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Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1

How to Calculate Efficiency in a Tesla Turbine?

04/06/2011 7:43 AM

Hi Everyone,

I have built a micro tesla turbine by ion etching from silicon. I was so busy getting the fabrication done that i didn't give much thought to how i would try to calculate the efficiency!

Is the efficiency just: work output / work input?

I think the only variable i am going to be able to measure is the rpm, which i can then convert to the angular velocity, but how then do i work out the work output and input?

Or if that isn't the correct equation, what would be a better one to use?

Thanks guys!

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Re: How to Calculate Efficiency in a Tesla Turbine?

04/06/2011 11:41 AM

Yes, the work efficiency measurement will just be work output / work input but you must remember in setting up your measurement system that your measurement must be the appropriate unit, Joule (SI). I suspect that it will be easier to measure the power efficiency but since Δt will be identical on both sides of the equation, the power and work efficiency will be identical. I don't expect the efficiency to be consistent for every load condition. I would expect that you will end up with a multi-variant efficiency curve that changes with fluid flow rate, fluid viscosity, and mechanical load.

The freewheeling (maximum) RPM alone will not be a very useful value in calculating the work efficiency. The only work being done is fighting the rotational friction of your turbine's bearings. Now measuring the amount of time that it takes to get up to this RPM from a stopped condition can tell you the work efficiency of just the turbine. (Actually you'll find it easier to measure the time to get to a large fraction of the peak RPM.) You will have to know or calculate the moment of inertia for the turbine to apply this approach. I do not think that this is a practical approach to measuring the efficiency, but it is an informative approach because it does directly measure just the turbine's efficiency. More than likely you will have to apply some calibrated mechanical load to the shaft of the turbine. Often this is the added energy transfer device of a generator with fixed resistive loads attached to permit identifying the power converted to the electric load.

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