23-06-2012, 05:36 PM
HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT
INTRODUCTION TO HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT.docx (Size: 36.92 KB / Downloads: 301)
INTRODUCTION TO HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT
The Hydroelectric power plant is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913.
It is referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine.
The Hydroelectric power plant is also known as the boundary layer turbine, cohesion-type turbine, and Prandtl layer turbine (after Ludwig Prandtl).
Bioengineering researchers have referred to it as a multiple disk centrifugal pump. One of Tesla’s desires for implementation of this turbine was for geothermal power, which was described in "Our Future Motive Power".
DESCRIPTION OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT
A Hydroelectric power plant consists of a set of smooth disks, with nozzles applying a moving gas to the edge of the disk.
The gases drag on the disk by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the gas.
As the gas slows and adds energy to the disks, it spirals in to the center exhaust. Since the rotor has no projections, it is very sturdy.
WORKING PRINCIPAL OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT:-
In the Hydroelectric power plant, the fuel is combusted prior to entering the main chamber. The gases speed at supersonic velocity into the perimeter of chamber where they pass between closely packed parallel discs, causing the disks to turn. The exhausting gases exit through the center of the chamber.
The turbine does not have any blades, but is composed of extremely smooth disks -- the smoother the better. You would think that the gases would glance right by the smooth surface, but this is not the case.
Wind tunnel studies from airplane wings show that the first layer of air molecules on the surface are tightly joined to it. The next layer of air molecules is not as tightly bound, but nonetheless still have some binding properties. The next layer is less tightly bound still, and so forth. As the gasses fly by, they interact with these molecules in a manner that might be compared to thrust bearings in concentric cylinders: twice the rotation on the outside race is converted into one rotation on the inside.
It works on a principle opposite the dimples on a golf ball. The indentations on the surface of the ball create turbulence on the surface of the ball, and this actually helps the ball fly further through the air, packing less resistance.
The Tesla discs, on the other hand, should be as smooth as possible. And Tesla did not invent the bladeless turbine concept. It was invented in Europe in 1832. Tesla refined the design and introduced pulsed detonation, which is not feasible in bladed turbines.