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Development Of Tesla Turbine For Green Energy

Applications

Conference Paper · December 2010

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2984.0969

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PROCEEDINGS OF SECOND NATIONAL CONFERENCE
IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING for RESEARCH
AND POSTGRADUATE STUDIES (2nd NCMER 2010)

December 3-4, 2010

UMP Pekan, Pahang

“Towards Research & Commercialization”

EDITORS:

MD. MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN

MOHD YUSOF TAIB
AHMAD RASDAN ISMAIL
AHMAD RAZLAN YUSOFF
MOHD AKRAMIN MOHD ROMLAY

Organized by
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Pahang
National Conference in Mechanical Engineering Research and Postgraduate Studies (2 nd NCMER 2010)
3-4 December 2010, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UMP Pekan, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia; pp. 671-680
ISBN: 978-967-0120-04-1; Editors: M.M. Rahman, M.Y. Taib, A.R. Ismail, A.R. Yusoff, and M.A.M. Romlay
©Universiti Malaysia Pahang

DEVELOPMENT OF TESLA TURBINE FOR GREEN ENERGY

APPLICATION

S.J. Foo, W.C. Tan and M. Shahril

1,2
School of Mechatronic Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Campus Ulu Pauh, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
Phone: +6012-5515918, Fax: +604-9885167
E-mail: tweechoon@unimap.edu.my

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a fundamental ideal to design household green energy generator based
on the concept of Tesla turbine. The critical issue of this green energy generator is
converting energy store within household water supply without significant head loss. 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. The Tesla turbine is made of
acrylic and aluminium. The performance analysis is conducted on the Tesla turbine and
the head loss of the whole system is 0.44 m with the torque of 0.021 Nm.

Keywords: Tesla turbine, renewable energy.

INTRODUCTION

This paper introduces development of Tesla turbine for household usage as green
energy generator with the objective to generate electricity using household water supply
without significant head loss. Through the data provided from the Jabatan Kerja Raya
(JKR), the residential area at Perlis has an average 10.3 m residual head for a single
storey building, which is ample to supply water to a single storey water tank (Azmi,
2010). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to use Tesla Turbine to convert the excessive
energy to usable electrical energy without affecting the supply of water to the single
storey water tank. The Tesla Turbine is invented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. It is known
for its bladeless centripetal flow turbine (Cairn, 2003). The term “bladeless”
differentiate Tesla turbine from the conventional turbine which consists blades to
propel. 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. The Tesla turbine is a rotor composed of flat parallel co rotating disks
spaced along a shaft (Logan et. al., 2003). A through of fluid between the disks results
in momentum exchange between the fluid and disks and hence shaft torque and power.
In other words, the fluid drags on the disk by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the
surface layer of the gas. As the gas slows and adds energy to the disks, it spirals in to
the center exhaust. Since the rotor has no projections, it is very sturdy (Drury, 2009).
In general, it has been found that the efficiency of the rotor can be very high, at
least equal to that achieved by conventional rotor. But it has proved very difficult to
achieve efficient nozzle in the case of turbines. For pumps and compressors, efficient
diffusion after the rotor has proven difficult to achieve. As a result, only modest

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machine efficiencies have been demonstrated. Principally for these reason the Tesla-
type turbo machinery had little utilization. There is, however, a widespread belief that it
will find application in the future, at least in situation in which conventional turbo
machinery is not adequate. This includes the use with viscous fluids, fluids containing
abrasive particle, and two-phase fluid. An analytical result (Warren, 1991), claimed that
the rotor efficiency using laminar flow can be very high, even above 95%. However, in
order to attain high rotor efficiency, the quantity of water flow rate must be made at low
level which means high rotor efficiency is achieved at the expense of using a large
number of disks and hence a physically large rotor.
Experiments with prototype turbines published in peer-review journals indicate a
somewhat linear relationship between turbine efficiency and rotor rpm. Warren (1991)
indicates two things: The efficiency peaks as the rpm varies with load, and the peak
increases with pressure. The data suggests that the compressed air-driven prototype may
achieve 40% efficiency at around 130 psi and 19k rpm. Tesla turbine can be one of the
alternative renewable energy which is affordable and free pollution. From Strategies for
Promotion and Development of Malaysia Renewable Energy (Kannan, 1999) claim that
the potential use of renewable energy in Malaysia is important: only 4% of the
hydropower is tapped today. Only 48% of the available biomass waste is used today for
energy production. For solar energy, the market for domestic solar water heaters in only
emerging and stand-alone photovoltaic system could be cost-effective for rural
electrification in remote. Tesla turbine can be one of the alternative solutions for
development of Malaysia renewable energy.

BACIS DESIGN OF TESLA TURBINE

Tesla Turbine consisted of an array of parallel thin disks very close to each other, kept
apart by spacers and assembled on a shaft, forming a rotor which was fitted in a
cylindrical housing its ends closed by plates properly fitted with bearings to hold the
rotor shaft. In the central region of the disks, close to the shaft, exhaust ports were
opened, with gaps in the spacers, thus providing an exit to the atmosphere. A nozzle was
located tangentially to the bore of the casing, feeding the working fluid, onto the disks,
rotating them while proceeding to the exhaust ports (Couto, 2006). As show in Figure 1,
Tesla turbine has a number of closely-spaced flat disks mounted on a shaft, driven by
fluid flowing between them, in spirals concentric with the shaft, toward a center outlet.
The energy transfer does not occur through impingement. Instead, the fluid's energy is
imparted to the disks through the force of adhesion. When the fluid makes contact with
a disk its molecules adhere to the disk and resist departure. The force of the fluid works
against the resistance of the disk and some of the fluid's energy imparts to the disk. The
force of viscosity, or adhesion between layers of fluid molecules, enables more fluid to
act on the disk than is able to adhere to it. The layer of fluid which is able to act on the
disk through viscosity is called the boundary layer. As the fluid loses energy it is drawn
out by the lower pressure in the turbine outlet (Beans, 1961).

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 Figure 1: Flow Trajectories in the Tesla Turbine.

PARAMETERS OF TESLA TURBINE

In any design process, all design factors and parameters have to be considered and
optimized, in order to achieve the best performance of a product. Parameters that have
been considered in this design are discussed below.

Working Fluid

The working fluid of this project is the water which supply to the resident of Perlis
where having , , . Outlet water
from Tesla turbine should at least reach the reservoir tank of single storey building in
Perlis residential area.

Gap between discs

Tesla turbine design has the fluid flow between two parallel disks in which the gap is
small enough to limit the flow to boundary layer conditions. If the flow rate is limited,
the result is laminar flow. The energy transfer takes place by the shear forces between
fluid and rotor.
According to a paper by Barlis, 1991, the disk gap is a critical parameter in the
design. The analysis by Brieter and Pohlhausen, 1962 shows that the optimum gap size
to maintain the boundary layer are addressed by Eq. (1) and Eq. (2).

Disk gap, (1)

(2)

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 The Polhausen parameter has an important influence on the performance,
because it determines to what extent the bulk fluid follows the rotation of the disc, and it
controls the shape of the disk-to-disc velocity distribution. Too small Ph values
approach the case of the solid body rotation, while too large values correspond to almost
decoupled boundary layer on the two discs and a non-rotating core in-between. For this
reason, in friction pumps the Polhausen parameter is usually kept within narrow limit,

Number of disk

The flow rate for a single disk gap can be calculated as in Eq. (3).

(3)

and that data used to determine how many disks are required for a given flow through
the turbine. Hasinger and Kehrt, 1963 provide a dimensionless parameter that has
essential machine data. Using the above empirical Eq. (1) and Eq. (2), the number of
disks is able to estimate as Eq. (4).

(4)

Normally the number of disk range, . And given that,

(5)

A larger diameter provides increased shaft torque and is limited by centrifugal stress,
while smaller diameter provides increased shaft speed and is limited by bearing friction.
After doing some algebra, the following equation is formed

(6)

The various analyses show that the flow rate between the disks must be kept relatively
low for good efficiency. Logically enough, this says that you have to increase the
number of disks in proportion to the flow rate. Thus,

(7)

Energy Grade Line (EGL)

It is often convenient to represent the level of mechanical energy graphically using

heights to facilitate visualization of the various terms of the Bernoulli equation. This is
done by dividing each term of the Bernoulli equation by g to give in Eq. (8).

(8)

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Turbine Efficiency

By convention, turbine efficiency is based on net head, H rather that gross head Hgross.
6SHFLILFDOO\Ș turbine is defined as the ratio of brake horsepower output (actual turbine
output shaft power) to water horsepower (power extracted from the water flowing
through the turbine) as in Eq. (9).

(9)

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF TESLA TURBINE

Based on the above formula and project constraints, the conceptual design is given in
Figure 2.

Figure 2: Conceptual Design of Tesla Turbine

ANALYSIS OF TESLA TURBINE

Initially, the inlet flow rate of the residential area in Perlis has to be determined. A
simple experiment is done to determine the inlet flow rate as tabulated in Table 1. The
experiment is conducted in 3 single storey houses at Taman Semarak 2, Kuala Perlis. It
found that the inlet flow rate of the residential area varies accordingly to the distance
between the reservoir and the house where the measurement is taken. The lowest flow
rate 0.32 kg/s is chosen to be the inlet flow rate for the simulation, because if a Tesla
turbine is design for a high flow rate, the rotor might not even rotate due to the
exceeding number of disc.
By using the empirical Eq. (1) and Eq. (4), the disc gap and the number of disk
can be estimated. Data in Table 2 is the estimation of disk gap. The 1000 RPM is
applied in the equation because of low speed generator or alternator generates powers at
around 100 to 600 rpm (Bond, 2010). The number of disc in Table 3 is determined by
using Hasinger and Kehrt, 1963 provided dimensionless parameter. According to Nikola

675
Tesla, 1913, the torque of the Tesla Turbine is directly proportional to the number of
disc. Thus, the highest number of disk is chosen as the design parameter for the
simulation.

Table 1: Inlet flow rate of residential area in Perlis.

Mass Flow Rate

Count Location 1 Location 2 Location 3
1 0.33 0.40 0.49
2 0.32 0.41 0.48
3 0.33 0.39 0.47
4 0.33 0.40 0.47
5 0.33 0.40 0.48
6 0.32 0.40 0.48
7 0.33 0.39 0.49
8 0.32 0.40 0.48
9 0.33 0.39 0.46
10 0.32 0.39 0.48
Average 0.32 0.40 0.48

Table 2: Estimation of Disc Gap

RPM 1000 104.7198

Ph b,m b,mm
2.5 0.000244 0.244301
2.6 0.000254 0.254073
2.7 0.000264 0.263845
2.8 0.000274 0.273617
2.9 0.000283 0.283389
3 0.000293 0.293162
3.1 0.000303 0.302934
3.2 0.000313 0.312706
3.3 0.000322 0.322478
3.4 0.000332 0.332250
3.5 0.000342 0.342022

Table 4 shows the final torque of the iteration of commercial software, EFD.Lab. The
final iteration means that the torque of the Tesla Turbine had converged and reaches to
equilibrium. By observing Figure 3, from iteration 0 to 10 shown a wavy pattern of
graph which is due in the early state the inlet water is required time to filling up the
housing of the Tesla turbine. When the space in the housing is fully filled, we are able
to observe that the torque is started to build up until it reaches 0.021 N.m.
Figure 4 shows the flow trajectories of the Tesla turbine. From the flow
trajectory, it is observed that the streamline of the fluid circles around the disc and
directed to the outlet. As the particle of fluid moving towards, it will result a momentum
change between the fluid and the disc hence shaft torque and power. Table 5 show the
static pressure and velocity for both inlet and outlet of Tesla Turbine.

676
 Table 3: Number of Disc

A q n
10 0.015613 20
11 0.017174 19
12 0.018735 17
13 0.020297 16
14 0.021858 15
15 0.023419 14
16 0.024981 13
17 0.026542 12
18 0.028103 11
19 0.029665 11
20 0.031226 10
158
Number of Disk 14

Table 4: Torque of Tesla Turbine

Goal Unit Value

Torque [N*m] 0.021054786

Figure 3: Graph of Torque VS Iteration

Table 5: Pressure and Velocity of Inlet and Outlet

Goal Name Unit Value

Inlet Pressure, P1 [Pa] 103896.0769
Outlet Pressure,P2 [Pa] 101325.0062
Inlet Velocity,V1 [m/s] 4.19738696
Outlet Velocity,V2 [m/s] 0.68030031

677
 Figure 4: Flow Trajectories in Tesla Turbine

Using the obtained the torque, the efficiency of the Tesla Turbine can be estimated from
Eq. (9).

6.8%

Through the calculation, it is found that the efficiency of the Tesla Turbine at 1000
RPM will have an efficiency of 6.8%.

By using Bernoulli equation and energy grade line (EGL) in Eq. (8), the head loss cause
by the Tesla Turbine can be found.

From the calculation, the head loss resulted by the Tesla Turbine is 0.44m.

CONCLUSION

In current stage, it is notice that a Tesla Turbine with diameter of 110mm and 21 disks
will generate a torque of 0.021N.m. Besides, it will have an efficiency of 6.8% which
fairly low compare to the results from other journals and research. This is probably due
to the limitation of low inlet flow rate. Besides, this Tesla Turbine will result a head loss
of 0.44mm which is still within the acceptable range. On the next plan, optimization
process will proceed. Parameter such as disc size, disk gap, and number of disc will be

678
optimized. The purpose of the optimization is to obtain the best design parameter for
Tesla turbine to work under low inlet water pressure.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Universiti Malaysia Perlis for providing financial
support under Short Term Grant 9001-00197.

REFERENCES

Azmi B. Othman, (2010), Personal communication, Jabatan Kerja Raya Perlis, Perlis.
Barlis, G.A. (1991), A Qualitative Analysis of Tesla Turbomachine. Conference
Proceedings of the IV International Tesla Symposium,. Serbian Academy of
Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Beans, E.W. (1961), Performance Characteristic of Friction Disc Turbine, Ph.D. Thesis,
Department of Mechanical Enginnering, Pennsylvania State of University, U.S.
Cairn, W.M.J. (2003). The Tesla Disc Turbine, Salisbury Printing Co. Ltd., Great
Britain.
Couto, H.S., Duarte, J.B.F. and Bastos-Netto, D., (2006), The Tesla Turbine Revisited,
8th Asia-Pasific International Symposium on Combustion and Energy
Utilization, Sochi, pp 1.
Drury, R. (2009), http://home.earthlink.net/~rtdrury/stc.turbine.html>>>STC turbine
link, 12 August 2010.
Hasinger, S.H. and Kehrt, L.G., (1963). Investigation of Shear-Force pump, Journal of
Engineering for Power, 83(3), pp201-207.
Kannan, K.S. (1999). Strategies for Promotion and Development of Malaysia
Renewable Energy. Renewable Energy. 16 pp 1231-1232.
nd
Logan, E. & Roy, R. (2003) Handbook of Turbomachinery 2 Edition Revised and
Expanded, Marcel Dekker, Inc. USA.
M. C. Breiter and K. Pohlhausen, (1962). Laminar Flow Between Two Parallel Rotating
Disks, U. S. Air Force System Command, Aerospace Research Laboratory,
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Nikola Tesla, (1913). Tesla Turbine, http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/tesla1.htm, 3
August 2010.
Warren, R. (1991). Tesla Turbomachinery. Conference Proceedings of the IV
International Tesla Symposium,. Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts,
Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

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 NOMENCLATURE

A number of disc
b disk gap m
g acceleration due to gravity m.s 2
H net head m
number of disk gap
p pressure N.m2
Polhausen parameter
q flow rate m 3.s1
flow rate kg.s1
inner radius m.
outer radius m.
torque of shaft N.m
v velocity m.s1
volume flow rate m3.s1
z elevation head m

Greek symbols

Q kinematic viscosity m 2.s1

dynamic viscousity kg. m-1.s1
3
U density of the fluid kg.m
1
rotor angular velocity rad.s
Ș turbine turbine efficiency

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