Anthony Stalcup

Group: Bladeless Turbine

Research Question: How can we increase the efficiency of the bladeless turbine in terms of design.

Source/Evidence/
Data #1 / Source #2 / Source #3 / Source #4 / Source #5
Citation / Romanin, Vincent D. / Tan Wee Choon / Emran, Tamir Ali / J. M. J. Lawn / V. D. Romanin
Purpose of
Article / The purpose of this article is to create an enhanced Tesla Turbine by studying the fluid flow to find the potential it has to compete in the world with bladed turbines. / The purpose is to develop a tesla turbine to use energy from water and convert it to electricity. / The purpose is to test the current turbine which will be used for future turbines and to develop a dynamometer. Also to find ways to find the stall torque. / The purpose of this article is to look into how incompressible fluid flows into the turbine. Ultimately to compare with conventional turbines. / The purpose of this article is to show how to design small or micro tesla bladeless turbines better mathematical methods.
Reason for
the Article / The reason for this article is to find out how the flow in the turbine can be studied to benefit its efficiency. Once the turbine becomes efficient, then it can find its way to be used out on the market.
/ The reason for this article is to find and develop the optimal results of a tesla turbine. It must be efficient in converting energy / The reason is to create a high speed turbine with a low torque and to be able to measure it creating a dynamometer / The reason for this is because many bladeless turbines have experienced different results from different types of fluid. Also the nozzle positioning, shape and size has played a role on how the fluid makes contact with the multiple discs within the turbine. / The reason for this article to find ways to use natural energy to create other forms of energy. If tesla turbines are smaller they can be efficient generating this energy without relying on fuel or electricity.
Methods / To find the optimal flow in the turbine they compare the results found with CFD simulations to older results. Two older set of results were from an air turbine experiment and a water turbine experiment. Computational methods and results from the simulations and test data are used in the comparisons of the data found.
/ Using a basic principle design tesla turbine and finding, its upgraded using calculations to make it more efficient by disc gaps, sizes, and the number of discs. CFD (computational fluid dynamics) is used to find the best results. / The methods used were finding the speed and force of the turbine and stopping any air leaks in the turbine. This allowed the current turbine to be effective. The dynamometer was built based on the torque and speed and with a protective shield. This was used to measure the force, power and torque. It calculates the RPMs of the turbine. The turbine was then run in increments of 5psi to record the data. / Using equations and computer analysis, they find the details of the fluid flowing into the turbine. Thus generating plots, graphs and data. It will be used to compare different designs and to the conventional turbine. / Using others designs and scaling down a tesla turbine for sub-watt, the turbine is put through tests to find the torque, power and energy. The data is analyzed and compared with the experimental predictions.
Results / In comparison with the new and old test data, it was found that the making the gap size smaller and increasing the velocity of the rotor inlet caused the efficiency to increase.
/ The design developed in the journal found an efficiency of 10.7%. Also finding that the tesla turbine is sufficient enough to be used as a pump and convert energy. / The dynamometer was made and used to calculate data. They found different readings of the air flow caused turbulent flow. They found that finding the stall torque failed in four cases. The future of the turbine was mentioned in creating more surface area on the discs and sealing the turbine for less air leak. / The results stated that they maintained a laminar flow of the fluid on the discs. The results did not match those of the conventional bladed turbines but produced enough to allow more testing and design to be done to possibly compete with the conventional turbines. / It was found that a better nozzle flow would have increased the efficiency. It was found difficult to have a stable turbine after scaling it down. More research is needed to achieve the goal for better operating conditions.
How it
Applies
to Project / The inlet nozzle is where the flow of the fluid enters the turbine. This is an aspect that is being heavily looked into and tested within our assignment. This article provides good information on how different sizes and speed effect the efficiency of the turbine, and we can learn from it. We are also told we will learn how to do CFD simulations as done in the research. / This article provides information on the basics of a working tesla turbine and took a larger interest in the discs performance and enhancing them to better efficiency which is what we are also trying to do in our turbine. / This applies to our project because we are looking into measuring devices for the turbine. We want to calculate as much data as we can get from it in order to increase its efficiency. It mentioned leaks as well which we need to make sure our turbine doesn't have so no air flows out of places it shouldn't. / This article applies because this is the one of the main reasons we are researching the bladeless turbine. It is believed to be more efficient than the conventional turbine but has not yet been proven or shown. Thus, more research and design can allow it to possibly one day become efficient and useful in daily life. Also, provides great detail on the fluid entering the turbine and meeting the discs and remaining laminar flow. / This applies to our project because we are working with a smaller turbine, the possibility of recreating a smaller turbine is possible because the cost is cheap. Creating the smaller turbine could allow more research to be done for this goal purpose.

Citations

[1-5]

[1]V. D. Romanin, "Theory and Performance of Tesla Turbines," ed, 2012.

[2]C. Tan Wee, A. A. Rahman, J. Foo Shy, and A. Lim Eng, "Optimization of Tesla turbine using Computational Fluid Dynamics approach," in Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA), 2011 IEEE Symposium on, 2011, pp. 477-480.

[3]T. A. Emran, Tesla Turbine Torque Modeling for Construction of a Dynamometer and Turbine: BiblioBazaar, 2012.

[4]J. M. J. Lawn and W. Rice, "Calculated Design Data for the Multiple-Disk Turbine Using Incompressible Fluid," Journal of Fluids Engineering, vol. 96, pp. 252-258, 1974.

[5]V. D. Romanin, "Experimental and Analytical Study of Sub-Watt Scale Tesla Turbine Performance," Proceedings of the ASME International Engineering Congress and Exposition, vol. 7, pp. 1005-1014, 2012.