Tesla turbine

Tesla turbine at Nikola Tesla Museum

The Tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine invented by Nikola Tesla in 1913.[1] Nozzles apply a moving fluid to the edges of a set of discs. The engine uses smooth discs rotating in a chamber to generate rotational movement due to the momentum exchange between the fluid and the discs. The discs are arranged in an orientation similar to a stack of CDs on a pole.[2]

The Tesla turbine uses the boundary-layer effect, instead of the method employed by more conventional turbines, wherein a fluid acts on blades. The Tesla turbine is also referred to as the bladeless turbine, boundary-layer turbine, cohesion-type turbine, and Prandtl-layer turbine. The latter is named for Ludwig Prandtl. Bioengineering researchers have additionally referred to the Tesla turbine as a multiple-disk centrifugal pump.[3][4]

One of Tesla's intended implementations for this turbine was for the generation of geothermal power, which he described in his work Our Future Motive Power.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference US patent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "The Tesla turbine: a failed invention with amazing applications" (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miller-Sidhu-Fink-Etter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Miller-Fink was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Our Future Motive Power was invoked but never defined (see the help page).