CFD investigation on the performance analysis of Tesla turbine

Abstract

A Tesla turbine is a bladeless turbine in which fluid flows in the direction of the centripetal path. It uses fluid properties such as Boundary layer & adhesion of fluid on a series of discs keyed to a shaft. The initial cost and maintenance cost of the Tesla turbine is very low. Our project’s main motive is to improve the performance of a Tesla turbine by changing various parameters such as disc diameter and disc rotating speed through the CFD simulation software using water as a working fluid. The CAD model is designed using Ansys design modeler, meshing is performed using Ansys meshing and post processing is carried out in Ansys fluent. The numerical simulations were carried out using Ansys Fluent which is based on the finite volume method and the changes that occurred in the pressure and velocities are investigated. The parametric study is performed by varying the turbine disc speed. By performing CFD simulations, total pressure contour and velocity magnitude contours are plotted and it is found that pressure and velocity are maximum when the clearance between disc and turbine casing is lesser and at higher turbine disc speeds. The power output of the Tesla turbine is also plotted for various rpm where higher rpm gives maximum power output. The results from the present study would be useful in designing an efficient Tesla turbine with improved performance.