AVROCAR (the only official “flying saucer”)

In 1952, Avro Canada began to study designs for a supersonic cirular wing fighter-bomber, this was funded by the Canadian government with $400,000 allocated. After the $400,000 ran out the Canadian government abandoned the project as being too costly, however enough progress had been made to spark the interest of the U.S. governement.

 

Experimenter’s Tesla Turbine Assembly Manual

The turbine hot section consists of three main parts:

1. the rotor assembly
2. the rotor case
3. inlet nozzle (Figure 1)

Setup and Running

1. Before running any high speed machinery, always bolt it firmly to a heavy bench.
2. Always check oil levels before running; reservoir should be about 50% full.
3. All hoses and tubing feeding compressed air or steam to the turbine must be rated for the fluid and pressure. (Use lines at least 0.5-inch inner diameter.)
4. Never use friction connections on feed lines (rubber hose over smooth tubing) — always use threaded connections.
5. Finally, operate turbines in safety cages for maximum protection.

 

The Famous Tesla Turbine

his turbine as a powerplant prototype for my airplane, the X-Ception. The reason? This 12″ diameter, 70lb. marvel is supposed to put out 110Hp! No, I never saw that because I knew squat about combustion chambers, but it did run on compressed air, a yard blower, or even the water hose. It has now been sold to a fellow researcher, and hopefully work will now continue on it.
Well, here it is, back by popular demand! The Famous Tesla Turbine. This particular model is 12″ in diameter on the outside, with a 10″ runner (set of flat discs stacked together with spacers). The bearing mounts (the rusted “L” brackets) are 12″w X 7″h X 3″ deep. They each weigh a womping 18.75 pounds! The shaft itself weighs 1.75 lbs., and is about 12.6″ long. The plates and runner are made of aluminium. The bearing mounts, ring housing, and shaft are steel.

The fittings all around the combustion chamber on top were experiments in getting this thing to run. More on that in a moment.

 

Nicola Tesla’s flat-disc boundary layer turbine

As the picture above shows, the turbine rotor is simply a stack of flat discs with ported centres, fixed to a shaft. Pressure seals such as the labryrinth seals shown above are essential (as I found out the hard way). The picture also shows the use of end discs as pressure seals, running close to the housing.

Disc spacing and outer diameter to inner diameter are important parameters – a paper that I have read suggests the following formula for disc spacing:

Pi = (disc spacing) x square root of (angular velocity / kinematic viscosity)

 

Building a Tesla Turbine from hard drive platters

Please note that I am not a Physicist or a machinist (yet). I have been interested in Nikola Tesla for some time, and I was looking for a project to gain some experience in the machine shop. My job is to provide Lecture Demonstrations, so my goal was to produce a teaching tool rather than an efficient engine.

For background material, Wikipedia has several good review articles about Nikola Tesla, the Tesla Turbine, the Boundary Layer Effect, and Reynolds Number.

 

Tesla Bladeless Disk Turbines

Functional Tesla Turbine (the “BDT” – bladeless disk turbine) on location: operative medium – Propane & Methane Combustion. The pictured Tesla-type turbine and the pictures of its assembly components depict our “third-generation” designs. This BDT Tesla-type turbine can be run on combustion (propane, methane, hydrogen, etc.) steam, water powered, or from compressed air. Tests have been run from combustion, steam, compressed air and water. To date, this turbine, pictured below, has been fully operational since October of 2000, running without any component failure. The particular turbine pictured, is on site in a New Jersey location, fully operational and running from the combustion of land-fill methane gas.

 

Tesla Turbine

Bladeless Boundary Disc

Rather than using blades and friction, the Tesla Turbine uses parallel, closely spaced disks that tap viscosity. Aerodynamic skin adhesion effect resists fluid or gas flow between plates, resulting in energy transfer to the shaft. Technology works but is yet to break into marketplace.

 

The Junkyard Turbojet Engine

How to build a primitive gas turbine engine………………. by all things mechanical, and all things powerful. Gas turbine engines (jet engines) fall into both categories. During my endless hours surfing the net I’ve come across many pages about home built turbine engines, and have considered building one myself. However, I was worried that I didn’t have the necessary tools, skills, and money to pull it off. I am primarily a wood worker. I don’t own a metal cutting lathe or a milling machine, and I can’t weld. I am also chronically short of cash. These factors prevented me from seriously persuing the idea at first.

 

How Do Jet Engine’s Work?

A jet engine works on the principle of Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of physics, i.e. for every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. The action of forcing gases out from the rear of the jet engine results in a re-action force in the opposite direction, and is commonly referred to as ‘thrust’. This thrust is measured in pounds force (lbf ), kilograms force (kgf ), or Newtons (N). Engines of this type are often referred to as ‘Reaction Engines’, a rocket engine being another example. Newton’s third law and the action of a jet can be demonstrated in simple terms by inflating a balloon and releasing it, the escaping air propels the balloon in the opposite direction.

 

XCombustor

The basic structure of the XCombustor has been essentially completed and the final touches are going on to prepare it for initial testing. In the meantime, I have begun production of the hot side elements that will duct the hot gases produced in the XCombustor into the power turbine assembly first, and then into the turbocharger assembly. I decided to use stainless steel to build the hot side ductwork, for its temperature resistance and low thermal conductivity. So far, I have a few pieces of stainless sheet of varying thicknesses, some pre-made parts which I will have to weld to stainless flanges, and a rolled and seam welded tapered duct that will act as the main component of the nozzle box assembly.