How Fast Can a Tesla Turbine Spin?

I show you how the tesla turbine works

[con.troller]

The brilliance of Tesla's turbine is he took one of the problems of a conventional turbine, molecular adhesion on the blades, and made it part of the solution.

This approach of harnessing the problem directly to the solution was a constant in his designs.

[JaswanthDaniel]

Tesla turbines are not used because when we have disks that are rotating very fast, there is a high chance that they tend to warp. This means we need to use special materials, which again increases cost…

[iEnergySupply]

Your correct, everything needs to be tuned properly. That's something I've learned over the years, and I haven't had any issues with warping. My latest turbine uses fiberglass disks, that have an extremely high strength to weight ratio and I don't experience any warping. Also there isn't any issues with torque either. Thanks for making an accurate video about tesla turbines.

[stevensteven]

Nikola Tesla was ahead of his time... Great man to learn from

[hafizuddinmohdlowhim]

The good thing about Tesla turbine is its efficiency is 97% but it has low volume density. Means, at same power load, it requires a huge volume. In industry, a lower efficiency but compact size is preferred.

[TremereTT]

We do use teslaturbines where ever there is a highly viscous fluid that needs to be driving a turbine! We do this all the time. Would use it for less viscous fluids/gases like water or air IF it would be possible to run big Teslaturbine disks of a few meters in diameter on several 10k or 30k rpm....yet there is no material out there today that can survive these stresses.

[MorRobots]

One of the other things that limits their adoption now is that with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) traditional turbines can be designed to be hyper optimized for their use cases, in some ways taking advantage of the very principles the tesla turbine exclusively operates on. A great example is the modern steam turbines that are installed into thermal power plants. they almost look like a hybrid of the tesla turbine and a standard jet engine compressor.

[fenwickrysen]

In the wine industry, I was amazed to see a Tesla turbine used as a wine pump. This was in 2008 at Frey Winery (Redwood Valley, California.) The Frey family are MIT level geniuses who are happy just making wine.

They were using Tesla turbines as reversible wine pumps long before the Internet got fascinated with them -- and have been using the design in a practical manner for decades.

[ianvanderjagt]

I would like to add a minor correction, sort of, we do use tesla turbines but as pumps, they are commonly used in industry for fluid pumps of volatile fluids like oil. great video overall though.

[samehedi]

you can't post anything on the internet without getting swarmed by people desperately trying to convince you otherwise. no matter what it is, if you post something on the internet, you're categorical and entirely wrong.

[feralpanda]

Thanks for all your videos. I love how you explain things in a simplistic way.

[marsbux-tech]

A key feature that was not emphasized was the path of the gas. The gas moving at the outer circumference of the disk will rotate the disk at aproximately its same velocity. But as the gas spirals inwardly before exiting, the radius and circumference of the disk are shorter, causing the disk to spin faster. I suggest that the overall rotation is some function of the gas velocity, the entrance radius and the exit radius.

[paulcrouchley]

Built one some years ago from old computer hard disc drives.
Stripped the platters from the drives, drilled central air exit holes close to their centers and stacked them (6 off) back in one of the drives with 0.5mm spacing between each platter. Used plastibond to shape the interior of the drive casing to have very small clearances between the disc outer edges and the casing and the outer faces of the disk stack.
Used a 1.2mm mig welder tip as a air nozzle. Ran of 120psi air compressor.
Sounded like a jet engine spooling up, measured rpm at 22000rpm.
One problem tesla had was the turbine was capable of running at such high rpm that the disk materials of the day couldn't cope with the loads.
I ran mine from a safe distance.

[markcotter]

Imagine 100 years of using tesla turbines, with constant updates and improvements...

[michalchik]

In the explanation you missed one of the coolest aspects of the Tesla turbine. He uses the principle of conservation of angular momentum and it kind of self induction Loop a bit the way Tesla coil uses the voltage gain earlier in the coil to create a step up later in the coil which creates a voltage draw that increases the voltage earlier in the coil in a runaway self-amplification of voltage. In particular, any unit massive fluid towards the outside of the turbine has to increase its angular velocity as it approaches the center to conserve angular momentum, as it increases its angular velocity the speed differential between the center of the turbine and the fluid is increased driving the center harder causing the the turbine to rotate faster which in turn accelerates the fluid at the edge of the turbine so that it gains angular momentum, which start the cycle all over again. It's a self-inducing system that maximizes the frictional transfer between the fluid and the disc. The fundamental problem that I see with the design is that as it spins faster to keep the liquid moving in a circle you need higher and higher centripetal force which creates a high pressure around the edges, putting a lot of friction and pressure on any seal you have between the disc and the stationary housing

[CharlieSolis]

I love the effort and love for Tesla turbines but I really wish these multi million subscriber channels would actually do their homework on the TesTurs before making a video telling people entirely inaccurate things about the working machinations of the TesTurs…

Despite what everyone erroneously claims about TesTurs, chasing high RPMs is exactly why nobody makes Tesla turbines that actually work.

That’s NOT how they are supposed to be run in the first place. TesTurs output PLENTY of torque and power even at low rpms.

Efficiency is actually increased by reducing slip.

Increasing the disc speed does nothing to reduce the slip, only increase the distance the fluid could slip across the disc which doesn’t increase efficiency.

Just listen to what Tesla says to do,

1) increase the fluid speed relative to. the discs (not high speed disc)
2) increase surface area.
3) decrease the disc spacing.

“Owing to a number of causes affecting the performance, it is difficult to frame a precise rule which would be generally applicable, but it may be stated that within certain limits, and other conditions being the same, the torque is directly proportionate to the square of the velocity of the fluid relatively to the runner and to the effective area of the disks and, inversely, to the distance separating them. The machine will, generally, perform its maximum work when the effective speed of the runner is one-half of that of the fluid; but to attain the highest economy, the relative speed or slip, for any given performance, should be as small as possible. This condition may be to any desired degree approximated by increasing the active area of and reducing the space between the disks.”
-Nikola Tesla

Increasing disc speed only increases efficiency at the cost of power because of the centrifugal head as you increase the rpm, it counters the incoming fluid flow.

“Still another valuable and probably unique quality of such motors or prime movers may be described. By proper construction and observance of working conditions the centrifugal pressure, opposing the passage of the fluid, may, as already indicated, be made nearly equal to the pressure of supply when the machine is running idle. If the inlet section be large, small changes in the speed of revolution will produce great differences in flow which are further enhanced by the concomitant variations in the length of the spiral path. A self-regulating machine is thus obtained bearing a striking resemblance to a direct-current electric motor in this respect that, with great differences of impressed pressure in a wide open channel the flow of the fluid through the same is prevented by virtue of rotation. Since the centrifugal head increases as the square of the revolutions, or even more rapidly, and with modern high grade steel great peripheral velocities are practicable, it is possible to attain that condition in a single stage machine, more readily if the runner be of large diameter. Obviously this problem is facilitated by compounding, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. Irrespective of its bearing on economy, this tendency which is, to a degree, common to motors of the above description, is of special advantage in the operation of large units, as it affords a safeguard against running away and destruction. Besides these, such a prime mover possesses many other advantages, both constructive and operative. It is simple, light and compact, subject to but little wear, cheap and exceptionally easy to manufacture as small clearances and accurate milling work are not essential to good performance. In operation it is reliable, there being no valves, sliding contacts or troublesome vanes. It is almost free of windage, largely independent of nozzle efficiency and suitable for high as well as for low fluid velocities and speeds of revolution.”
-Nikola Tesla

The only time you want to spin the turbine fast is when it’s being used as a pump/compressor, because ALL centrifugal pumps’/compressors’ performance is tip speed dependent.

“I have found that the quantity of fluid propelled in this manner, is, other conditions being equal, approximately proportionate to the active surface of the runner and to its effective speed. For this reason, the performance of such machines augments at an exceedingly high rate with the increase of their size and speed of revolution.”
-Nikola Tesla

Does no one actually read the patents before they go and try to tell people how the turbine actually works?!?
🤦‍♂️

[larshowen]

This is the technology used in the DISCFLO centrifugal pump. Great idea, great solution for many pumping applications. The downside is that the money you save in maintenance is eaten up by the electricity required to move the pumped fluid.

If you need a fish ladder next to a hydroelectric dam, this pump can actually pump fish without harming them!

[-Anonyy-]

Keep making awesome science videos man!

[PaulWebster]

Funny you should show a Blendtech Blender. In one of my first jobs out of uni, I had to investigate why these blenders various programmed modes weren't running for the expected time when used in Australia. Long story short, the firmware incorporated the AC supply frequency in their timing calculations and it had been hard coded to 60Hz. While doing some MTBF testing on them, I found when used repeatedly, with little break inbetween cycles, the metal blades were conducting heat from the motor into the jug, boiling the liquid medium inside. Will it blend? Sure. It can cook too!

[SolarWebsite]

2:04 "laminar flow"

Destin pops his head around the corner and says "whoo!"