Investigation of Tesla Turbine

Abstract—This project outlines one of the key investigations on tesla turbine on basis of a cogeneration ideology. Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. The type of fluid flow into the tesla turbine determines the performance and thus a study on a kind of fluid introduced into the turbine and its effect on efficiency becomes necessary. This investigation allows us to narrow down the possibilities of using fluids and overall tabulation of co-generative energy resources which can help us develop alternate energy for existing energy crisis and carbon footprints in the environment.

Keywords- Tesla Turbine, Co-generation, energy crisis, carbon footprints.

INTRODUCTION

The beginning of 1913 experienced a revolution in industrialization of machinery when Nikola Tesla patented his bladeless turbine that used series of rotating discs to convert energy of flowing fluid into a mechanical rotation which can be used to perform useful work. It‘s a simple device that has very few moving parts in which work is produced when the working fluid is introduced tangentially at the outer edge of the plates or the rotating discs around the center shaft. In 1922 Tesla made some basic modifications in design where he introduced two heavier end plater which were tapered towards the periphery for the purpose of reducing the maximum centrifugal stresses developed in his initial design.

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. Minor departures from the turbine, as may be dictated by the circumstances in each case, will obviously suggest themselves but if it is carried out on these general lines it will be found highly profitable to the owners of the steam plant while permitting the use of their old installation. However, the best economic results in the development of power from steam by the Tesla turbine will be obtained in plants especially adapted for the purpose.
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