Abstract
This paper presents the experimental campaign on Tesla turbo expanders carried out at Thermo-chemical Power group (TPG) of University of Genoa, Italy. An experiment system is established using compressed air as a working fluid. A 200 W turbine is tested with rotational speed up to 40000 rpm. Experimental analysis focused mainly on the efficiency features of this expander, showing the impact on performance of different disk gaps, disk thickness, discharge holes, exhaust geometry, as a function of speed and mass flow. An improved version of 3 kW air Tesla turboexpander is built. Preliminary experimental results are discussed along with the effect of number of nozzles on the performance of the turbine.
Highlights
In this paper, experimental campaign tests on Tesla micro expanders are described and sample results are reported
This research focuses on investigation of feasibility of Tesla type turbines for micro power generation, thanks to their low cost, simple manufacturing
Tesla turbines suffer from poor efficiency
Summary
Experimental campaign tests on Tesla micro expanders are described and sample results are reported. A flexible test rig is built for a systematic parametric study to understand the sensitivity of different geometric parameters on its performance In this test campaign, 200 W (M02) Tesla turbine is built, and parametric study is carried out. The Tesla turbines used in the experimental campaign consists of following main components: the rotor, the stator and the casing. The temperature measurements are carried out with the help of K-type thermocouples (accuracy of ±0.5oC). Uncertainty of different measured parameters is considered to calculate the overall uncertainty in the efficiency. The performance parameters considered for the analysis are as follows: The total pressure and the total temperature at the inlet of the turbine is calculated by: pin.tot. Measuring torque of the turbine gives very less uncertainty compared to enthalpy estimation from temperature. We present the results and the discussion for the tests performed on both the turbines i.e. M02 and M3
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