Nikola Tesla's Bladeless Radial Turbine
In the early 1900s, Nikola Tesla developed and patented his Bladeless Turbine. One of the difficulties with bladed turbines is the complex and highly precise requirements for balancing and manufacturing the bladed rotor which has to be very well balanced. The blades are subject to corrosion and cavitation. Tesla attacked this problem by substituting a series of closely spaced disks for the blades of the rotor. The working fluid flows between the disks and transfers its energy to the rotor by means of the boundary layer effect or adhesion and viscosity rather than by impulse or reaction. Tesla stated his turbine could realize incredibly high efficiencies by steam. There has been no documented evidence yet of Tesla Turbines achieving the efficiencies Tesla claimed.
Read more about this topic: Radial Turbine
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“Your fate is to be what you are. As mine is to be what I am—your master.”
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