Tesla Turbine

Raj Basuta

Beau Camaren

Monty Dhimmar

Frank Keefer

Lo Saetern

ME 191Fall 2010

Review the Tesla Turbine

What is it?◦Turbine with flat, encased, co-rotating disks◦Extract energy from a fluid inserted

tangentially◦Converts kinetic energy of fluid into

mechanical energy of a rotating shaft through frictional energy transfer

Why study it?◦To explore why such a potentially green

energy conversion device has not made it to wide-spread industrial use today

Tesla Turbine Metrics Table 

Description Importance (5 > 1) Metrics Units Initial Goals Final Values  

Net Weight 3 Weight lbs < 100 ~60  

Noise Level 2 Level of Noise dB < 65 ~70  

Output Power 5 Power kW 2.5 1.66  

Time to Max P 4 Time s < 60 78  

Efficiency 4 Power/Power 80% - 90% 30%  

Overall Cost 4 Cost USD < 500 $760  

Unit Size 3 Volume ft3 1 1  

Disk Size Function of Power Size inch 9-10 9  

Number of DisksFunction of Power Amount 10-20 10  

Inlet Fluid Pressure 5 Pressure psi < 100 300 150 

Early DifficultiesFlatness of disks was out of specification with

10 gage 1018 steel sheet being warped

◦Tested 13 disks with dial indicator after having fabricated 20, and selected the best 10 for use

◦Using a lathe, flats were machined on the jam nuts to match the lightly ground and polished disks all relative to shaft to maintain uniformity of system

Test Setup

Sensor CalibrationSpeed Sensor – Honeywell 3010AN

Pressure Diff. Transducer – PX771100WDI

Inlet Pressure Transducer – Honeywell

Thermocouples – J Type from Omega

Flow TestingUsed campus energy lab,

compressor, and 9 ft3 tank charged to 200 psi and discharged into the turbine

◦An orifice plate, thermocouples, and pressure transducers with Labtech software, were used to find inches of water

◦After running calculations to convert, a flow of approximately 5 lb/minute was found

RPM TestingWith the same tank and compressor

set-up and charging to 300 psi and discharged into the turbine over a span of about 4.5 minutes

A speed sensor was mounted on the turbine endplate to count the 60 teeth of a sprocket fixed to the shaft as it spun

◦Maximum RPM was calculated as 4000

◦http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zxp_ML1kO0

Power TestingCould not use Dyno, so Power

found through Kinetic Energy calculations using inertia of system and LabView

LabView sensors:

◦RPM◦Time◦Pressure◦Inlet and Outlet Temp◦Flow Rate

Using this information the fallowing graph was produced

Power Testing

Modifications

•Decreased the gaps between disks•Decreased internal space

Optimized Internals Power Testing

Equations for power

Equations for Efficiency

  RPMmax Delta t (s) Power (HP) Efficiency

Unmod.+Dyno. 1027 15 1.185381 -

Unmod. 3249 78 2.258  29.0934%

Mod. 3257 78 2.26 28.74%

Mod.+Dyno. 1309 23 1.255913  -

Power Testing

FinThank You Mechanical

Engineering Department Faculty and Students, your efforts are truly appreciated

Questions?