Tesla Turbine: A Practical Design Guide for Boundary Layer or Bladeless Turbines - Softcover

Traverso, Alberto; Renuke, Avinash; Kalfas, Anestis I.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3031562607 ISBN 13: 9783031562600

Publisher: Springer, 2025

Synopsis

This book aims at providing the reader with up-to-date knowledge about Tesla turbine features, mechanical design, and performance characteristics. A Tesla machine, in general, is characterised by the absence of rotating blades, therefore it is also called bladeless or boundary layer machine. In this book, suitable numerical approaches for the fluid-dynamic analysis are described, with practical examples related to physical prototypes designed, built and operated by the Authors.

Interest in small scale turbines is growing mainly for energy efficiency and power recovery in a variety of applications. Considering small scales, conventional bladed turbines impose manufacturing limitations, lower performance and higher cost, which hinder their implementation. Tesla bladeless turbomachines are being re-discovered due to many advantages such as their simple design and ease of manufacturing with acceptable performance, especially for small-scale power generation and energy harvesting.

To contribute to the spread of efficient and viable Tesla turbines (or expanders), this book presents holistic design guidelines to Tesla turbines, encompassing geometrical definition of Tesla rotor, of Tesla stator, of Tesla rotor-stator-casing assembly, providing practical correlations to take into account various loss mechanisms, and discussing the optimal design point definition for such type of century-aged but always young turbines.

About this title

About the Author

Alberto Traverso is professor of Energy and Environmental Systems at University of Genoa, Italy. He conducts research in the field of innovative energy systems, encompassing thermoeconomic optimization of advanced cycles, dynamic and control analysis including compressor surge, energy recovery and harvesting technologies such as bladeless machinery.

Avinash Renuke is researcher at Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden, focusing on sustainable energy and turbine technology solutions. He played a key role in advancing bladeless turbine technology during his PhD program at University of Genoa, Italy, contributing to cutting-edge innovative solutions. His expertise encompasses numerical and experimental analysis of bladeless turbines.

Anestis I. Kalfas is professor of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery and the Head of Energy Department, School of Mechanical Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests focus on axial steam and gas-turbine aerodynamics, gas-turbine performance and power plant optimization, aerospace biomedical engineering, boundary layer transition and turbulence and novel aerodynamic probe technology.

From the Back Cover

This book aims at providing the reader with up-to-date knowledge about Tesla turbine features, mechanical design, and performance characteristics. A Tesla machine, in general, is characterised by the absence of rotating blades, therefore it is also called bladeless or boundary layer machine. In this book, suitable numerical approaches for the fluid-dynamic analysis are described, with practical examples related to physical prototypes designed, built and operated by the Authors.

Interest in small scale turbines is growing mainly for energy efficiency and power recovery in a variety of applications. Considering small scales, conventional bladed turbines impose manufacturing limitations, lower performance and higher cost, which hinder their implementation. Tesla bladeless turbomachines are being re-discovered due to many advantages such as their simple design and ease of manufacturing with acceptable performance, especially for small-scale power generation and energy harvesting.

To contribute to the spread of efficient and viable Tesla turbines (or expanders), this book presents holistic design guidelines to Tesla turbines, encompassing geometrical definition of Tesla rotor, of Tesla stator, of Tesla rotor-stator-casing assembly, providing practical correlations to take into account various loss mechanisms, and discussing the optimal design point definition for such type of century-aged but always young turbines.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3031562607
• ISBN 13: 9783031562600
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128