Fabrication and Study of the Parameters Affecting the Efficiency of a Bladeless Turbine

Abstract

Man always tried to extract as much energy as possible from the freely available energy sources in this world. One such attempt is the building of the turbine, which converts the fluid energy into mechanical energy, which is later converted into electrical energy. Due to the constant increase in the demand for this energy, the performance of these turbines mattered a lot and hence various types and designs of turbines were developed. One such turbine is the bladeless (Tesla) turbine. Many analytical studies have been carried out on this turbine but very limited information is available on the actual test results. In this paper, an attempt has been made to fabricate a turbine and study the effect of various parameters on the turbine’s performance. The observations are plotted. Few parts and parameters are kept constant while the others are varied during the testing process. Maximum rpm which was 25,324 was observed at six bar pressure, two exhaust holes on each flange and operating with four-disc rotor assembly.