Numerical methods verification and flow characteristics analysis for tesla turbines

Flow characteristics of the Tesla turbine were investigated under the laminar and turbulent ow patterns in this paper, and the results were compared with those of the experiment to verify the numerical methods. Especially the effects of the rotor rotational speed on the Tesla turbine's ow characteristics were analyzed in details. The results indicate that laminar flow is appropriate for the numerical analysis of Tesla turbines due to the minimal difference between computational and experimental results. The component energy loss rules of Tesla turbines differ from those of conventional turbines. With increasing rotor rotational speed, the nozzle energy loss of Tesla turbines retains constant basically, while the disc energy loss decreases and then increases, and leaving velocity energy loss increases, which are different from those of conventional turbines. The total loss of Tesla turbines depends on disc loss, and the isentropic efficiency of Tesla turbines reaches the maximum when the disc energy loss gets its minimum.