows (many aspects of two-phase
flow may be found ). This turbine has self-cleaning nature due the centrifugal force field.
This makes it possible to operate the turbine in case of non-conventional fuels like biomass
which produce solid particles. It also suggests that this bladeless turbine can be well suited to
generate power in geothermal power stations.Tesla turbo-machinery can also be used as a
compressor by modifying the housing and powering the rotor from an external source.
Moreover, it can operate either in the clockwise or anticlockwise direction.
However, a Tesla disc turbine has not yet been used commercially due to its low
efficiency and other operational difficulties. Further research and modification of Tesla
turbine were temporarily suppressed after the invention of gas turbine which was much more
efficient than Tesla turbine. From 1950 onwards both theoretical and experimental research
on Tesla turbine, Tesla pump, Tesla fan and Tesla compressor has been regenerated. Quite a
number of analytical models for the conventional configuration of Tesla turbine have been
developed. Among all these approaches available in the literature, bulk parameter analysis,
truncated series substitution methodology, integral method,and finite difference solutions are
worth mentioning. Solutions are mainly available for incompressible flows although there are
some papers containing solutions for compressible flows.
Currently the field of micro-turbine is an active research area; the bladeless Tesla
turbine because of its simplicity and robustness of structure, low cost and comparatively
better operation at high rpm may become a suitable candidate for this application. For to
happen the efficiency of the Tesla turbine, however, has to be improved. Researchers are
attempting to achieve this by modification of the configuration of the conventional Tesla
turbines.
After the success of Whittle and von Ohain, the gas turbine became the centerpoint of
research and development and the understanding of its performance and optimization has
reached quite a mature stage. The understanding of the performance of Tesla turbines is not
nearly as thorough. The present authors would that the development of a reliable and
comprehensive (and yet simple, if possible, for practical engineering use) mathematical
theory is an important step towards developing the necessary understanding of the fluid
dynamics of the Tesla disc turbine.
The objective of the present work is to formulate a mathematical theory for a Tesla
turbine, developed in the appropriate cylindrical co-ordinate system. The geometric and flow
configuration for the present study is chosen to be the same as that given in Lemma et al.
because they provide data from their recent experiments which can be used to verify the
mathematical model and for the claimed superiority in its performance. Their experimental
results show that this particular configuration of Tesla turbine has an isentropic efficiency of
about 1825% which is achieved by using rotor with only seven discs (diameter 0.02 m) and
compressed air as the working fluid.
 CHAPTER 4
PROBLEM DEFINITION
4.1 PRINCIPLE
4.1.1Boundary Layer
In Tesla turbine the effects of boundary layer are of main importance and through the
boundary layer occurs all the change of energy. Figure and Figure depict the formation of a
boundary layer near the leading edge of the boundary layer and its transition to turbulent.
Fluid dynamic forces depend in a complex way on the viscosity of the fluid. As the fluid
moves,the molecules right next to the surface stick to the surface. The molecules just above
the surface are slowed down in their collisions with the molecules sticking to the surface.
These molecules in turn slow down the flow just above them. The farther one moves away
from the surface, the fewer the collisions affected by the object surface. This creates a thin
layer of fluid near the surface in which the velocity changes from zero at the surface to the
free stream value away from the surface. This layer is what is called the boundary layer
because it occurs on the boundary of the fluid. In reality, the effects of vortices and
instabilities are three-dimensional.

Figure
4Schematic representation of laminar and turbulent boundary layer.
Boundary layers may be either laminar (layered), or turbulent (disordered) depending on the
value of the Reynolds number. For lower Reynolds numbers, the boundary layer is laminar
and the streamwise velocity changes uniformly in the direction away normal to the wall, as
shown on the left side of the Figure . For higher Reynolds numbers, the boundary layer is
turbulent and the streamwise velocity is characterized by unsteady swirling flows inside the
boundary layer, as shown on the right side of the Figure 4. Besides Figure 4 shows the
boundary layer thickness and the displacement thickness of the boundary layer _, which its
solution for a flat plate are due to Blausius.
The plots showed in Figure 5 are only for laminar built up layer, they are plotted until the
transitional Reynolds number.

Figure 5
For Figure 5 can be stated that with higher velocities the thickness of the boundary layer is
lower, and the critical point (end of the line plot defined by the critical Reynolds of transition
Rextr) starts nearer to the leading edge. Moreover the boundary layer for the air is thicker
than for the water due to the fact that the air has a lower kinematic viscosity than the air.
Generally, the thickness of a turbulent boundary layer is larger than that of a laminar
boundary layer owing to the greater energy losses and mixing transports in the turbulent
layer. At the outer region of the rotor of the turbine the local average velocity is lower than at
the outlet, then formation or build up of boundary layer is present at the beginning, and
transition to turbulent happens when the flow accelerates. In conclusion both laminar and
turbulent boundary layers, with present of a core external flow (external to the boundary
layer), are present inside the rotor of the turbine. The external flow reacts to the edge of the
boundary layer just as it would to the physical surface of an object.
The order of magnitude of all the terms in momentum equations at of order of magnitude
equal to the thickness of the boundary layer because the region of external flow is minimum,
and the boundary layer is in order of magnitude equal to the gaps between disks in the rotor
of the turbine, then all the terms in NS equations have to be solved, and analytical exact
 solution does not exist for turbulent flow, so the most powerful tool nowadays is the CFD
tool. However it is important to highlight that the tool is not so powerful for flows in
transition region.

4.1.2Laminar Flow
Laminar flow is also referred to as streamline or viscous flow. These terms are descriptive of
the flow because, in laminar flow, layers of fluid flowing over one another at different speeds
with virtually no mixing between layers, fluid particles move in definite and observable paths
or streamlines, and the flow is characteristic of viscous fluid or is one in which viscosity of
the fluid plays a significant role.

Figure 6 Fluid Sheared between two plates

For a Newtonian fluid, with constant viscosity, the shear stress is proportional to the shear
strain rate or in other terms to the gradient of velocity normal to the wall.
= v/y
For no-slip wall conditions, Fluent uses the properties of the flow adjacent to the wall
boundary to predict the shear stress on the fluid at the wall. In laminar flows this calculation
simply depends on the velocity gradient at the wall.
The Reynolds number for flow in pipe, with length scale as the diameter, has the following
ranges:
Laminar flow ReD < 2,000
Transition flow 2,000 < ReD < 2,000
Turbulent flow ReD > 4,000
 CHAPTER 5
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

It is possible to fabricate sub-cm Tesla turbines with commercially available technologyto

achieve over 40% mechanical efficiency. The rotor can be made modular and stacked to meet
the input flow rate without performance degradation, and therefore this design is suitable for
tailoring to residential and remote power applications.Turbine performance is very sensitive
to hardware and to operating parameters, andthis is likely the reason for large discrepancies
among the performances of published turbines. By applying appropriate design constraints,
turbines can be designed with consistent performance. For the same input specification,
multiple designs are possible. A unified design tool can provide these choices for turbine
design, making it easier to manufacture and deploy optimized turbines. This can extend the
turbines operating range. Smaller-than-cm rotors might require micro structuring of the discs
to increase momentum transfer in order to achieve power densities in the watt/cmrange.
Open-loop systems will potentially require filters that remove particulates in order to achieve
power densities in the watt/cmrange.To achieve higher than watt/cm3 power density, a fuel-
based turbine might be needed.
Rapidly increasing demands of the power generation are asking for fast development in the
area ofrenewable energies. The generation of home level energy and use of distributed
generation system is the key necessity of the present age. So the idea to return back the out of
market turbine again to the practical implementation will be a great milestone in the way of
achieving the green energy. For the revival to tesla turbine it was necessary to withdraw its
limitation. The new design of Bladeless Turbineswhich uses both the pressure pull and the
boundary layer effect, has been proved very economical and efficient design and it can be
used in the future to get rid of the polluted power generation.Bladeless Turbines is a versatile
turbine. It can be used as pumped storage systems. It can be used as radial ventricular
devices which are gentle on blood pumps and doesnt causes loss of platelets because of its
energy transfer mechanism. Bladeless pump has been reported to handle different kinds of
industrial and agricultural and waste fluids. It can also be alternative to Improved Water Mill
(IWM). It can be concluded that the study on Bladeless Turbines has yielded important
understanding of the turbine. The concept of a boundary-layer turbine originated about a
century ago, in the research of Nikola Tesla.Fluid parameters describing the interaction of
disc with fluid is studied .A high-velocity of fluid is injected tangentially into the spaces
between a stack of closely spaced discs, flowing inwardly in a spiral toward a centrally
located exhaust. The drag between the surface of the discs and the fast moving fluid results in
the conversion of fluid flow to mechanical power. This turbine was invented in response to
the problems with bladed turbines and also with the intent to use it to help generate electricity
from steam from geothermal sources. The construction permits free expansion and
contraction of each plate individually under the varying influence of heat and centrifugal
force and possesses a number of other advantages which are of considerable practical
importance. This turbine directly converts kinetic motion of the fluid into rotary motion via
the boundary layer effect and adhesion. The boundary layer turbine is simple to build,
maintain and modify. This turbine is safer in the case of disc/blade failure or other parts
failure, since the housing compartment or casing can be made strong enough to contain
broken or cracked discs and often the failure of one or more discs will not necessarily lead to
the failure of the entire turbine. This design is very sturdy because the discs and rotor are
bolted together and there is minimal wear except on bearings. Also it does not suffer from
cavitation or particulate problems that many turbines and fans must deal with andcan work
with a wide variety of working fluids and over a wide range of temperatures. This turbine is
an efficient self-starting prime mover which may be operated as a steam or mixed fluid
turbine at will, without changes in construction and is on this account very convenient. In
spite of all the above mentioned advantages the boundary layer turbine is limited to small
scale application. However this turbine has the potential to eliminate all the disadvantages of
the present day conventional turbines in the near future. In order to achieve this the design of
the turbine will be modified slightly and an optimum design will be arrived at.
The above results from the experimentation reflect the vast implications of the bladeless
turbine in the industry as well asother sectors such as rural electrification. The results prove
and make a benchmark in our understanding of the fluids and their utilization at our disposal
in the form of mechanical and electrical applications. The conventional turbines have long
been trying to eliminate the losses due to viscosity and boundary layer formation but the
present work experimentally proves the successful utilization of these two fluid properties
into an altogether new system; namely Bladeless Turbines with added benefits of reduced or
no cost of blade maintenance, simple and cheap construction with compact units at use. It is
to be noted that the peak efficiencies achieved in this analysis are relatively high compared to
thedocumented overall efficiencies of past Bladeless Turbines investigations. As stated in the
assumptions, losses due to flows in the inlet nozzle and exhaust are not considered in this
analysis and likely make up for the shortfall seen. That said, this analysis can still be a useful
tool towards optimizing the turbine design when used in a comparative manner. Total
required pressure for the preliminary design was in the higher region for pico hydro systems
which is in the realm of impulse type turbines, such as Pelton or Turgo wheel designs. These
designs are established technologies and popular amongst users. The implication of operating
under high head limits the application to fewer sites that have water flows that can match this
requirement. There is no argument that the design is relatively simple, however to achieve
appreciable power generation, larger sized components are required. Material costs will
increase due to this, as will manufacturing costs since equipment must be sized to handle
these components.
 CHAPTER 6
ADVANTAGES

Use of different kind of exotics fluids, with particles, droplets, multiphase, etc.; bladeless
turbines can ingest liquids with solids particles in the working fluid or fuel without damage.
In geothermal applications can ingest the total effluent without heat exchangers and or steam
brine separators as are used in Kalina cycle process for geothermal applications; besides, for
pump case, a complete list of fluids and materials that have been pumped successfully are
reported by Possell, showing the versatility of the bladeless of Tesla pump and the utility of
Tesla turbine to handle different kinds of fluids. Then, unlike conventional pumps and
turbines that are easily damaged by contaminants, the bladeless Tesla turbine or pump can
handle particles and corrosives in the flow as well as gases with particles or ash or high
viscosity fluids. Friction pumps are commercialized now by Discflo demonstrating its
feasibility for hard pumps fluids.with low noise but a high velocities vibrations can appear
and the rotor has to be manufactured carefully. With lower vibration, the overall safety of the
machine increases. Besides, it has proved good behaviour on intermittent operation, shut off
and rapid load variation.
The bladeless Tesla turbine engine can turn at much higher speeds with total safety. If a
conventional bladed turbine engine goes critical or fails, it will has exploding parts slicing
through hydraulic lines, control surfaces and maybe even personal. With the bladeless Tesla
turbine this is not a danger because it will not explode. If it does go critical, the failed
component will not explode but implode into tiny pieces, which are ejected through the
exhaust while the undamaged components continue to provide thrust.
Destructive effects and deposition or impingement is no present in this machine due to the
principle of impulsion that uses the fluid characteristics of adhesion and viscosity, and not
pressure and impact as conventional turbines, which suffer high structural loads with the
differential pressure phenomena between the sides of a blade. Another facility of the principle
of the Tesla disk is the double clockwise and anticlockwise direction of rotation in a single
machine.
Besides, with the gradual change of direction of the velocity and also the fact that flow
separation is no presented because the fluid is accelerated in the flow between corotating
disks then unstable flow is no present with undesirable vibrations. With these characteristics
this machine can be operated at high velocities without mechanical problems, speeds until
250,000 rpm in a turbine, were reported by Navy of USA and angular speeds until 28,000
rpm in an oil pump were reported by Posell.
Considered from the mechanical standpoint, the turbine is astonishingly simple and
economical in construction, (low first costs) and by the very nature of its construction, (ease
of balancing) should prove to possess such a better durability and freedom from wear and
breakdown than others, far in advance of any type of steam or gas motor of the present day.
The internal static pressure inside the housing is very low, for this reason heavy cast housings
are not necessary in order to assure its structural resistance. Safety features of the bladeless
devices are inherent in their design and operation. Low vibration increases safety over the
structural assembly. While conventional turbines will overspeed to destruction without
special sensors, bladeless turbines has its own overspeed protection: As load is removed and
the rotor begins to gain speed the centrifugal force increases at a rate which is the square of
the speed and this force will equal the inward pressure.
 CHAPTER 7
DISADVANTAGES

Tesla turbomachinery proclaims high rotor efficiency for optimum design, but experimentally
has been found many difficulties to achieve high efficiencies in nozzles and rotors, in the case
of turbines, because of the high velocity of the fluid when it flows through the inlet nozzle.
This means that the performance of the overall turbine is strongly dependent on the efficiency
of the nozzle and the nozzle-rotor interaction and its irreversibility. As a result, only modest
machines efficiencies have been demonstrated. Principally for these reasons the Tesla-type
turbomachinery has had little utilization.
In conventional bladed turbine the total losses are a fraction of the available energy. This
fraction increase rapidly when turbine size decreased because the losses are proportional to
the wetted area of the housing and static parts. For this reason, multiple disks turbines are not
competitive with conventional turbines over the major portion of the power-size spectrum,
because of the high velocity of the flow at outer radius, in bigger turbines.
This turbine is a high-speed low-torque machine. Therefore, low performance is achieved in
applications with big sizes. The inertia of market to common engines, lack of technology and
understanding of friction turbine have impended the development of this technology, then
great producers of turbomachines must evaluate the viability of this technology.
 CHAPTER 8
APPLICATIONS
As a turbine to generate the power comparatively nearer/equal to the conventional power
generation techniques .
As higher efficient motors with low wear, friction, warping) motors.
As a pump to transfer not only liquids but also other materials like live fish, ethylene glycol,
fly ash, blood, abrasive, rocks, and biomass.
For power generation instead of wind vanes.
As impellers in the aerospace applications, nuclear power plants.
As a Fuel Cell (miniature/micro-scale power generation systems).
In hospitals for the transfer of blood, transfer of drugs at a controlled rate, etc.
As a replica for steam turbines in aircrafts.
As a pump for a high vacuum application.
As a UPS (Unpredictable Power Supply) .
Used in the places having limitations of diffuser and collector in other type of turbines.
Efficiency is maximized, when boundary layer thickness is approximately equal to inter-disc
spacing.
Turbines of this design can operate at temperatures above 1000C.
Also be used in low temperature conditions (room temperature).
It has only few moving parts (cheaper manufacture) and lubrication is required only for shaft
bearings (environmentally friendly).
There is no loss of the inlet fluid which can be collected at the center of the rotor.
In conventional pumps, fans, compressors, generators, circulators, blowers, turbines,
transmissions, various hydraulic and pneumatic systems.
Used in naval applications.
To produce a required pressure differential.
 CHAPTER 9
FUTURE WORK
The Tesla turbomachines is worthy of further investigation, especially to understand flow regimes
and the complex process of transition.
Physical modeling of this machine is very useful, valuable and recommended in order to assured
the real efficiency of a machine of this type, while computational modeling as well as analytical
solutions will reveal good capabilities of flow modeling and would be a good complement to the
experimental research.
Some of the following topics would be interesting for further investigation:

Compressible analysis of the Tesla turbine.

Effect of the number of nozzles on the performance of the turbine.

Optimization of the geometry, following analytical work of Lawn and Rice as well as the
experience gain through experimental work of Rice, and recently Schmidt .

Improvement of the numerical method in order to handle transitional flows as well as evaluation
of others turbulent models to use in the simulations.

When considered in conjunction with fabrication capabilities, this research provides aguide to
what is achievable in terms of scaling down these systems. It also provides atool for
exploring Tesla turbine operation. However, more work on disk micro structuring is needed
in order to enhance the friction coefficient and improve the power density of the turbine as it
scales down. More work on full admission need to be investigated as losses due to partial
admission increase as the rotor scales down. Some of the losses are not modeled or derived,
but estimated from published papers. Mechanical to electrical conversion is not addressed in
this research. A practical implementation is needed to evaluate the turbine design tool for
power generation and
to tailor it to a particular application. Though the research here focuses specifically on water
turbines, the design tool can be used for any fluid. Because Tesla turbines and Tesla pumps
operate on the same principle, the conclusions in this dissertation can also be extended to
Tesla pump specifications. A future step could additionally extend the analysis here to
compressible flow and to two-phase flows, which would potentially enable solar CHP and
CPVT implementations.
 CHAPTER 11
CONCLUSION

It is worth mentioning that the Tesla turbomachinery as a turbine, compressor, and pump
specially fits into those instances where compacted unities are required for generating
electrical power or transferring materials or pumping fluids are required as in the case of
isolated areas. It should be noticed that, as a unique source of rotating motion of this type,
Tesla machines can run under a very wide spectrum of not only fuels but also fluids in
general. Tesla-type turbomachinery probably cannot prove competitive in an application in
which more conventional machines have adequate efficiency and performance. Thus, it
cannot be expected to displace conventional water pumps or conventional water turbines or
gas turbines. Tesla-type turbomachinery can be considered as source of standard in
applications in which conventional machines are inadequate. This includes applications for
small shaft power, or the use of very viscous fluid or non-Newtonian fluids. It is an advantage
that multiple-disk turbomachines can operate with abrasive two-phase flow mixtures with
less erosion of material from the rotor.
In general, it has been found that the efficiency of the rotor can be very high, at least equal to
that achieved by conventional rotors. But it has proved very difficult to achieve efficient
nozzles in the case of turbines, and efficient diffusion for pumps and compressors. As a
result, only modest machine efficiencies have been demonstrated. Principally for these
reasons the Tesla-type turbo-machinery has had little utilization. There is, however, a
widespread belief that it will find applications in the future, at least in situations in which
conventional turbo-machinery is not adequate. It can be concluded that the study on Bladeless
Turbines has yielded important understanding of the turbine. The concept of a boundary-layer
turbine originated about a century ago, in the research of Nikola Tesla.Fluid parameters
describing the interaction of disc with fluid is studied .A high-velocity of fluid is injected
tangentially into the spaces between a stack of closely spaced discs, flowing inwardly in a
spiral toward a centrally located exhaust. The drag between the surface of the discs and the
fast moving fluid results in the conversion of fluid flow to mechanical power. This turbine
was invented in response to the problems with bladed turbines and also with the intent to use
it to help generate electricity from steam from geothermal sources. The construction permits
free expansion and contraction of each plate individually under the varying influence of heat
and centrifugal force and possesses a number of other advantages which are of considerable
practical importance.The flow in the Tesla turbine was simulated with different geometrical
models, as well as laminar and turbulent approach. Since the flow itself is found in a
transition regime with multiple processes -as transition, relaminarization, recirculation,
between other phenomena- an exact simulation that full fills all the physical requirements is
quite difficult to achieve with CFD tool. Nevertheless both approximations are valid and they
would show different features, characteristics and behaviour typical for each case and in
extension for the Tesla turbine. One of these differences is that the inflection point of radial
velocity profile presented in laminar solution disappears in the turbulence model, for which
the turbulent effects act as a mechanism of balanced in the axial direction.