TESLA TURBINE TESTING

This is our 375 pound , 13 blade, 30 inch diameter Tesla turbine. The blades are 10 gauge spaced with 14 gauge spacers between the plates. Final top speed was 1900 RPM. The nozzle is a 3/32 throat converging diverging nozzle with chocked flow using 70 CFM of compressed air. Rotational kinetic energy can be calculated for those interested. A seal between the casing and the rotor was installed to test the importance of a labyrinth seal. Findings indicate the seal is critical to increase torque. It was noted that without the seal air was not exiting through the center discharge above 500 rpm, but instead was avoiding the discs completely and exiting between the outer diameter and the side of the casing. Although this test was using a home made seal, similar to a labyrinth seal, the clearance was found to be .005 to .035 inches allowing considerable leakage to continue, but but a vast improvement to the previous .125 inches before installation of the gasket ring.