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8thAsia-Pacific International Symposium on Combustion and Energy Utilization

October 10-12, 2006, Sochi, Russian Federation
ISBN 5-89238-086-6

The Tesla Turbine Revisited

1,2

H. S. Couto1, J.B.F. Duarte2 and D. Bastos-Netto 3, 1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, UNIFOR - University of Fortaleza

Fortaleza, Cear, Brazil
3
Combustion and Propulsion Laboratory, INPE National Institute of Space Research
Cachoeira Paulista, So Paulo, Brazil
3
E-Mail : demetrio@lcp.inpe.br

ABSTRACT
This work reviews the physical principles behind the Tesla bladeless turbine, a device invented by the brilliant
Croatian engineer Nikola Tesla. Following a quick discussion on the relative motion of rotating surfaces, it sets
up the transport equations describing the flow between parallel rotating disks, estimating the boundary layer
thickness under laminar and turbulent regimes, leading to expressions yielding the width between consecutive
disks. Once the working fluid is defined and its entrance conditions are established, then, if the needed (expected)
output power is chosen, this work shows how to calculate the total number of disks required to attain the desired
performance. Finally, it is also described the device behavior acting as an air compressor or water pump. These
authors are not aware of a comprehensive discussion of the fluid mechanics involved in the design of those
devices having been ever done. Besides the usual applications of rotating machinery, Tesla machines are properly
fitted when compact unities are required such as in the cases of isolated areas for electric power generation. It
should also be noticed that, as a unique source of rotating motion, they can run under a very wide spectrum of
fuels and fluids in general.
Keywords: Tesla turbine, boundary layer turbine, rotating machinery
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Nikola Tesla broad field of interest led him to work in nearly every area of technical knowledge, ranging from his
well known and valuable contributions in electrical engineering to his interest in developing a flying machine.
Indeed he was one of the pillars of scientific endeavors on early twentieth century. In 1910 he was awarded a
dual patent (British Office Number 24001) for a turbine and compressor using rotating disks as moving devices.
These machines using the same principles, operated in a similar manner. They consisted of an array of parallel
thin disks very close to each other, kept apart by spacers (washers) and assembled (mounted) on a shaft, forming
a rotor which was fitted in a cylindrical housing (stator) its ends closed by plates properly fitted with bearings to
hold the rotor shaft. In the central region of the disks, close to the shaft, exhaust ports were opened, with gaps in
the spacers, thus providing an exit to the atmosphere (or to a condenser, depending on its intended use, i.e., if a
gas turbine or a steam turbine, part of an otherwise standard thermal engine). A nozzle was located tangentially to
the bore of the casing, feeding the working fluid (be it steam or combustion gases), onto the disks, rotating them
while proceeding to the exhaust ports.
Since then several of these unities were built [1-3], although none of them of the gas turbine kind, possibly due to
the lack of design data. Actually, as time passed by, no more disk turbines were manufactured and interest in the
principle lapsed [4].
Further these authors are not aware of a comprehensive discussion of the fluid mechanics involved in the design
of those devices. Hence this work, which following the estimates of the laminar and turbulent boundary layers
between rotating disks, suggests how to calculate the total number of disks needed for a desired performance to
be achieved. It also describes the device behavior as an air compressor or water pump.
1

Corresponding author

2.0 OPERATION PRINCIPLES

The fluid adherence to a wall (i.e., the no-slip condition) is the basic phenomenon behind the Tesla turbine. As
the fluid acquires the velocity of the wall over which it flows, therefore a disk has the tendency to acquire the
velocity of the fluid imparted over it. If this fluid is injected tangentially to a disk surface then the tangential
component of the velocity vector is zero for a reference system attached to the disk surface, moving with it, then
the only velocity component seen in this system which influences the fluid flow is the velocity component
towards the center of the disk which pushes it to that region where it is discharged through the existing exhaust
ports around it (so that, for an external observer, the fluid describes a spiral circuit around the disk face). As the
disk tends to acquire the velocity of the fluid flowing over it, then, for a more effective momentum transfer to
take place, the flow should be laminar. Then knowing the flow mean velocity at the turbine inlet and also that in
theory its rotor will start rotating, speeding up until reaching that tangential velocity when the relative velocity
between the disks and the flow will be zero. From this moment and on, the only non zero velocity relative to the
disks will be that of the fluid penetration velocity between consecutive disks and this is the velocity to be taken
into account to calculate the design Reynolds Number. Well established theory [5] yields the laminar Darcy
friction factor, f lam, for laminar flows in ducts:
64
f lam =
(1)
Vd
where

is the flow density, V the relative flow velocity and the flow dynamic coefficient of viscosity. Or,

f lam =

64
Re d

where Red is the Reynolds number based upon the duct diameter as characteristic length.
The proper characteristic distance for the flow between consecutive disks can be chosen from
4S
Dh =
P

(2)

(3)

where Dh is the hydraulic diameter, S is the flow cross section area and P its wet perimeter. Then, Deff, the
effective diameter, can be written as
2
(4)
D eff = D h
3
Theory offers reasonable precision when one makes use of the hydraulic diameter, being quite precise if the
effective diameter is used. Using the consecutive disks separation distance, a, (i.e., the gap between them), one
may write
4 D
a
ext
(5)
D =
h 2 ( D
+ a)
ext
where Dext is the disk external (outer) diameter. Then, as a << Dext, this yield
(6)
D h = 2a
and
D eff =

4
a
3

(7)

Therefore the Reynolds number can be written as

Rd =

4 Va

(8)
3
3.0 ESTIMATING BOUNDARY LAYER THICKNESSES AND TOTAL NUMBER OF DISKS
As it is well known, the boundary layer thicknesses for either turbulent or laminar flows can be estimated as
follows:

3.1 Estimating the Turbulent Boundary Layer Thickness

The turbulent boundary layer thickness can be estimated using the following correlation [6],

15

= 0.526 r
(10)

r 2
where r is the local disk radius, is the working fluid kinematic viscosity coefficient and the angular velocity.

3.2 Estimating the Laminar Boundary Layer Thickness

Observe that the flow component in the radial direction in the disk periphery is laminar, the same happening to
that flow component in the internal outlet. Due to conservation of mass, this takes place as the gases entered in
this periphery between disks and left it through the area including the disk region from the axis radius to the
extremity of the outlet center flow, all this taking place as the flow possessed only a component along this radius
from the periphery towards the inner region.
From the moment the disks reach a uniform angular velocity and on, the only non-zero relative velocity is the one
between each disk and the flow inside the passages between consecutive disks flowing towards their center until
reaching their exit ports.
In this case the Reynolds number should be calculated taking into account the flow areas between consecutive
disks, i.e., the external area, Sext ,
Sext = Dext (a)
(11)
and the internal area between them, Sint ,
Sint = Dint (a)
(12)
where Dint is the disk diameter taken at the exit ports stations.
Imposing the flow to be laminar, one should use the following estimate of the laminar boundary layer thickness
[6] so that, from its value one can estimate the proper disk separation distance,
5

(13)
U
where is the working fluid kinematic viscosity coefficient, l is the outer disk radius less its internal radius for
both Reynolds Numbers, each to be estimated for laminar regimes, and U is the inlet flow velocity. Notice that
one should use a disk separation that should guarantee a laminar regime at the disk tip. The velocity, Uint, at the
disk tip in the internal flow can be written as:
U
(14)
U int = Rint =
R
R ext int
As the flow occurs between disks, a boundary layer is formed along each one of them so that the width between
consecutive disks to guarantee laminar flow in the whole region must possess at most the thickness of both
boundary layers.

3.3 Estimating the Total Number of Required Disks

To estimate the total number of disks for the turbine, the following procedure is suggested:
Assume that at a given internal circumference of the disk the flow Reynolds number is less than 2300 (i.e., at that
region the flow is laminar) Then, writing the mass flow rate through a gap as
& = VDa
m
(15)
or
&
m
(16)
Va =
D

& T , can be written as

Then the overall mass flow rate, m
&
&
Vna = m T
or
Va = m T
D
n D
where n is the number of gaps between consecutive disks
Also:
4 Va
3 Rey
or
Rey =
Va =
3
4
Using (17a) and (17b),

(17a)

(17b)

&
4
m
(18)
3 DRey
where n is the number of gaps between consecutive disks (the stator lateral surfaces included), so that the total
required number of disks will be (n-1)
Recall that in the laminar regime (with the flow being assumed as nearly incompressible) the torque 2T, delivered
by a disk wetted both sides can be estimated as [6]:
2T
CM =
(19)
1 2 5
R
2
where
n=

C M = 3.87 Rey
and
R 2
Rey =

1
2

(20)
(21)

Therefore the total torque can be written as

(22)
T0 = 2(n 1)T
If the turbine is made to work as water pump or air compressor, then the volume flow rate which is pumped
outwards as a result of the centrifuging action on one side of a disk of radius R can be written as

Q = 2 R u dz

(28)

where u is the speed of the fluid at station z from the axis surface, so that, in a laminar regime,
Q = 0.885 R 2

= 0.885 R 3 Rey

1
2

(29)

which is the volume flow rate pumped by centrifuge action on one side of the disk. Now, for the free disk under
turbulent regime, the viscous torque turbulent theory developed by Von Krmn [6] for a disk wetted on both
sides was shown to be equal to:
1

5
T0 = 0.073 R
2
R
the generated Power , P0 , will be
P0 = T0
the moment coefficient, CM , becomes
CM = 0.146 Rey 1/ 5
and the volume flow rate in the axial direction is given by
2

(24)
(25)
(26)

Q = 0.219 R 3 Rey 5
in a turbulent regime

(27)

4.0 A Brief Discussion on an Encapsulated Disk Performance

The disk in a turbine or compressor rotates in a very narrow capsule in which the gap (i.e., the distance s between
the disk surface and the capsule wall, being the disk outer radius clearance) is much smaller than the disk
radius R. Therefore it is worth to investigate the behavior of a disk rotating inside a capsule.
These relations become very simple in a laminar flow regime, Rey < 105, with a very small gap. If this gap is
smaller than the boundary layer thickness the change of the tangential speed across the gap is linear just like in
the well-known Couette flow. Then , the shear stress at a distance r from the axis is given by

r
s

and M, the viscous force torque acting on one side of the disk will be

(30)

M = 2 r 2 dr =
0

R 4
2 s

(31)

so that considering both sides, this yields

2M =

R 4
s

(32)

and the moment coefficient becomes

C M = 2

R 1
s Rey

(33)

C. Schimieden, apud Schlichting [6], investigated the influence of the width of a lateral spacing of a disk in a
cylindrical capsule, as shown in figure 1, assuming a very small Reynolds Number (i.e., in a creeping like
motion). Then the Navier-Stokes Equations can be simplified and the solution for the moment coefficient can be
written as

CM =

K
R

(34)

where the constant K depends on the dimensionless ratios s/R and /R.

Figure 1 Sketch of an encapsulated disk for symbols description

( taken from Reference [6] )

6.0 CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a very simple and straightforward technique, using basic fluid mechanics only, to estimate
the needed number of disks required for a Tesla turbine, compressor or pump, to accomplish a prescribed job. It
also reviews the encapsulated rotating disk performance. Notice that only well known and tried results and
assumptions have been used here. However, the authors are not aware of a similar work having been done since
the original Tesla wonderful invention. It is worth mentioning that these Tesla machines (i.e., the turbine, the
compressor or the pump) are specially fitted to those instances where compact unities for generating electrical
power or other equipment are required as in the case of isolated areas. Finally it should be noticed that, as a
unique source of rotating motion, these Tesla machines can run under a very wide spectrum of not only fuels but
also fluids in general, being useful, for example, as high speed drilling machines among many other applications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Part of this work was done under the sponsorship of the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq), Project
Numbers 501459/2003-0 and 350545/2002-2. Authors are indebted to Mr.Bruno A.O. Mafrenze, Mr. G.L.S.
Ribeiro and UNIFOR for the valuable assistance.

REFERENCES
[1] Cairns, W.M.J., The Tesla Turbine, Published by Camdem Miniature Steam services, GB, 2nd Edition, 2003
[2] Hedin, R.S. The Tesla Turbine (Construction Plans), Live Steam, Nov. 1994
[3] Rice, W., Tesla Turbomachinery, Proceedings of the IV International Nikola Tesla Symposium, Sept. 1991
[4] Logan, E. Jr., Handbook of Turbomachinery, Arizona State U. Marcel Dekker Inc., Phoenix, 1995
[5] White, F.M., Fluid Mechanics, McGraw-Hill Kogacucha, Ltd. Kosaido Publishing Co., Tokyo, Japan, 1979,
p-325
[6] Schlichting, H., Boundary Layer Theory, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, NY, fourth Ed.,1962, p547.