Applications
Tesla's patents state that the device was intended for the use of fluids as motive agents, as distinguished from the application of the same for the propulsion or compression of fluids (though the device can be used for those purposes as well). By 2006, the Tesla turbine has not seen widespread commercial use since its invention. The Tesla pump, however, has been commercially available since 1982 and is used to pump fluids that are abrasive, viscous, shear sensitive, contain solids, or are otherwise difficult to handle with other pumps. Tesla himself did not procure a large contract for production. The main drawback in his time, as mentioned, was the poor knowledge of materials characteristics and behaviors at high temperatures. The best metallurgy of the day could not prevent the turbine disks from moving and warping unacceptably during operation.
Today, many amateur experiments in the field have been conducted using Tesla turbines which use compressed air, steam as its power source (the steam being generated with heat from fuel combustion, from a vehicle's turbocharger or from solar radiation). The issue of the warping of the discs has been partially solved using new materials such as carbon fiber. For example, both PNGinc and International Turbine And Power, LLC use carbon fiber discs in their Tesla turbine designs.
One proposed current application for the device is a waste pump, in factories and mills where normal vane-type turbine pumps typically get blocked.
Applications of the Tesla turbine as a multiple-disk centrifugal blood pump have yielded promising results. Biomedical engineering research on such applications has been continued into the 21st century.
In 2010, a patent was issued for a wind turbine based on the Tesla design.
A similar pump was used to win the Oil Cleanup XPrize.
Read more about this topic: Tesla Turbine