Performance Study of a Bladeless Microturbine

Krzysztof Rusin, Włodzimierz Wróblewski, Sebastian Rulik, Mirosław Majkut and Michał Strozik
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Krzysztof Rusin: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Włodzimierz Wróblewski: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Sebastian Rulik: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Mirosław Majkut: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Michał Strozik: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-18

Abstract: The paper presents a comprehensive numerical and experimental analysis of the Tesla turbine. The turbine rotor had 5 discs with 160 mm in diameter and inter-disc gap equal to 0.75 mm. The nozzle apparatus consisted of 4 diverging nozzles with 2.85 mm in height of minimal cross-section. The investigations were carried out on air in subsonic flow regime for three pressure ratios: 1.4, 1.6 and 1.88. Maximal generated power was equal to 126 W and all power characteristics were in good agreement with numerical calculations. For each pressure ratio, maximal efficiency was approximately the same in the experiment, although numerical methods proved that efficiency slightly dropped with the increase of pressure ratio. Measurements included pressure distribution in the plenum chamber and tip clearance and temperature drop between the turbine’s inlet and the outlet. For each pressure ratio, the lowest value of the total temperature marked the highest efficiency of the turbine, although the lowest static temperature was shifted towards higher rotational speeds. The turbine efficiency could surpass 20% assuming the elimination of the impact of the lateral gaps between the discs and the casing. The presented data can be used as a benchmark for the validation of analytical and numerical models.

Keywords: microturbine; bladeless turbine; radial turbine; Tesla turbine; experimental data; numerical simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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