Effect of disc spacing and pressure flow on a modifiable Tesla turbine: Experimental and numerical analysis

Galindo, Yovany; Reyes-Nava, Juan A.; Hernández, Yanhsy; Ibáñez, Guillermo; Moreira-Acosta, Joel; Beltrán, Alberto

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2021.116792

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…It was found that the rectangular nozzle shape advantageously enables flow contact with the whole set of discs. The rectangular nozzle design advantageously provides flow contact with the full set of discs, which occurs at different places during entry and departure from the casing (Galindo et al, 2021). For a basic design, efficiencies can vary from 65% to 80%, while more complicated systems can achieve efficiencies of up to 85%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and experimental investigations on a bladeless turbine: Tesla's cohesion-type innovation

Sivaramakrishnaiah,

Nasan,

Sharma

et al. 2023

Int. J. Renew. Energy Dev.

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The design, numerical simulation, manufacturing, and physical experimentation of Tesla's bladeless centripetal turbine for electrical power production are the topics of this research project. The turbine generates rotational motion in the discs by directing pressurized air and water tangentially across parallel smooth disc surfaces. The fluid speed parameter at the nozzle inlet determines the power generated. To ensure optimal mechanical design parameters, SolidWorks design software, fluid dynamics concepts, and machine element design were employed. The numerical simulation software ANSYS CFX was used. The numerical and qualitative findings of the models and physical experiments coincided well. The study revealed that the power production and turbine efficiency were regulated by the input sources and blade size. Variations in the fluid composition between the discs may additionally have an impact on the outcomes. The researchers investigated the connection between input fluid pressure and turbine efficiency, as well as the number of discs and turbine power. The prototype could generate 76.52 W of electricity at 50 bar pressure and 1.01e+05 Reynolds number. The operation was efficiently simulated using CFD, with only a 9.3% difference between experimental and simulated results. Overall, this research provides an in-depth assessment of Tesla's bladeless centripetal turbine. It verifies the design and numerical simulation methodologies used, as well as identifies the essential aspects impacting turbine performance and efficiency. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the turbine's behavior and give ideas for improving its performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and experimental investigations on a bladeless turbine: Tesla's cohesion-type innovation

Sivaramakrishnaiah,

Nasan,

Sharma

et al. 2023

Int. J. Renew. Energy Dev.

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“…Studies show that the flow coefficient is a significant factor affecting turbine efficiency, and inlet nonuniformity reduces turbine efficiency. Galindo et al studied the influence of disc spacing distance and pressure on the aerodynamic performance of the Tesla turbine numerically and experimentally and found that the optimal values of disc spacing distance and pressure were 0.9 mm and 103.89 kPa, respectively 20 . The energy loss in the Tesla turbine was divided into four categories, namely stator losses, N–R peripheral viscous losses, end wall ventilation losses, and leakage losses, and their individual impacts on the overall performance were investigated experimentally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Galindo et al studied the influence of disc spacing distance and pressure on the aerodynamic performance of the Tesla turbine numerically and experimentally and found that the optimal values of disc spacing distance and pressure were 0.9 mm and 103.89 kPa, respectively. 20 The energy loss in the Tesla turbine was divided into four categories, namely stator losses, N-R peripheral viscous losses, end wall ventilation losses, and leakage losses, and their individual impacts on the overall performance were investigated experimentally. The results show that stator losses affect overall efficiency most significantly, and should be addressed appropriately.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advantages of the aerodynamic performance of micro‐Tesla turbines

Deng

Yuan

et al. 2023

Energy Science & Engineering

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Tesla turbines, featuring bladeless turbomachinery and energy transformation using the viscosity of the working medium, have wide application prospects in renewable energy utilization as micropower equipment and portable power units and show better aerodynamic performance with a smaller turbine size. In this paper, a miniaturization method of Tesla turbines, including the stator and rotor, was proposed based on its sensitivity analysis results and flow similitude law. A typical Tesla turbine with a disc outer diameter of 100 mm was miniaturized to 50, 20, and 10 mm, respectively. In addition, the miniaturized Tesla turbines, including both the simplified single-channel turbine model and the multichannel turbine model used in practical applications, were simulated numerically. The results show that the miniaturization method that maintains the two high-impact dimensionless parameters at their optimal values is simple, reasonable, and effective. The isentropic efficiency of the single-channel Tesla turbine decreases slightly with its scaling down. However, for the multichannel Tesla turbine in practical applications, the isentropic efficiency increases significantly with a decrease in turbine size, due to a decrease in the impact of the outermost disc channel on the flow fields of the inner disc channels (called the casing wall effect). This is embodied by the phenomenon that part of the working medium in the inner disc channels flows into the outermost disc channel through the nozzle-rotor chamber, and the proportion of this part of the working medium decreases significantly with a decrease in turbine size. In conclusion, the Tesla turbine with a smaller turbine size exhibits better aerodynamic performance and has great potential in the field of microturbomachinery.

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“…Boundary layer pumps have become an increasingly researched area of alternative turbomachinery due to their simplistic design of concentrically stacked, smooth discs, offering a more cost-effective solution to conventional, bladed turbomachinery [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. A boundary layer pump's working principle is based on the Coanda effect [18] and kinetic energy is transmitted from the rotor to the fluid only by frictional forces which makes boundary layer pumps more suitable for some specific applications such as non-Newtonian fluids at which bladed turbomachinery cannot operate efficiently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights Into the Flow Field and Performance of a Boundary Layer Pump

Rajendran,

Palaveev,

Anselmi

et al. 2023

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power

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A flow field analysis of a realistic, integrated, multi-disc boundary layer pump as is necessary for investigating the reasons for typically quoted low efficiencies in such pumps is described. The study focuses on the 3D RANS solutions of a water boundary layer pump model created to replicate a design which consists of 170 discs and a volute channel. A baseline study is performed to investigate the rotor-only and volute-only flow fields and identify the losses in each as separate systems. Thereafter, an integrated model is characterized for different operating conditions. The flow fields of all three models are discussed and the results of the integrated model are compared to the experimental data. The results from the rotor-only model confirm the typically made claim that the rotor efficiency is relatively high, which in this case is 87% at the design point. The volute on its own indicated a hydraulic efficiency of ~97%. However, the integrated model yielded a rotor efficiency of ~74% and an overall pump efficiency of 51% at the design point, clearly outlining the fact that the effect of the volute integrated with the rotor is the reason for both the rotor and pump efficiency degradation. The reason for this drop in efficiency is discussed by highlighting the change in the flow topologies. The insights into the flow field and the identification of the reason for inefficiencies using a separated component analysis approach provides directions for avenues in which design improvements need to be attempted.

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Effect of disc spacing and pressure flow on a modifiable Tesla turbine: Experimental and numerical analysis

Cited by 8 publications

References 21 publications

Numerical and experimental investigations on a bladeless turbine: Tesla's cohesion-type innovation

Numerical and experimental investigations on a bladeless turbine: Tesla's cohesion-type innovation

Advantages of the aerodynamic performance of micro‐Tesla turbines

Insights Into the Flow Field and Performance of a Boundary Layer Pump

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