this is a work in progress, please fork this repository and help edit the README files!
Nikola Tesla's turbine is a unique turbine in that it does not contain any buckets or blades. This turbine consists of a 'runner' of very thin, flat disks that are keyed to an axle. Each of the disks on the runner is seperated from the other disks with a thin star shaped spacer. Near the axle, each disks contains 8 holes in them. Unlike bucket and blade style turbines, the Tesla turbine works based on a fluid's properties of viscosity and adhesion.
The turbine operates in two modes. If the axle is spun using another mechanical device, such as a motor, it becomes a pump. In this mode it sucks water into the holes near the center of the disk and ejects the fluid from the tangent of the disks. If a high velocity fluid is injected at the tangent of the disks it becomes a turbine. In this mode the fluid causes the axle to spin at a high velocity.
This repository is made up of CAD drawings based on Tesla's patents. These drawings can be used to machine full scale turbines and pumps. Some very minor liberties have been taken in his patents primarily for ease of machinability. The current design is based on a layered approach, cutting parts with a laser cutter instead of a CNC mill. This method should dramatically reduce the time needed to machine parts.
All drawings are done in metric!
Originally these drawings were made using Solidworks 2015. Since Solidworks is not a free CAD tool, additional file formats are included in the repository including STL and DXF. As this repository grows additional formats will be included.
1913 Patents
1921 Patent
The idea on which all steam engines - gas engines, too - have been built in the past was that there must be something solid and substantial for the steam to push against. The piston of a reciprocating engine and the blades and buckets of modern turbine engines are examples. That idea has made them rather complicated devices, requiring careful fitting for efficient operation, great expense for repairs and especially in the case of turbines, great liability to damage. It has also made them bulky and heavy.
What I have done is to discard entirely the idea that there must be a solid wall in front of the steam and to apply in a practical way, for the first time, two properties which every physicist knows to be common to all fluids (including steam and gas) but which have not been utilized. These are adhesion and viscosity.
You know that water has a tendence to stick to a solid surface. That is the property of adhesion which every fluid - gas, steam, water or whatever it be- possesses. You also know that a drop of water tends to retain its form, even against a considerable force, such as gravity. That is viscosity, the tendency to resist molecular separation, and all the fluids have this property too.
It occured to me that if I should take circular disks, mount them on a shaft through their centers, space them a little distance apart and let some fluid under pressure, such as steam or gas, enter the interstices between the disks in a tangential direction, the fluid, as it moved, owing to these property of adhesion and viscosity, would tend to drag the disks along and transmit its energy to them. It happened just as I had thought it would, and that is the principle of this turbine. It utilitizes the very properties which cause all the loss of power in other turbines.
-Nikola Tesla, March 1920
Most turbines work using a principle known as impulse or reaction. An impulse turbine such as a Pelton wheel or a Crossflow turbine work when a high velocity fluid strikes a bucket (Pelton wheel) or a twist blade (Crossflow turbine). A reaction turbine such as a Francic wheel or a Curtis turbine work using a curved blade that produces a lift force creating a higher speed than an impulse turbine.
5/16" shaft: abec-5 Bearings: rated for 48,000 RPM https://www.mcmaster.com/57155K338
5/16" washers: 316 stainless steel https://www.mcmaster.com/90107A030